Love One Another

I am on a big reading kick right now. I finished a wonderful book the other day entitled This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public & Private Lives of Two Ministers which I am willing to now call a "must read" for Pastors but especially younger clergy like myself. I am going to recommend it to my Young Pastor Squad during our next meeting.

Along with three other books I am reading (different books for different places...at work, by the bed, etc.) I just picked up a forth inspired by our staff meeting today. It is called Love One Another: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs For by Gerald Sittser, my college professor of church history. I finished the first chapter in 5 minutes - not because it was short but because it was good. Sittser tells of the story of his daughter who was hit and cut up badly by a motor boat while studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador. From time of accident all the way through recovery she was surrounded by people who gave of themselves, stood by Catherine (the daughter), and ushered her though all stages of her recovery for no other reason than "she needed to be loved." For Sittser this is the image of the church that Jesus longs for. A caring community that loves because people need to be loved.

So I think that once I get through this other book I am going to let Love One Another become my full-time "at work" book.