Category: Quotation of the Week

We focus a lot on the adjectives. We want to be special, unique…We take those markers of specialization and turn them into entirely different entities. Grammatically speaking, we take adjectives and turn them into nouns. In politics, conservative and liberal used to describe a person’s beliefs, but now these terms stand for the person themselves.… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

A grieving brother reflects on God’s sustaining grace: He, at your urging, is sending some more of His “Manna from heaven,” as the thought was given to an old friend of mine this last week. Soggy, bland, bread-like stuff. Am I bursting at the seems with eagerness to gulp another handful down? Nope. But it’s… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

“Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you.” From a poster in the hallway at the United Methodist Church in Tillamook, Oregon

A person may feel compelled, gifted, even “called” to ministry, but unless that urge and desire is confirmed by God’s chosen means of calling and sending from His community through the Holy Spirit, the feelings should never be the sole—nor even the primary—basis for action. In many cases (perhaps in most), our personal feelings on… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

At one point I prefaced a line of questioning with these words: “As someone who believes that Barth is not a Christian….” Van Til quickly and decisively cut me off. “No, no!,” he exclaimed. “I have never said that Barth is not a Christian! What I have said is that an unsaved person could not… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

“We see that our poverty is as absolute as that of the poorest of nations. We have attempted to deny the human condition in our quest for power after power. It would be well for us to rejoin the human race, to accept our essential poverty as a gift, and share our material wealth with… Continue reading Quotation of the Week: Two for the price of one

The new birth is neither a conversion to our authentic inner self nor a migration (metoikesia) of the soul into a heavenly realm, but a translation of a person into the house of God (oikos tou theou) erected in the midst of the world. Miroslav Volf

On multi-site churches: I’m also concerned (and this reflects my own theological bias) that the approach often leads to a separation of Word from sacrament. The person who leads in the Word is often not the person who leads in the sacraments. What are we saying when we separate and compartmentalize these aspects of faith?… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

In our secular and/or religiously plural society, it can no longer be assumed that the images, practices, and vocabulary of Christianity will come naturally, that they will automatically make sense to the average person. In such a world the intentional and disciplined thinking of the faith–theology–is essential in order to shape, equip, and empower missional… Continue reading Quotation of the Week