Where Has Our Faith Gone?
Fear has gripped our nation and it is affecting everyone. Even those who profess to be staunch believers in Jesus Christ. What Covid has done for the Church is to reveal the stark absence of real faith in Jesus Christ. People appear to believe in Jesus but live as if He has little to no power over Covid.
It appears as though the Church now places great trust in Science and Medicine than it does in God. So what exactly do we, the Church, have to offer the people? What exactly do does the Church have that people can trust in? What exactly are we going to say to get people to return back to our Churches and faith?
We still have Scriptures like “The Lord is my shield” (2 Sam. 22:2-3), but what do they mean? Is this just figurative language or is God really our shield? If He is truly God and has conquered sin and death, then how do we apply this truth to Covid and other sicknesses? There is much doubt being visibly displayed on all levels.
It is in the light of this dramatic decline of faith in God that NEM has chosen not to expand services that are offered but reduce them. We want to do few things but do them very well. We believe that the Church is not in the information dissemination business but in the FAITH dissemination business. What is the value of giving people information about God if in the end, they don’t entrust their lives to Him?
Rather, We choose to believe that Jesus’ kingdom has come, that he has conquered sin and death. We believe that St. Paul’s exhortation to the Church in Galatia rings true today.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.” ASV
We believe that a relationship with Jesus is an “all or nothing” invitation to turn every aspect of our lives over to His care and authority. We are committed to presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and leading others to encounter Him in their hearts such that they experience the life of the Holy Spirit alive within them. To have the Love of God flowing through their hearts so that others may come to see Christ with them.
The ministry of NEM is all about Evangelization by presenting the Gospel at various types of Missions, Retreats, and Conferences or training others on how to share Faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Paul VI, our late Holy Father John Paul II continued to call attention to these issues and challenged every member of the faithful to work towards a solution, which he referred to time and again as the “New Evangelization”:
…There is an intermediate situation in countries with ancient Christian roots, and occasionally in the younger Churches as well, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a “new evangelization” or a “re-evangelization.”— Redemptoris Missio, para. 33