Worship Weblog

Is Suffering an Essential Part of Christian Discipleship?

Posted by Joan Huyser-Honig

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Suffering for Christ is the main Lausanne Conversation topic for August 2010. In “To Serve Is to Suffer,” Ajith Fernando explores the paradox that measuring ministry by efficiency, numerical results, and a sense of fulfillment can make a church “ineffective in evangelism.” Fernando has been national director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka since 1976.

The topic is yielding fascinating responses from Christians in the global East, West, and South. One, from Libby Little, shares two stories of how choosing to embrace suffering “set the stage for the Holy Spirit to work in a mighty way.” Soon after sending in her response, she learned that her husband, Dr. Tom Little, had been murdered while returning from a mission to help Afghans with vision problems. In this brief news clip, Libby Little says she has no anger for the murderers.  ”They were blind, really blind, in a different way.  May God’s mercy be on them,” she says.

Tags: HolySpirit, spiritualformation, suffering, theology, world