taken from a friend's blog post, a quote from A.B. Simpson, the founder of C&MA (Christian & Missionary Alliance). What a great reminder!! There's so much meaning backed behind the idea of 'church.'.. but hoping it not just stay as an idea, rather praying for the reality. I love weaving through the different ideas & thoughts that swirl in my head, envisioning a what-can-be versus a what-is-for-now. oh the possibilities... but then reality of time-constraints, man-power constraints, $$-constraints... so many constraints settle in and choke out the urge, the passion, the will to see change. Oh but to see beyond the mountains, and focus on the One whom the mountains bow down to. To remember again that with Him the impossible is made into a reality.
"He is showing us the plan for a Christian church that is much more than an association of congenial friends to listen once a week to an intellectual discourse and musical entertainment and carry on by proxy a mechanism of Christian work; but rather a church that can be at once the mother and home of every form of help and blessing which Jesus came to give to lost and suffering men, the birthplace and the home of souls, the fountain of healing and cleansing, the sheltering home for the orphan and distressed, the school for the culture and training of God's children, the armory where they are equipped for the battle of the Lord and the army which fights those battles in His name. Such a center of population in this sad and sinful world!"-- A. B Simpson, A Larger Christian Life p. 153
