Quote For Thought

The main stimulus for the renewal of Christianity will come from the bottom and from the edge, from sectors of the Christian world that are on the margins.

Harvey Cox, Religion in the Secular City

Quote For Thought

And because this book is about missional dynamics, it is appropriate to make a comment about the a significant characteristic of Jesus movements at this point. In the study of the history of missions, one can even be formulaic about asserting that all great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the chruch, among the poor and the marginalized, and seldom, if ever, at the center. It is vital that in pursuing missional modes of church, we get out of the stifling equilibrium of the center of our movements and denominations, move to the fringes, and engage in real mission there. But there's more to it than just mission; most great movements of mission have inspired significant and related movements of renewal in the life of the chruch. It seems that when the chruch engages at the fringes, it almost always brings life to the center. This says a whole lot about God and gospel, and the church will do well to heed it.

-Alan Hirsch, 'The Forgotten Ways'

Quote for Thought

You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in ... so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.

- Henri Nouwen

Quote for Thought

"Perhaps the biggest issue I have with Christian social networks is that they are following the exact same path churches have been on for 2,000 years. Instead of churches permeating culture, we've created our own culture. We've taken the idea of church and made it a place instead of a presence."

Brad Abare
Article here.

Quote For Thought

' Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.
The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.
If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now, as always, God discovers Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and prudent.
We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.
When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself.'
- A.W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God)

Tozer gives us a great passage to chew on. Thoughts? Agreements/Disagreements? Discuss.

Quote for Thought

"We must now surrender to the obligation to understand and to care. We must surrender ourselves to becoming conscious, thinking members of the human race. We must put down the temptation to powerlessness and surrender to the questions of the moment."

- Joan Chittister

Quote for Thought

"The Primitive Church had no New Testament, no thought-out theology, no stereotyped traditions. The men who took Christianity to the Gentile world had no special training, only a great experience--in which 'all maxims and philosophies were reduced to the simple task of walking in the light since the light had come.'"

-B.H. Streeter, Twentieth-century English theologian and biblical scholar

Quote for Thought

"A chorus of ecumenical voices keep harping the unity tune. What they are saying is, 'Christians of all doctrinal shades and beliefs must come together in one visible organization, regardless... Unite, unite!' Such teaching is false, reckless and dangerous. Truth alone must determine our alignments. Truth comes before unity. Unity without truth is hazardous. Our Lord's prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Look at verse 17: 'Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.' Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the Gospel."

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Essence of Separation

Do you agree?

Quote for Thought

"Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess."

-Charles Caleb Colton

Quote for Thought

"It is a universal tendency in the Christian religion, as in many other religions, to give a theological interpretation to institutions which have developed gradually through a period of time for the sake of practical usefulness, and then read that interpretation back into the earliest periods and infancy of these institutions, attaching them to an age when in fact nobody imagined that they had such a meaning."


-Richard Hanson, Twentieth-century patristic scholar

Quote for Thought

"Faith is not logical. But it isn't illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation...Faith is not mindless ignorance; it simply refuses to limit God to the logical constraints of the left brain."

- Mark Batterson, 'Wild Goose Chase'

Quote for Thought

"We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things in and for God."

- Thomas Merton

Quote for Thought

“A rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future.”

Anonymous

Your thoughts...