CHRISTIAN QUOTATIONS: CLASSIFIED & ANNOTATED

CHRISTIAN QUOTATIONS: CLASSIFIED & ANNOTATED

HEADINGS

Actions Speak
"Acts Church"
Agape
Agapometer
Agency
Agency vs. Fatalism
Altruism
Ambition
Analytic Meditation
Anger
Application
Art
Atheists’ View of Christians
Autarkic Impulse
Behavior (of Christians)
Belief (in general)
Belief / Faith / Pistis
Believeism
Bible Study as Avoidance
Busyness
Calling
Cheap Grace
Christianese
Church
Church Corruption
Church Decline
Church / Disciples
Church/Ecclesia
Church Failure
Church Growth
Churchianity
Cloud of Unknowing Author
Cognitive Dissonance
Communication
Communism
Community
Compassion
Compassion Absence
Compassion Cultivation
Compassion / Goetz
Compassion Practice
Compassion (Proximate vs. Generalized)
Compassion Resistance
Compassion / Rolheiser
Consumer Christianity
Credibility of Christian Authority
Damnation
Deacon
Decline of Christianity
Demonstration
Discernment
Disciple
Disciple-making
Disciple-making vs. Belief
Discipleship
Doctrine
“Doing Church” vs. Following Christ
“Dones”
Easy-Believism
Ekklesia
Enemy
Entrepreneurship
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism (Gospel as Atonement Believism)
Evangelicalism (Soterianism)
Experience vs. Knowledge
Faith
Fake Smile
False Witness
Fanatic
Favoritism
Fellowship
Flourishing
Focus / Meditation
Follow
Friend
Gospel (Defining "The Gospel")
Gospels, The Four
Grace
Great Commandment: Its Unity
Great Commission
Heart
Hebrew View (vs. Hellenic)
Hell
Helping Others (Calvin)
Heresy
Holistic Ministry
Holy Spirit
Hospitality
Hospitals
Humility
Hypocrisy
Imagination
Imitation of Christ
Incarnational Ministry
Integrity
Integrity of the Gospel
Intention
Intercessional Prayer Criticized by Atheists
Intercessional Prayer Criticized by Christians
Institutions
Justification & Sanctification
Kenosis / Self-Emptying
Kingdom
Knowledge / Propositional
Known
Lay Disciple-Making
Leadership
Leadership Failure
Listening
Loneliness
Lordship
Love One Another
LYNAY
Lukewarm
Mercy
Mercy – Withholding Mercy & Status
Metanoia
Middle-Class Values
Mindfulness
Mission Drift
Narcissism
Narcissism / Insolent Pride
Neglect
Neglect of One’s Congregation
Neighbor / Proximate Other
Neuroplasticity & Following the Commandments
Niceness
Obedience
Orthopraxy
Outcasts
People-Pleasing
Peterson, Jordan
Piety
Poverty
Prayer
Prayer & Agency
Prayer /Compassion
Prayer / Hypocrisy
Pride
Prosperity Gospel
Proximity
Radicalism (Jesus’s)
Red Letter
Redeemer Vision (Redeemer Presbyterian NYC)
Religion
Religiosity
Religious Professionalization
Renewal Of the Church
Repentance
Revival / Praying for Revival
Ritual (empty)
Routine
Rules
Salvation /Individualistic
Salvation / Obedience
Salvationism
Scripture Fetishism
Self-Compassion
Self-deception
Self-transcendence
Shalom / Neighbor
Sin
Sinner’s Prayer
Spiritual Growth
Struggle
Suffering
Suffering (Perceived as Deserved)
Suicide
Sunday-Centered
Superficiality
Superstition
Theology
Thought
Transformation
Unemployment
Vision
Way, The
Weeping
Will of God
Work
Worship
Worship (Insufficiency of)

***

AUTHORS

Alspaugh, Reverend E. Terrence
Amadi, Dr. Alenga
Anonymous
Apple
Armstrong, Karen
Arndt, Andrew
Arnold, Matthew
Auden, W. H.
Ayers, Mike
Barber, David
Bastiat, Frédéric
Bates, Matthew W.
Batterson, Mark
Baucham, Voddie
Beeson, Ray
Benner, Jeff A.
Block, Peter
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
Booth, Robert
Boren, M. Scott
Branson-Potts, Hailey
Breen, Mike
Brooks, Chris
Brown, John
Browne, Allen
Carlson, Jana
Carter, Curtis W.
Carter, Joe
Chan, Francis
Chesterton, C. K.
Christie, Frederic
Clark, Mark
Closson, David
Cloud, David
Coibion, Bill
Cooke, Phil
Corbett, Steve
Cox, Brandon
Crabb, Larry
Crouch, Andy
Dalai Lama
John Jefferson Davis
Deaton, Emily
D'Elia, Jonathan
DeGroat, Chuck
De Paul, Vincent
Dickson, John
Didion, Joan
Dirksen, Aloys H.
Dong, Mengchen
Dreher, Rod
Dreitcer, Andrew
Duggan, Father George Henry Christen
Edwards, Brad
Elkin, Robert
Evdokimov, Michel
Ferguson, Trey
Fikkert, Brian
Foley, Jill
Ford, Lance
Frazee, Randy
Frost, Michael
Gaebelein, Frank E.
Gilliam, Bob
Gornik, Mark
Gourgey, Carlos
Greer, Peter K.
Halter, Hugh
Hanegraaf, Hank
Hanna, David P.
Hansen, Collin
Hecat, Janit
Hedges, Chris
Heidegger, Martin
Henry, Carl F. H.
Hestenes, Roberta
Hirsch, Alan
Horst, Chris
Hull, Bill
Keller, Kathy
Keller, Tim
Kinnaman, David
Jackson, Stephany
Jinpa, Thupten
Joseph, Justin
Kanter, Daniel C.
Kierkegaard, Soren
Kim, David
Kim, Sam
Ladd, George Eldon
Lasch, Christopher
Lewis, C. S.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Lovelace, Richard
Lutzer, Erwin W.
MacArthur, John
MacLeod, Calum I.
Mancini, Will
Maoist Internationalist Movement
Maples, Terry
Mayo, Nathan
McCaskill, Rich
McCracken, Brett
McKnight, John L.
McKnight, Scot
McNeill, Donald
Merton, Thomas
Mohler, Dan
Mother Teresa
Moynihan, Jonathan
Muto, Susan
Myers, Kelly A.
Newberg, Andrew
Niebuhr, Reinhold
Nieuwhof, Carey
Nolasco, Rolf R. Jr.
Nordquist, Richard
Nored, James
Nouwen, Henri J. M.
O'Callahan, Rob
Ogden, Greg
Olford, Stephen F.
Payne, Leanne
Peterson, Eugene H.
Peterson, Jordan B.
Pier, Mac
Piatt, Christian
Pitt, Harrison
Potter, Andrew
Prieb, Tyler
Proudfit, Chuck
Putnam, Robert D.
Rainer, Thom
Rasicci, John
Ravenhill, Leonard
Ritenbaugh, John W.
Roberts Jr., Bob
Rogers Jr., Frank
Rohr, Richard
Rolheiser, Father Ron
Roxburgh, Alan
Runyan, Michael
Salopek, Paul
Saunders, Martin
Sauve, Jean-Marc
Schaeffer, Francis
Schaller, Lyle
Schultz, Thom
Sherman, Ann L.
Sider, Ronald
Silliman, Daniel
Slade, Larry
Smith, Charles Hugh
Smith, Dr. James K. A.
Smith, Joy Lukachick
Smith, L. Rowland
Snibbe, Scott
Sowell, Thomas
Swedenborg, Emmanuel
St. Jerome
Stanley, Alan P.
Stearns, Richard
Stephanous, Andrea Zaki
Stevenson, Bryan
Stout, Justus
Stott, John
Sweeting, Katie
Taylor, Charles
Tebbe, Matt
Thomas, Starlette
Thompson, Curt
Tillich, Paul
Tozer, A. W.
Trueblood, Elton
Tyler, Peter
Tyson, Jon
Vanauken, Sheldon
van Kaam, Adrian
Vanderstelt, Jeff
Vervaeke, John
Vincent de Paul
von Balthasar, Hans Urs
Wolterstorff, Nicholas
Ware, Phil
Warren, Rick
Washer, Paul
Washington, Joshua
Wedgeworth, Steven
Weil, Simone
Wilde, Oscar
Willard, Dallas
Wilk, Karen
Wilkins, Michael J.
Wilson, David Sloan
Wink, Walter
Winthrop, John
Witmer, Asher
Volf, Miroslav
Wilkins, Michael J.
Wolters, Albert
Wolterstorff, Nicholas
Wright, N.T.
Yawn, Byron

***

******

Actions Speak

When someone with resources looks at someone else without resources and comes alongside them in humility rather than looking down on them in arrogance, it speaks volumes. [Rich McCaskill, “God's Heart for the Poor,” Soma Eastside Church (Issqauah, Wa.), Aug. 21, 2019]

“Acts Church”

We learn from Acts 2 that the witness of the church must be holistic. It involves devoted teaching, which places a high value on the needs of others and connects word with deed. It leads to partnership, so that all members of the body are treated as family, and all share in a common identity regardless of their social status. Such a church can live up to its social responsibilities without fear, for we serve a risen Lord who will protect us and provide all we need. The church cannot preach and close its eyes to its social commitments. / When the church takes on this holistic approach, it carries out its prophetic role. That is what the church did in Acts 2. That is what is needed in the very complicated contexts in which we live today. [Andrea Zaki Stephanous (vice general director for program affairs in the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services), "The Holistic Mission of the Church: A Response to Joel Van Dyke and Kris Rocke's 'Asking the Beautiful Question'," Christianity Today, Mar. 24, 2010]

They [the church of Acts 2] also devoted themselves to “fellowship”. Currently, most churches only think of getting together and eating during a fellowship. But the word fellowship was used to denote friendship and companionship. The early church got together and got to know one another. They were not strangers who nodded as they walked by and continued on their lives. They knew each other. That is one of the differences that can be noted in comparing the Acts church to the contemporary churches at large. [Rebecca Graf, “The Acts Church,” Medium, Apr 11, 2018]

The tragedy of modern Christianity is that when members of the body hurt, too often we regulate them to finding resources outside the walls of the church. That is precisely why the apostle Paul exhorts us to "be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above ourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality.” (Rom. 12:10-13). [Hank Hanegraaf, Counterfeit Revival: Unmasking the Truth Behind the World Wide Counterfeit Revival, W Pub Group, 1997, p. 249 (Paperback: July 30, 2001)]

Agape

“[I]f we don’t get love right, nothing else matters.” (Jon Tyson & Heather Grizzle, Creative Minority, Heather Grizzle, 2016, p. 24).

“Agape cuts through the separation of equals and unequals, of sympathy and antipathy, of friendship and indifference, of desire and disgust. It needs no sympathy in order to love; it loves what it has to reject in terms of philia. Agape in everybody and through everybody.” [Paul Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice, Oxford University Press, 1954]

“Agape seeks the other one in his center. Agape sees him as God sees him.” [Paul Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice, 1954, Oxford University Press (The Essential Tillich, p. 152)]

The central idea in Judeo-Christianity is non-self-interested love. Non-self-interested love is defined as the awareness of others’ individuality. Jesus’ central message was to teach this love, which is the natural culmination of Hebrew prophecy. [Carlos Gourgey, Principles of Judeo-Christianity (website), Jan. 2003.]

Agapometer

We measure spiritual maturity with Agapometer (love meter) and not knowledge. [Pastor Tope Abimbola, City On the Hill, Nigeria]

It is a fact, now evident to everyone, that the Church in the West - that is, the countries of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand - has in recent decades suffered a severe setback; severe enough to call it a collapse. Since no one has invented an agapometer to measure the degree of spiritual fervour in the hearts of the faithful, our only means of measuring the extent of the collapse is statistics and the statistics show clearly that the collapse is real. [Father George Henry Christen Duggan S.M. (1912-2012; New Zealand), “The Collapse of the Church in the West: 1960-2000,” christianorder.com, (Mortfort). May 23, 2004]

Agency

The wise man welcomes [the two disputing Bedouins] in, and immediately the two launch into their disagreement. The first says, “Wise man, my friend here believes that God protects those who protects themselves and therefore he ties up his camel. I feel that I am more faithful than he, and so I know that God will take care of me, which makes tying up a camel a futile act.” The wise man strokes his long beard, pondering for a few moments. Finally, he says, “My sons, you must trust in God… (he pauses dramatically as wise men often do) . . . AND tie up your camel.” [Larry Slade, “Have Faith but Don’t Be Foolish… And For God’s Sake, Tie Up Your Camel,” Slade Law (Los Angeles, Ca.), Dec. 3, 2015]

Agency vs. Fatalism

When the Church offers herself in love to a world that is hurting, when she sits beside the bedside of the sufferer or at the table of the oppressed one in hopeful solidarity, she becomes a living embodiment of what she in fact is: the Cruciform Presence of God: offering not idle philosophical speculation, but the tender and committed love that awakens the hope that God has not abandoned, and that there is future beyond the circumstance. . . . We have something better to offer the world than thin theological “answers.” We have love. We have Cruciform Presence. The kind of presence that cuts through agony and awakens hope, making our message of God’s concrete redemption of human life credible. Resist the temptation to theologize with those who hurt. Give yourself instead. Your love. Your time. Your attention. It will make all the difference in the world. . . . We rush to fill the void created by the mystery of suffering by saying good-hearted but fundamentally misguided things like: “This is all part of God’s perfect plan” or “There must be unrepented sin in your life” or “God is trying to teach you something.” . . . [Andrew Arndt, “The Church’s Strategy for Responding to Suffering,” Missio Alliance, Nov. 8, 2017]

Altruism

Dmanisi in Georgia, however, holds the world record for the ancientness of this strange human trait: benevolence. “We found an old individual with only one tooth,” says David Lordkipanidze, a paleoanthropologist and the manager of the Dmanisi site. “Can you imagine how hard it would be to survive with such a condition? So he had to be taken care of.” Lordkipanidze is referring to a mandible catalogued as D3900. It is thick and round-chinned and archaic beyond imagining. It comes from some wandering creature that may have been a Homo erectus. D3900 gummed its last meal, possibly fed into its lips by another’s hairy fingers, 1.8 million years ago. [Paul Salopek, “The Natural History of Compassion: A fossil site in Georgia hints at the evolution of kindness.” Out of Eden Walk, Nov. 10, 2015]

"Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary". [David Sloan Wilson & E. O. Wilson, "Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology". The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 82, Number 4, Dec. 2007]

Ambition

The opposite of ambition is not humility — it’s sloth, timidity, lack of courage. Playing it safe isn’t humble. [Dr. James K. A. Smith, quoted in: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, “Ambition is an arrow — and a wheel,” Redeemer Report, Nov. 2019]

Analytic Meditation

Analytic meditation can be defined as using an active stream of thoughts, images, and emotions to gradually steer our minds toward beneficial habits. With enough practice, these thought patterns become second nature. While stabilizing meditation calms the mind, analytic meditation changes the mind. [Scott Snibbe, “Analytical Meditation: Story, Thought, and Emotion,” A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment, Jul. 20, 2020]

Anger

The second thing we learn about suffering we learn from the anger of Jesus. Did you notice anything in the text I read that indicated that Jesus was angry? In verse 33 [John 11], when Jesus saw Mary and the others weeping, it says, “He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” But the original Greek word means “to quake with rage.” In verse 38, as Jesus came to the tomb, it says he was “deeply moved.” The original Greek word there means “to roar or snort with anger like a lion or a bull.” So the best translation would be, “Bellowing with anger, he came to the tomb.” This must at least mean that his nostrils flared with fury. It may mean that he was actually yelling out in anger. [Tim Keller, Sep. 16, 2001 sermon, “Tim Keller’s Sermon After 9/11,” TGC (The Gospel Coalition), Sep. 11, 2021]

Application

For Biblical truth to be meaningfully understood, it has to be applied; however, theology is often presented in a way that makes application challenging. Theological truths are frequently delivered without a real sense of how they are relevant. A robust yet simple framework is needed to help users apply the doctrines presented in the Bible. [David Kim, NIV Faith & Work Bible, 2016, Zondervan, p. xi]

Art

In the last century, evangelical Christians have emphasized a lot of things. Art-making and arts patronage are not among them. Evangelicals have also been increasingly on the losing end of “culture wars”—their values ever more maligned by a secularizing society. Could it be the two trends are related? By deemphasizing culture-making as a crucial aspect of Christian mission, has the church left a void of massive formative power that secular creatives have readily filled? Is the marginalization of Christian values today a natural downstream result of decades of hearts and minds being primarily shaped by non-Christian artists? And if this is true, could a renaissance of Christian art-making set the stage for a revival of Christian vitality in the West? [Bret McCracken & Justus Stout, “Why Christians Should Prioritize Arts Patronage,” The Gospel Coalition, Jun. 30, 2021]

[For Christians] investing in artists is certainly risky, but not nearly as risky as not investing in them. We can invest in lots of ministries (as we should, and do), but if churches continue to push artists to other communities for support, we will continue to feel like we are fighting culture instead of creating and cultivating it. Artists shape the way we see and understand the world. If we let our collective imagination be shaped into a form that is not true and good and beautiful, then all our other efforts will be sewn into a cultural fabric that is threadbare and tearing apart. . . [I]f imaginations are instead being shaped by secular or even anti-Christian trailblazers, we will feel the pain of having not invested in artists—the artists who will paint, sing, and imagine God’s promised future. [Brett McCracken & Justus Stout, “Why Christians Should Prioritize Arts Patronage,” The Gospel Coalition, Jun. 30, 2021]

We need Christian artists because we are never going to reach the world without great Christian art to go with great Christian talk. [Tim Keller, “Why We Need Artists,” in: Ned Bustard (ed.), It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God, Square Halo Books, 2007]

Dorothy Sayers’s . . . speaks of “the snobbery of the banal.” It is a telling phrase, and it applies to not a few evangelicals. They are the kind of people who look down upon good music as highbrow, who confuse worship with entertainment, who deplore serious drama as worldly yet are contentedly devoted to third-rate television shows, whose tastes in reading run to the piously sentimental, and who cannot distinguish a kind of religious calendar art from honest art. For them better aesthetic standards are “egghead” and spiritually suspect. / The arts pose uncomfortable problems for many evangelicals. There are those who question the relevance of the arts to Christian life and witness in these days of world upheaval. . . . Professor W. Paul Jones of Princeton says in an important essay, “… the overwhelming degree to which contemporary man is being formed by an ‘art’ not really worthy of the name” (“Art as the Creator of Lived Meaning,” The Journal of Bible and Religion, July, 1963). / Art, though aesthetically autonomous, has deep spiritual and moral implications. Like the capacity for worship, the aesthetic sense is one of the characteristics that set man apart from the animals. Evangelicals turn away from art as a side issue or frill at the peril of their own impoverishment and at the cost of ineffectiveness in their witness. For art, which is the expression of truth through beauty, cannot be brushed aside as a luxury. We who know God through his Son who is altogether lovely must be concerned that the art we look at, listen to, read, and use in the worship of the living God has integrity. [Frank E. Gaebelein, “The Aesthetic Problem: Some Evangelical Answers,” Christianity Today, February 26, 1965]

Some evangelicals may not like art. Because of their cultural illiteracy, they may be ill at ease in the presence of worthy artistic expression. [Frank E. Gaebelein, “The Aesthetic Problem: Some Evangelical Answers,” Christianity Today, February 26, 1965]

Whatever Happened to the Human Race? How should an artist begin to do his work as an artist? I would insist that he begin his work as an artist by setting out to make a work of art. I am afraid that as evangelicals, we think that a work of art only has value if we reduce it to a tract. [Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1973.]

"The lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. . . . A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God." "[T]he Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars." [Francis A. Schaeffer, Art and the Bible, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1973.]

Atheists’ View of Christians

“Why are Christians so selfish?” (self.atheism) Two responses: “It is a feature of the religion to create emotionally and morally stunted individuals who only care about themselves. It's deliberate so that they are more likely to buy into the empty promises.” (Tekhead101); “Exactly. We don't need to worry, take action or think of others because that's God's job.” (jello-kittu). [Reddit message board, “r/atheism” page, Feb. 2021]

Autarkic Impulse

Adrian van Kaam in his Formative Spirituality writes about how self-criticism is part of the autarkic impulse which leaves one isolated and self-absorbed and supports the “‘I can do it alone’ mentality [that] may eat away at our interiority like corrosive acid. It weakens our reliance on Christ, leaving in its wake only a sense of our own importance.” [Adrian van Kaam and Susan Muto, Formation of the Christian Heart, Formation Theology, vol. 3 (Pittsburgh: Epiphany Association, 2006), 112.]

Behavior (of Christians)

The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians — when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. [Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy: C. S. Lewis and a pagan love invaded by Christ, told by one of the lovers, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1977]

Belief (in general)

Of course we would all like to ‘believe’ in something, like to assuage our private guilt in public causes. [Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965]

[T]o my astonishment, when I began seriously studying other traditions, I began to realize that belief – which we make such a fuss about today – is only a very recent religious enthusiasm. It surfaced only in the West, in about the 17th century. The word "belief" itself originally meant to love, to prize, to hold dear. In the 17th century, it narrowed its focus, for reasons that I'm exploring in a book I'm writing at the moment, to include -- to mean an intellectual assent to a set of propositions, a credo. "I believe:" it did not mean, "I accept certain creedal articles of faith." It meant: "I commit myself. I engage myself." … So if religion is not about believing things, what is it about? What I've found, across the board, is that religion is about behaving differently. Instead of deciding whether or not you believe in God, first you do something. You behave in a committed way, You behave in a committed way, And religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action; you only understand them when you put them into practice. [Karen Armstrong, TED Prize, acceptance speech Feb. 28, 2008, TED2008, "The Big Questions," Monterey, California, Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2008]

Belief / Faith / Pistis

As nanotechnology expert J. Storrs Hall puts it, humans have an enormous capacity to hold beliefs not because they are true, but because they are advantageous to hold. [Andrew Potter, “Luxury Belief Systems and Economic Stagnation: The Recipe for Our Discontent,” Quillette, Aug. 19, 2021]

There is a movement away from predominantly personal existential accounts of pistis toward those that are relational and outwardly manifest. ‘Faith’ (pistis) is predominantly a way of life characterized by fidelity or loyalty which is outwardly expressed in relationships. [Matthew W. Bates, “The External-Relational Shift in Faith (Pistis) in New Testament Research: Romans 1 as Gospel-Allegiance Test Case,” Currents in Biblical Research, Jan. 2, 2020]

Stated simply, the early church understood that believing in Jesus meant not only to believe that he died for their sins, but to believe in imitating and obeying him as his disciple. As Matthew Bates has recently demonstrated, the Greek word pistis which we translate “belief “or “faith” entails more than mental assent to an idea; it denotes allegiance, faithfulness, and loyalty, as to a king. [Curtis Erskine, “Conversion, Theology, and Discipleship,” discipleship.org; For more on this idea see Matthew Bates, The Gospel Precisely (Renew.org, 2021) and Matthew Bates, Gospel Allegiance (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2019]

Believeivm

Many churches are full of 'believers' who have 'said the prayer' and feel assured of their salvation and yet do not appear to be seeking to be—let alone helping others seek to be—more and more like Jesus. If being a Christian is simply a matter of what we believe, then whether or not we choose to 'obey' the greatest commandment is a moot point. When our context has taught us that what we believe is all that matters, well, then, what we believe is all that matters (and how we live or what we do or don't do, doesn't). [Karen Wilk, “9 Reasons Christians Fail to Love Their Neighbors,” Missio Alliance, Sep. 19, 2016]

People love Jesus as long as we are not too clear who he is. [Voddie Baucham, “God With Us,” Jan. 22, 2021, Founders Ministries, "The Only God," national conference, Ft. Myers, Florida.]

Believing in Jesus has no meaning if we don’t follow in discipleship. Believing without discipleship isn’t believing, it’s agreeing to a set of facts about a religious figure. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, 2006, NavPress, p. 43]

Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed. [Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness, 2004, Anchor]

“Conversely, if you are unbelievably deeply religious, you pray every day, five times a day, and you say that religion is the most important thing in your life, but you sit alone in the pews and pray alone and don’t have friends in church, then you’re, statistically speaking, not any better a neighbor than a secular person is. So it’s a pretty strong relationship. It’s not so much faith as communities of faith that seem to make people nicer.” [Robert D. Putnam, “America's grace,” Faith & Leadership, Jan. 17, 2011]

The retreat from Christianity wasn’t happening in a bubble, wrote Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, in his book “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” [Simon & Schuster, Oct. 5, 2010] Americans were becoming disconnected and didn’t trust their foundational institutions anymore, including the church. / But young people’s rejection of faith went deeper, Putnam argued. The evangelical church was more focused on fighting for morality than compassion, he believed. While churches gave away turkeys at Thanksgiving, organized toy drives at Christmas and helped fund missionaries across the globe to spread the salvation message, the message didn’t translate into grace for the suffering in their own backyards. / Among the growing number of skeptics in America, Barna found the majority thought church members weren’t connected to one another in life-changing ways, did little to add any value to their communities and were led by people who didn’t show love for one another. [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tn.), Mar. 2016] [Cross-classified: Community, Compassion, Decline, Hypocrisy]

Often we judge whether someone is a Christian based mostly on what that person “believes” – In other words, logical, linear, literal thought processes about perceived propositional truth. To prove they are Christians, people need only reel off a few sentences reflective of left-mode mental processing. But this is not the same as being a Christian, which demands the full integration of right-mode operation along with cognitive, factual expressions of faith. [Curt Thompson MD, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships, Tyndale Momentum, 2010, p. 261]

Bible Study as Avoidance

You won't become a saint by studying your Bible; you'll become a saint by living it. [Leonard Ravenhill, source?: Revival God's Way: A Message for the Church, Bethany House, 1983]

Something goes seriously wrong with our capacity to integrate or even comprehend Scripture if we do not obey but just study it. [Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub (USA), 2009, p. 154]

If memorizing Bible verses is the extent of your discipleship, you can spend a life away from God. Jesus spent most of His ministry making that point. The way of Jesus is connecting the revelation of God with the lived reality of those beaten up by the world. That’s salvation. [Trey Ferguson (Refuge Church, Miami, Twitter, June 3, 2021]

Flabby Christians – I agree that often Christians in the West are immature. I agree our walk doesn’t always match our talk. But I also think the average North American Christian is about 3000 bible verses overweight. The way many leaders approach maturity is to assume that knowledge produces maturity. Since when? It’s wonderful that people understand what they believe, but knowledge in and of itself is not a hallmark of Christian maturity. As Paul says, knowledge puffs up. Love, by contrast, builds up. And some of the most biblically literate people in Jesus’s day got bypassed as disciples. The goal is not to know, but to do something with what you know. [Carey Nieuwhof, “How the Church Today is Getting Discipleship Wrong,” Carey Nieuwhof, Feb. 3, 2014]

Sometimes we approach the Bible merely for what we glean from it intellectually and miss the Person in it that we should be getting to know. . . . Our problem with Scripture in 2017 is that we have detached the Person of the Bible from the Bible itself. If we have not outright “denied” Him by worshipping the book, we are certainly neglecting the Master who bought us, the One who gives the message within the book. [Asher Witmer, “An open letter about the Bible, blogging, and why I choose the titles I do,” Asher Witmer.com, 2017]

Busyness

The idol of busyness – Our cultural context asserts that our value is determined by our productivity and therefore we are worth more if we're busy! And our churches are full of the busiest of people! In fact, when I talk with church attenders about the call to love our neighbors, the most frequent response is, we're too busy at the church—and they are! But is all this busyness a reflection of the kingdom? If so, then taking time for relationships, celebration, hanging out in our neighborhoods and enjoying life together is, well, a waste of time. What would happen if more and more church people were to override such cultural illusions with kingdom values like Sabbath, gratitude and eating together? [Karen Wilk, “9 Reasons Christians Fail to Love Their Neighbors,” Missio Alliance, Sep. 19, 2016]

It’s not that Christians are uncaring. Very often, we really do want to help the people around us however we can, but we get so focused on finding a quick solution to the external behavior that we overlook the real problem. [Francis Chan and Mark Beuving, Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples, David C. Cook, 2012]

Calling

Calling and Work: Definitions. The Bible will address both the concepts of calling and work. It is important to differentiate these concepts because they are often used interchangeably; however, there is an important decision to make Calling (and its Latin-derived synonym, vocation) is a larger category describing God’s purposes for humanity. As the Caller, God has given us a new identity and a new purpose in the gospel, which is the foundation of our calling. God has called a people, a church, as people called to follow him. One of the fundamental premises of this book is that God has in a sense called his people out of this world – a world characterized by sin, disbelief, pride, self-preservation and other ills – so that he can call them back into the world to seek its peace and prosperity. . . . this larger calling gives us reason to pursue work with redemptive hope and meaning. This [Faith & Work] Bible addresses both the larger concepts of calling and the more mundane aspects of our daily work. [David Kim, NIV Faith & Work Bible, 2016, Zondervan, p. xii]

Cheap Grace

“… cheap grace, which is another word for damnation.” [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nachfolge, München, 1937; The Cost of Discipleship, SCM Press, 1959, p. 68]

“’The Protestant disease of cheap grace can produce some of the most selfish and contentious leaders and lay people on earth, more difficult to bear in a state of grace than they would be in a state of nature.’” I would add that cheap grace produces entire congregations of selfish people whose sole focus is grabbing onto individual salvation.” [Richard Lovelace quoted by Jon Tyson, “Those Who Hunger and Thirst,” sermon, Church of the City NY, Oct. 18, 2020, 52:12]

There are millions of men and women who have been taught that they can become Christians and it will cost them nothing. And they believe it! There are even some who have the audacity to teach that life will get better once people pray a prayer and ask Jesus into their hearts. Jesus taught the exact opposite. [Francis Chan, Letters to the Church, David C Cook, Sep. 1, 2019, p. 128]

Christianese

Increasingly we are living in a society that no longer understands "Christianese." Yet, how often does the church still assume that one size fits all in terms of the communication of the Good News? As Scot Boren and Alan Roxburgh explain, "It's not about being trendy or catering to the culture but about being missionaries in [our] neighborhoods, shaping the gospel in the forms and language of the local people." [Alan Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren, Introducing the Missional Church (Baker Books, 2009), 131; Karen Wilk, “9 Reasons Christians Fail to Love Their Neighbors,” Missio Alliance, Sep. 19, 2016]

Church

A church that does not look/act/think/sound like Jesus is probably not the church. Christ is the only legitimate measure of an authentic church. [Alan Hirsch, Twitter, Aug. 19, 2021]

Church Corruption

Gaslight someone and they’ll serve for a day. Teach them to gaslight themselves and they’ll serve forever. [Janit Hecat, “Hillsong NYC: Dishonorable Mentions,” God Has Not Given, Nov. 15, 2020]

Church Decline

The church in North America is not being attacked. It’s being evaluated. It is not being persecuted. It’s being interrogated. Known for pointing a judgmental finger, people are pointing out the church’s hypocrisy. Because they are working out their salvation from the oppressions it has often had a hand in. Its members are asking the church, “Why are we here?” If it is just a religious meeting with no impact on our community, then why should we keep coming? [Starlette Thomas, “Pointing Out the Church’s Hypocrisy,” Good Faith Media, Jan 24, 2022]

Church / Disciples

Lance Ford: Jesus said, “I will build my church, now you go make disciples.” And we say, “OK, Lord, I’ll build you a church.” And he says, “No, no, no, no, I’ll build my church, you go make disciples.” And we say, “OK, I’ll go build you a church.” And so we’re about the business of building churches and starting churches rather than creating disciples. [Rob Wegner, Lance Ford & Alan Hirsch With Jonathan Sprowl, “New Life From Every Disciple,” Outreach Magazine, June 7, 2021]

Church / Ecclesia

Many evangelical churches seem to over-rely on the sermon or put all their effort into the Sunday service to the neglect of other vital functions of ecclesia such as evangelism, discipleship, mission, and covenant community. [Alan Hirsch, 5Q: Reactivating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ, 100 Movements, Apr. 12, 2017]

Church Failure

It is possible that the Church could be accused of having failed in its most basic task: to offer people creative ways to communicate with the source of human life. [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

Church Growth

Church growth is not just more Christians, but bigger Christians, flush with Christ’s character. [Dallas Willard, Forward to: Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken, Renovation of the Church: What Happens When a Seeker Church Discovers Spiritual Formation, InterVarsity Press, 2011.]

Churchianity

One would think as time has passed and how society has advanced, the church would only be a better place that meets everyone’s needs. Unfortunately, the inward focus has caused the very people the church is to reach, feel like unwelcomed outsiders. They admit their emotional and intellectual barriers go up when they are around Christians, and they reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians. . . . Not only has the church lost the desire to go out to the people in their communities and share the Gospel with them, they have also lost the desire to show them love when they come to visit the church. [Robert James Kauffelt, “How the Church Has Lost Its Vision; A Biblical Model to Regain Its Mission,” D. Min thesis, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Lynchburg, Virginia, Nov. 2011, 35-6, 37]

“What we found was their perceptions are more than superficial image problems. Often outsiders’ perceptions of Christianity reflect a church infatuated with itself.”* The church should be infatuated with lost and dying souls outside its buildings, not holed up inside worrying about themselves. It is sad to think that those outside of the church view it as self-centered. The very ones Jesus commissioned us to make disciples of, think the church is self-centered and wants nothing to do with them. [David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, Unchristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity...And Why It Matters, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009.]

Cognitive Dissonance

“We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.” [Montaigne (Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne, 1533-1592)]

Communication

The needs and the tastes of the insiders are much louder (because, after all, they’re THERE) than the needs and sensibilities of those still without Christ. In time, Christians are just talking to themselves, unaware that they have become unintelligible to unbelievers. [Kathy Keller, “How do you sum up 25 years?” Redeemer Report, 2014]

Communism

Communism isn't an economic theory. It is a Hermetic religion with a historicist teleology that creates a moral imperative and catechism that are functionally identical to those of any other faith tradition at the level of roles played in the life of the faithful. [James Lindsay, Twitter, Apr. 17, 2021]

Community

“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.” [Francis Schaeffer (1912-84), The Mark of the Christian, Intervarsity Press, 1970]

The biggest challenge for the church at the opening of the twenty-first century is to develop a solution to the discontinuity and fragmentation of the American lifestyle. [Lyle Schaller, speech, leadership network conference in Ontario, ca., oct. 1998; in: Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan, 2001, p. 37]

The future of the church depends on whether it develops true community. We can get by for a while on size, skilled communication, and programs to meet every need, but unless we sense that we belong to each other, with masks off, the vibrant church of today will belong to each other, will become the powerless church of tomorrow. Stale, irrelevant, a place of pretense where sufferers suffer alone, where pressure generates conformity rather than the Spirit creating life – that’s where the church is headed unless it focuses on community. [Larry Crabb, in: Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan, 2001, p. 13]

The Barna study points out that despite a growing epidemic of loneliness, only 10% report going to church to find community. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because people expect the church is the last place they’ll find community. And that’s tragic. Of the many criticisms that can be levied at the church, lack of community shouldn’t be one. Nobody should be able to out-community the local church. [Carey Nieuwhof, “5 Reasons People Have Stopped Attending Your Church (Especially Millennials),” Carey Nieuwhof, Apr. 2, 2014]

“The best evidence of the gospel is a community that lives by it.” [Alan Hirsch, paraphrasing Lesslie Newbigin; podcast: “Genuine Community with Alan Hirsch, Shaun Alexander, Bob Roberts, and Elliot Grudem, The Saturate Podcast S02 E15, Ben Connelly, Aug. 4, 2021, 37:18; @ 3:23]

“I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.” [Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Erdmans, 1989]

Jesus did not write a book but formed a community. [Michael Moynagh, Church in Life: Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology, SCM Press, UK, 2017, p. 185]

Taken together, a significant number of young adults perceive a lack of relational generosity within the U.S. Christian community. Perhaps more concerning are the two-thirds of Millennials who believe that American churchgoers are a lot or somewhat hypocritical (66%). To a generation that prides itself on the ability to smell a fake at ten paces, hypocrisy is a worrisome indictment. [“What Millennials Want When They Visit Church,” Barna, Mar 4, 2015]

Most of us have never experienced the true power of community. The social-oriented programming that many churches call small groups or koinonia groups have little effect on character. True community means living in submission to each another. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit to submit to others and to allow others and to allow others to play a meaningful part in our growth. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, NavPress, 2006, p. 31]

“Do good to all men, especially the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10.)

“C. S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend’s personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of his first friend that was otherwise invisible. “By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”221 If it takes a community to know an ordinary human being, how much more necessary would it be to get to know Jesus alongside others? By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived.” [Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy With God, Penguin, 2014]

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from everyday Christian life in community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; for in the poor sister or brother, Christ is knocking at the door. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 5: Life Together (1938) and Prayerbook of the Bible, 1996, pp. 45f)]

The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, 1939; English: Harper, 1954]

A Strong Commitment to One Another – “All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44) – A Christ-honoring community displays loyalty, dependability, mutual support, respect, and grace to one another. They are not just unified. They have a strong sense of the priority of unity. They make unity work. They know it takes effort. It means letting go of petty differences and self-centered agendas. It also results from the core culture of the church believing that what we are to one another is as important as what we’re doing together. [Mike Ayers, “6 Traits of Authentic Christian Community,” For the Church, Aug. 5, 2015]

The development of meaningful relationships, where every member carries a significant sense of belonging, is central to what it means to be the church. So why do many Christians feel disappointed and disillusioned with their efforts to experience authentic community? Despite the best efforts of pastors, small group leaders, and faithful lay persons, church too often is a place of loneliness rather than connection. Church can be so much better. So intimate and alive. [Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan; Apr. 3, 2001]

As we have freely received the kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus, so may our communities of worship and service be true fellowships of love. The world will then truly see and receive our witness because they see how we love each other. [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

One of the great barriers to effectiveness in worldwide evangelization is the way Christians treat each other. All too often what the world says when it sees the church up close is not, “See how they love one another”, but “See how they attack and hurt each other.” In spite of the prayer of Jesus for complete unity for his followers, it is shocking to see alongside wonderful manifestations and expressions of spiritual unity an almost casual acceptance of competitive rivalry, disunity, and hostility. This can be seen in all levels of life in the church from the individual to the congregation, to the national and international reality of a divided church. [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

Every one of the numerous biblical texts on unity and relationships within the Christian community can be seen as an explication of Jesus’ “new” commandment that Christians are to love one another as Christ loves them. This is not merely a sentimental regard for each other. This love which Christ commands is more than a tolerant forbearance of different traditions, denominations, or agencies. It is not a capitulation to relativism which is to characterize every Christian person and group of persons. It is an intentional commitment to costly, sacrificial, compassionate, caring, and self-denying service to the Christian community. We are called by Jesus Christ to be committed to each other as we walk together as disciples, ambassadors, and agents of reconciliation in all the world (John 15:9-17; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:16-21; 6:3-10). [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

[W]e must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. [John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" delivered on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Apr. 8, 1630]

"A great community creates conditions where people can fall in love. It is a place where we can make a fuss about one another. A place where we can ask, ‘How did I ever live without you?" [John L. McKnight & Peter Block, The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Jun. 14, 2010.]

Compassion

“We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.” [Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)]

"Everybody believes in compassion, but nobody tells you how to practice it.” [Brian D. McLaren, blurb for: Frank Rogers Jr., Practicing Compassion, Dec. 5, 2014, Upper Room Books / Fresh Air Books]

“No one becomes compassionate unless he suffers.” [St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)]

Christianity demands a level of caring that transcends human inclinations. [Erwin W. Lutzer, How In This World Can I Be Holy?, 1974, ‎Moody Pub.]

Compassion’s near enemy is pity. Unlike genuine compassion, pity implies a sense of superiority. So, unlike compassion, which connects us with the object of our concern because we identify, pity distances us with the object of our concern because we identify, pity distances us from the other person. Compassion includes respect: We honor the other person’s dignity as a fellow human being. Our concern, if it comes from genuine compassion, is based on the recognition that, just like I do, this person wishes to be free from suffering. [Thupten Jinpa, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives, Hudson Street Press, May 5, 2015, p. 72]

From a psychological perspective, we can describe compassion as an emotional experience evoked by witnessing and appraising of another’s situation or suffering, which subsequently leads to intentional and concrete acts of service towards those who suffer and are vulnerable. [Rolf R. Nolasco Jr. et al, Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering, Oct. 19, 2016, Wipf and Stock. P. 51]

Compassion as an emotion is a movement towards another – a person who is in need – and with it comes a desire or commitment to help, to suffer with, to alleviate suffering. [Rolf R. Nolasco Jr. et al, Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering, Oct. 19, 2016, Wipf and Stock. P. 52]

In the Bible, genuine compassion contains three characteristics that inseparably intertwine: understanding, feeling, and acting. . . . We don’t have compassion, we become compassionate. [Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus, Nov. 1, 2017, Upper Room Books, p. 22]

[I]n the Christian spiritual tradition, compassion is not a spontaneous reaction triggered by anguish over someone else’s pain. Nor is it information-based understanding. Instead, true compassion transforms [metanoia] feelings and understandings into carefully discerned, practical, effective ways to change individual lives –and the world – for good. [Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus, Nov. 1, 2017, Upper Room Books, p. 32]

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, Compassion, 1982, Doubleday; Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (1932 –1996) Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community.]

In Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, [h]is most important point is that Christianity mandates that one "love your neighbour as yourself." He points out that all persons unconditionally love themselves. Even if one does not like oneself, one would still love oneself. Christians, he writes, must also apply this attitude to others, even if they do not like them. Lewis calls this one of the great secrets: when one acts as if he loves others, he will presently come to love them. [Wikipedia, “Mere Christianity” page; radio talks 1941-44; book 1952: Book IV - Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity; Ch. 8. Is Christianity Hard Or Easy?; Beyond Personality (1945); BBC radio broadcast, March 28, 30, 1944.]

Compassion, I believe, is love that is put into action. This is the imperative of compassion—that is requires action toward the other, action rooted and grounded in love. And we might reflect that the absence of compassion means the absence of God's loving presence. [Reverend E. Terrence Alspaugh, “The Way, The Truth, The Life,” Text: John 14: 1-6, May 10, 2020, Granite Presbyterian, Woodstock, Maryland]

He had compassion for the crowds, Matthew tells us, giving us the motivation for the miracle of life. It grows out of compassion, the Latin root of which means to “suffer with.” The New Testament scholar J. Won Lee writes that in this passage [describing miraculous feast in the middle of the desert] Jesus is serving the weak on the basis of compassion and this manifests God's ruling activity, so for J. Won Lee the presence of compassion is the presence of God's very reign. / Compassion is more than sympathy. More even, perhaps, than empathy. Or it requires empathy. But there's more to it. There's an action that must happen for it to be compassion. In God's reign, compassion acts out as service and is the mark of faithfulness to the gospel. Compassion, I believe, is love that is put into action. This is the imperative of compassion—that is requires action toward the other, action rooted and grounded in love. And we might reflect that the absence of compassion means the absence of God's loving presence. In his autobiography, the great worker for peace Mahatma Gandhi tells how when he was in his student days in South Africa, he became deeply interested in the Bible and especially in Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi became convinced that Christianity could be the answer to the caste system, which had plagued India for centuries and which Gandhi fought against. He seriously considered becoming Christian. One day when he was in South Africa, he went to a church to attend mass and to begin instruction. He writes that he was stopped at the entrance to the church and told that if he desired to attend mass, he was welcome to do so in another church, one that was reserved for blacks and coloreds. Gandhi writes that he left and never returned. There was an absence of compassion in God's love. [Calum I. MacLeod, “The Imperative of Compassion”; Sermon, Fourth Presbyterian Church, July 31, 2011, Psalm 103, Isaiah 55:1–5, Matthew 14:13–21.]

Even a quick reading of the Gospels shows clearly that Jesus Christ had [effective] compassion for the most vulnerable in our world. The majority of the Lord’s miracles were directed toward healing the sick and wounded, embracing the outcasts and oppressed, and giving hope for new life to the marginalized and persecuted. As disciples who follow the Risen Lord, we are called to walk this road, too, the way of compassion. We may profess to follow Jesus, yet an absence of [effective] compassion for others indicates that we are on a very different path, one of our own making. [Reverend E. Terrence Alspaugh, “The Way, The Truth, The Life,” sermon; Text: John 14: 1-6, May 10, 2020, Granite Presbyterian, Woodstock, Maryland]

Generosity and compassion are inseparable, and both have their model in God, that is to say, in creation and in the Passion. [Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, 1947; English: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1952]

“Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility of man to forgive his brother, because forgiveness is only real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friends and the sins of his enemy in his own heart. [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972, p. 41]

“Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: “Who can take away suffering without entering it?” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

Not only does the love of God have attention for its substance, the love of one’s neighbor, which we know to be the same love, is made of this same substance. Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough. [Simone Weil, “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God,” Waiting for God, 1951, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 64]

Holism is not simply a strategy for winning people to Christ, but a theological commitment. This commitment seems especially important today, when Christians are increasingly viewed with suspicion around the globe. Some see us as arrogant, manipulative, or even hypocritical, talking about love and service but living for ourselves in a world apart, complacently apathetic towards the pains and turmoil of today’s world. We suffer a crisis of credibility. David Bosch, the eminent missiologist, insists: “Our mission has to be multidimensional in order to be credible and faithful to its origins and character” (Transforming Mission). Our authenticity as gospel people demands a response of compassion (Matt. 25:35-46, Jas. 2:15-16, 1 Jn. 3:16-18). Such compassion is inherent in the gospel of the kingdom, which has laid hold of us. This service—a foretaste of redemption—is the irrepressible fruit of the gospel in our own lives. If we do not make this clear, then our ministry to human needs risks looking like mere public relations. Our goal is not to get a promotion, to look good, or to make the evening news. We simply delight in seeing God transform, heal and redeem. [Rob O’Callaghan, “What do we mean by 'Holistic Ministry?' Word Made Flesh International, May 6, 2009] (cross-referenced: Holistic Ministry)

Compassion / Goetz (definition - secular)

Here, we offer a working definition of compassion framed as a discrete and evolved emotional experience. From this vantage point, compassion is conceived as a state of concern for the suffering or unmet need of another, coupled with a desire to alleviate that suffering (Goetz et al., 2010). An experience of compassion defined this way involves several distinct components: 1) Awareness of an antecedent (i. e. suffering or need in another individual); 2) Feeling “moved”; that is, having a subjective physical experience that often involves 3) involuntary arousal of branches of the autonomic nervous system; 4) Appraisal of one’s bodily feeling, social role, and abilities within the context of the suffering; 5) Judgments about the person and the situational context; and 6) Engagement of the neural systems that drive social affiliation and caregiving, and motivate helping. Although we see compassion as involving a patterned and specific response, we do not see the components listed here as serial, or occurring in temporal sequence. We also do not consider processes underlying these components to be wholly independent; they probably overlap and occur in parallel, and exert bidirectional influence upon one another in different configurations throughout life. [Jennifer L. Goetz and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, “The Landscape of Compassion: Definitions and Scientific Approaches,” in Elizabeth Seppala, Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science, 2017 Oxford UP, p. 3]

Compassion (Proximate vs. Generalized)

“The paradox indeed is that those who want to be for “everyone” find themselves often unable to be close to anyone.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

Compassion / Rolheiser (Long Passage: Father Ron Rolheiser)

St. Augustine teaches that we can never be morally neutral, either we are growing in virtue or falling into vice.

Jesus tells us that in the end we will be judged on how we dealt with the poor in our lives, but there are already dangers now, in this life, in not reaching out to the poor.

Here’s how Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, teases out that danger: “I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we condemn others.” [Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, One World, Oct. 21, 2014]

St. Augustine teaches that we can never be morally neutral, either we are growing in virtue or falling into vice. We never have the luxury of simply being in some neutral, holding state. There’s no moral neutrality. Either we are growing in virtue or sliding into virtue’s opposite. That’s true for all of life. A thing is either growing or it’s regressing.

So too with our attitude towards justice and the poor: Either we are actively reaching out to the poor and being more drawn into concern for them or we are unconsciously hardening our hearts against them and unknowingly sliding into attitudes that trivialize their issues and distance ourselves from them. If we are not actively advocating for justice and the poor, it is inevitable that at a point we will, with completely sincere hearts, downplay the issues of poverty, racism, inequality, and injustice.

It’s interesting to note that in the famous text on the final judgment in the Gospel where Jesus describes how God will divide the sheep from the goats on the basis of how they treated the poor, neither group, those who did it correctly and those who didn’t, actually knew what they were doing. The group who did it right state that they didn’t know that in touching the poor they were touching Christ; and the group who got it wrong protest that had they known that Christ was in the poor, they would have reached out. Jesus assures us that it doesn’t matter. Mature discipleship lies simply in the doing, irrespective of our conscious attitude.

And so we need to be alert not just to our conscious attitudes but to what we are actually doing. We can, in all sincerity, in all good conscience, in all good heart, be blind towards justice and the poor. We can be moral men and women, pious church-goers, generous donors to those who ask help from us, warm to our own families and friends, and yet, blind to ourselves, though not to the poor, be unhealthily elitist, subtle racists, callous towards the environment, and protective of our own privilege. We are still good persons no doubt, but the absence of compassion in one area of our lives leaves us limping morally.

We can be good persons and yet fall into a certain hardness of heart because of kindred, ideological circles that falsely affirm us. Within any circle of friends, either we are talking about ways that we can more effectively lessen the gaps between rich and poor or we are talking, however unconsciously, about the need to defend the gaps that presently exist. One kind of conversation is stretching our hearts; the other is narrowing them. Lack of compassion for justice and the poor will inevitably work at turning a generous heart into a defensive one.

We all have friends who admire us and send us signals that we are good, big-hearted, virtuous persons. And no doubt this is substantially true. But the affirmation we receive from our own kind can be a false mirror. A truer mirror is how those who are politically, racially, religiously, and temperamentally different from ourselves assess us. How do the poor feel about us? How do refugees assess our goodness? How do other races rate our compassion?

And what about the mirror that Jesus holds up for us when he tells us that our goodness will be judged by how we treat the poor and that the litmus test of goodness consists is how well we love our enemies?

An absence of compassion in even one area subtly corrupts the decency of a community, a state, a nation, and that eventually turns our generosity into defensiveness.

[Father Ron Rolheiser, “A Threat to our Decency,” Boston Pilot (Ma.), (Repub.: Echoes: A Forum of Catholic Thought), Nov. 15, 2017]

Compassion Absence

“Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.” [Francis Schaeffer (1912-84); Source (?): Francis August Schaeffer, The God who is There: Speaking Historic Christianity Into the Twentieth Century, Intervarsity Press, 1968]

“The religious [binding, institutional] spirit is an agent of Satan assigned to prevent change and to maintain the status quo by using religious devices, namely, manipulation, domination and control. Without the willingness to listen, Christians embrace this religious spirit, become judgmental, and display an overwhelming lack of compassion. Many of them refuse to dialogue with anyone who doesn’t agree with them.” [Ray Beeson (Overcomers Ministries) and Chris Hayward (Cleansing Stream Ministries), Wounded in the Church: Hope Beyond the Pain, Whitaker House, 2017]

An absence of compassion in even one area subtly corrupts the decency of a community, a state, a nation, and that eventually turns our generosity into defensiveness. [Father Ron Rolheiser, “A Threat to our Decency,” Boston Pilot (Ma.), (Repub.: Echoes: A Forum of Catholic Thought), Nov. 15, 2017]

“An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive, abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others.” [Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Spiegel & Grau, 2014]

Up to 3,200 Catholic priests have sexually abused children in France in recent history, the head of an independent inquiry has said, days before publishing a report on the scope of crimes against minors inside the church. … “Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the church was completely indifferent to the victims. They didn’t exist, the suffering of children was ignored,” Sauve told Le Journal du Dimanche on Saturday, adding that clerics were greatly interested in protecting the church and retaining offenders in the priesthood.” [Jean-Marc Sauve, VP of the Council of State, France, Catholic Church, “‘Most absolute of evils’: Investigation estimates up to 3,200 pedophile priests in French Catholic Church since 1950,” RT, Oct. 3, 2021]

Involvement in the lives of others is an essential element of Christian compassion. To cherish one’s own rights without willingness to be personally involved in the need and deprivation of others is a kind of negative testimony that keeps those from listening to the Gospel who need it most. If the world feels that we who stand for doctrinal purity lack compassion for the wounds of the world, it will pay little attention to what we say. [The Editors, “Christian Compassion,” Christianity Today, Jan. 29, 1965]

The tragedy of modern Christianity is that when members of the body hurt, too often we regulate them to finding resources outside the walls of the church. That is precisely why the apostle Paul exhorts us to “be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above ourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality.” (Rom. 12:10-13). [Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Unmasking the Truth Behind the World Wide Counterfeit Revival, W Pub Group, 1997, p. 249 (Paperback: July 30, 2001)] [Cross Referenced with “Acts Church”]

Compassion Cultivation

Unless we work at compassion, unless we practice and change our habits and make it an active force in our lives, it will only be something that happens to us – we get angry when the pain and needs of our loved ones, or sometimes to strangers in acute distress. If we leave it at that, we fail to tap into the transformative power of compassion. [Thupten Jinpa, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives, Hudson Street Press, May 5, 2015, pp. 12-13]

Compassion Practice

[L]et me tell you the bad news about traditional Christian compassion practices: There aren’t any. None. As far as I know, there are no classical or traditional Christian practices that have been specifically identified or named as compassion-formation practices. / But here’s the good news: even though there is nothing traditionally called a compassion practice in Christianity, compassion formation shows up everywhere. In fact, the purpose of virtually every Christian spiritual practice is, at least in part, the formation of compassion – because these practices are designed to help form people in the “image of God.” [Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus, Nov. 1, 2017, Upper Room Books, p. 15]

Compassion Resistance

[A] lot of religious people prefer to be right, rather than compassionate. [Karen Armstrong, TED Prize, acceptance speech Feb. 28, 2008, TED2008, "The Big Questions," Monterey, California, Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2008]

There's also a great deal, I think, of religious illiteracy around. People seem to think, now equate religious faith with believing things. As though that -- we call religious people often “believers,” as though that were the main thing that they do. And very often, secondary goals get pushed into the first place, in place of compassion and the Golden Rule. Because the Golden Rule is difficult. I sometimes -- when I'm speaking to congregations about compassion, I sometimes see a mutinous expression crossing some of their faces, because a lot of religious people prefer to be right, rather than compassionate. [Karen Armstrong, TED Prize, acceptance speech Feb. 28, 2008, TED2008, "The Big Questions," Monterey, California, Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2008]

Consumer Christianity

“There is a vast difference between being a Christian and being a disciple. The difference is commitment. [Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, IVP Books, May 19, 2003]

Motivation and discipline will not ultimately occur through listening to sermons, sitting in a class, participating in a fellowship group, attending a study group in the workplace or being a member of a small group, but rather in the context of highly accountable, relationally transparent, truth-centered, small discipleship units. [Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, IVP Books, May 19, 2003]

There are twin prerequisites for following Christ - cost and commitment, neither of which can occur in the anonymity of the masses. [Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, IVP Books, May 19, 2003]

Disciples cannot be mass produced. We cannot drop people into a program and see disciples emerge at the end of the production line. It takes time to make disciples. It takes individual personal attention. [Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, IVP Books, May 19, 2003]

Discipleship training is not about information transfer, from head-to-head, but imitation, life to life. You can ultimately learn and develop only by doing. [Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, IVP Books, May 19, 2003]

The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, “denying yourself” congregation. A consumer church is an anti-Christ church. [Eugene H. Peterson, “Transparent lives: The slow but urgent work of contemplation,” The Christian Century (website), Nov. 29, 2003; Eugene Hoiland Peterson (Nov. 6, 1932 – Oct 22, 2018)]

We don’t want to admit it but Christianity in America is far more than a faith - it’s a market, a platform, a fan club, a voter block, an industry - Jesus would turn so many tables over here. [Bob Roberts Jr., Twitter, May 21, 2021]

Creativity

“What is most needed in our time are Christians who are deeply serious about cultivating and creating but who wear that seriousness lightly—who are not desperately trying to change the world but who also wake up every morning eager to create.” [Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, ‎IVP Books, 2008.]

Credibility of Christian Authority

“Compassion must become the core and even the nature of authority. When the Christian leader is a man of God for the future generation, he can be so only insofar as he is able to make the compassion of God with man—which is visible in Jesus Christ—credible in his own world.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

Great Commission

When asked if they had “heard of the Great Commission,” half of U.S. churchgoers (51%) say they do not know this term. [An additional 25% have heard the term but do not know what it means.] [“51% of Churchgoers Don’t Know of the Great Commission,” Barna, Mar. 27, 2018]

Damnation

And Jesus has the audacity to say, “Here’s how I know the difference between the person who just says they believe and a person who’s actually experienced my supernatural grace. A life poured out in deeds and service, especially to the poor, is an inevitable sign that you’ve experienced my salvation. It may come later, it may come sooner, but it will always come. It doesn’t give you life, but it proves that you have met me.” [Sermon, Timothy J. Keller, “Neighbors” From series: “The Meaning of Jesus,” Part 2; “Following Him,” Feb. 23, 2003; (43:13); Scripture: Luke 10:25-37; @ 15:58]

Deacon

Becoming a church that is mission-focused and discipleship-driven will require members to work for justice in the world and to develop trusting relationships with people whose lives are vastly different from their own. Deacons will need specialized training to help people who are overwhelmed with financial, medical, emotional and other debilitating problems. Churches must become places of hospitality for members and strangers alike, at whatever cost. [Stephany Jackson, “Deacons: Called to be servants by caring for persons in need, deacons reflect the heart of Christianity," Presbyterians Today, Apr. 2009]

Decline of Christianity

Denominations will begin their steepest decline in 2021.In terms of membership and average worship attendance, denominations overall will begin a greater rate of decline. This negative trend can be attributed to three factors. First, the churches in the denominations will decline more rapidly. That factor is the single greatest contributor. Second, there will be fewer new churches in the denominations. Third, the combination of church closures and church withdrawals from denominations will be slightly greater than previous years. [Thom Rainer, “12 church trends for 2021,” Biblical Leadership, Jan. 9, 2021]

[George] Barna noted that the survey reveals alarming declines in generational commitment to any particular worldview, stating, “This represents the most rapid and radical cultural upheaval our nation has ever experienced.” [David Closson, Molly Carman, “New Barna Research Reveals Extent of America’s Loss of Faith,” Family Research Council, Jun. 22, 2021]

Anyway, America continues to transition to its post-Christian reality. I have found that more and more, I have people coming up to me telling me that they used to think that The Benedict Option [in which Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actually the way back — all the way to St. Benedict of Nursia] was alarmist, but over the past almost-five years since its publication in March 2017, they have come to see that its claim that America is losing its Christian faith is true. We in the churches still don’t know what to do about it. We have never before faced a crisis like this. [Rod Dreher, “Christian Declines - But Not ‘Spirituality’,” The American Conservative, Dec. 15, 2021]

Well, my belief is that very few Americans, especially young Americans, understand how profoundly mystical traditional, pre-modern Christianity is. Western theology of the past five or six centuries has slowly been scrubbing the tradition free of the wonder that is intrinsic to it. . . . Happy-clappy youth group spirituality is going to evaporate in the crosswinds of this post-Christian culture. So will a Christianity politicized to the Left or the Right. So will Middle-Class-At-Prayer Christianity. So will a Christianity that understands itself primarily as following the moral law. We are beginning to reap the harvest of having encouraged two generations of young Americans to embrace spiritual emotivism. [Rod Dreher, “Christian Declines — But Not ‘Spirituality’,” The American Conservative, Dec. 15, 2021]

“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get.” [David P. Hanna, Designing Organizations for High Performance, Addison-Wesley, Jan. 11, 1988, p. 36]

“So what’s different about this era that so many people are leaving the church? What happened?” . . . “Nothing. People have always been leaving the church. It’s just that now they’re not coming back. We’re the problem. We’ve dechurched them. They’re done with us.” [Josh Packard & Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal why people are done with church but not their faith, Group pub., 2015, p. 5]

Involvement in the lives of others is an essential element of Christian compassion. To cherish one’s own rights without willingness to be personally involved in the need and deprivation of others is a kind of negative testimony that keeps those from listening to the Gospel who need it most. If the world feels that we who stand for doctrinal purity lack compassion for the wounds of the world, it will pay little attention to what we say. [The Editor (Carl F. H. Henry), “Christian Compassion,” Christianity Today, Jan. 29, 1965]

The paradigm for church we’ve embraced—that has arisen as a result of the last 40 years of church history in North America—is perfectly designed to produce the limited results we’re getting. We can do better. [Will Mancini (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary), founder of Future Church Co.; resigns, infidelity scandal - Jesse T. Jackson, “‘Future Church Co.’ Founder Will Mancini Resigns Due to Infidelity; Seeking Restoration,” Church Leaders, May 19, 2022]

Decline of Christianity: Youth

Why Do Young People Leave the Church? [Y]oung people are leaving the church for reasons of their own. Recent research from Barna found six reasons young Christians are leaving. No. 2 — Lack of depth and spirituality in church: Young Christians want to be challenged, to talk about deep and vital topics, to have a faith that is robust and rugged enough to handle life’s most challenging questions. But many experience church as boring or shallow, with messages and ministries disconnected from the questions and challenges most important to them. [Matt Tebbe, “Why People Leave the Church,” Gravity Leadership, Jun. 23, 2022]

Demonstration

The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. [Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, Bethany House, 1959]

Discernment

“Discernment is the intentional practice by which a community or an individual seeks, recognizes, and intentionally takes part in the activity of God in concrete situations.” [Frank Rogers Jr., “Discernment,” in Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997, p. 107.]

Disciple

You can do more with 12 disciples than with 1,200 religious consumers. [Alan Hirsch, in: [Bobby Harrington& ‎Josh Robert Patrick, The Disciple Maker's Handbook: Seven Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle, ‎Zondervan, 2017, p.14]

Discipleship is learning how to live in heaven before you die. [Dallas Willard, quoted in: Matt Trendall,” Now and Not Yet: What the Bible says about the Kingdom of God,” Christianity Today, 27 Dec. 2018]

Am I a true disciple becoming more and more like the one I claim to follow? Does my life reflect the quality of the One I love, or, do I fundamentally bear false witness to Him and so damage His cause? [Alan Hirsch, blurb for: Lance Ford, UnLeader: Reimagining Leadership... and Why We Must, Sep. 1, 2012, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City]

Lance Ford: Jesus said, “I will build my church, now you go make disciples.” And we say, “OK, Lord, I’ll build you a church.” And he says, “No, no, no, no, I’ll build my church, you go make disciples.” And we say, “OK, I’ll go build you a church.” And so we’re about the business of building churches and starting churches rather than creating disciples. [Rob Wegner, Lance Ford & Alan Hirsch with Jonathan Sprowl, “New Life From Every Disciple,” Outreach Magazine, June 7, 2021]

Definition of Discipleship: Leading people to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. … he nature of it is to increasingly submit all of life to his Lordship and to his empowering presence in order to do that. [Jeff Vanderstelt, “Decentralized Discipleship, Saturate Webinar [Dr. Bob Roberts Jr. and Jeff Vanderstelt”], Jul. 9, 2020, @4:30; 1:04:22]

In the New Testament, discipleship means being an apprentice of Jesus in our daily existence. A disciple, then, is simply someone who has decided to be with another person in order to become what that person is or to become capable of doing what that person does. What does Jesus do that I can be discipled to do? The answer is found in the Gospels: he lives in the kingdom of God, and he applies that kingdom for the good of others and even makes it possible for them to enter it. [Jan Johnson, “Apprentice to the Master: Interview with Dallas Willard,” Discipleship Journal, Sep./Oct. 1998, 22-24]

Discipleship flourishes when we present the gospel as a seamless journey of transformation that begins with new life given by God and moves right along with the joy of following Christ every day. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, NavPress, 2006, p. 43]

A mature disciple is one who effortlessly does what Jesus would do if Jesus were him. [Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, NavPress, 2002, p. 241]

First, there must be no mistaking the fact that discipleship to Jesus means primarily learning from him how to do—easily and routinely do—the very things he said for us to do. Obedience is the only sound objective of a Christian spirituality. Of course, we do not obey to earn anything—earning is out of the question—but we obey because doing the things that Jesus said is what is best for us and for everyone around us. [Dallas Willard; in Bill Hull, Choose the Life: Exploring a Faith That Embraces Discipleship, Baker Books, 2004, p. 6]

A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice – a practitioner… Disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth. [Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, HarperOne, 2006, p. xi]

Since making disciples is the main task of the church, every church ought to be able to answer two questions: What is our plan for making disciples of Jesus? Is our plan working?” [Dallas Willard, Audio Interview with John Ortberg, Catalyst West conference, June (?), 2010]

The Western part of the church today lives in a bubble of historical illusion about the meaning of discipleship and the gospel. [Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, Harper, 1998]

The lexical definition of disciple is “learner.” But in the first century, the cultural understanding of disciple was “follower.” In addition, disciples display certain characteristics and behaviors. . . . [A] disciple is someone who submits to at least one other person in a healthy and appropriate way as a means of support and accountability to develop fully as a follower of Jesus: following someone can teach how to follow Jesus. Again, a disciple is someone who submits to at least one other person in a healthy and appropriate way as a means of support and accountability to develop fully as a follower of Jesus. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, 2006, NavPress, p. 67]

Manthano means “to learn” or “to find out, understand and hear.” [Wilbur Gingrich, Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, U Chicago Pr., 1965, p. 131]

The Sixfold Definition of Being Conformed to Christ’s Image -

1) Transformed mind
2) Transformed character
3) Transformed relationships
4) Transformed habits
5) Transformed service
6) Transformed influence

[Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, 2006, NavPress, p. 130]

A faith that embraces discipleship is only real when we obey it. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, NavPress, 2006, p. 46]

In the past fifty years, the U. S. church has been duped into substituting quality of church programs for quality of individual Christlikeness, and the result is too many churches with too few disciples! [Bob Gilliam, pres. T-Net international, 2006; blurb for Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, NavPress, 2006, p. 46]

In many traditional Baptist churches today, disciples are rare, and it has become acceptable to have a mixed multitude membership filled with people who are half-hearted followers of Christ, at best.
Decades ago, Evangelist Fred Brown said that he feared that a high percentage of members of Independent Baptist churches were not born again. And Lee Roberson, pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church, said that he thought that not even 50% were saved. / There are many different types of mixed multitude churches, some much stronger than others. The percentage of the members who are true disciples of Christ as defined by Christ Himself (John 8:31; 10:27), might be 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, even 60%. But no mixed multitude church requires that a person give evidence of being a true disciple of Christ before baptism and membership. [David Cloud, “A Mixed Multitude Church,” from: The Discipling Church: The Church That Will Stand Until Christ Comes. Bible Study Materials, 2017]

If you make disciples, you will always get the church, but if you try to build the church you will rarely get disciples. [Mike Breen, “Why the Missional Movement Will Fail,” Verge, Sep. 14, 2021]

High mission/low discipleship church cultures have issues with Biblical literacy, theological reflection and deficiencies in character and Creed that, in the end, sabotage the very mission they’re about. [Mike Breen, “Why the Missional Movement Will Fail,” Part 2, Verge, Sep. 21, 2011]

In his Great Commission mandate to “make all disciples of all nations,” Jesus not only provided salvation from judgement, but he also provided through salvation from judgement, but he also provided through conversion the all-embracing transformation of life. New disciples are gathered into the church, where the process of comprehensive discipleship is lived out. This transformation of life through the process of comprehensive discipleship is often neglected in the church. Discipleship is not just a limited program within the church. Discipleship is the life of the church. Since the true church is composed only of disciples, the overall activities of the church are to provide for the care, training, and mission of the disciples as they follow Jesus in this world. The purpose and mission of the church, therefore, must be understood in terms of comprehensive discipleship. [Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship, Zondervan, 1992, p. 299]

Definition of “Disciple of Jesus Christ”: one who has come to Jesus for eternal life, has claimed him as Savior and God, and has embarked upon the life of following him. discipleship and discipling imply the process of becoming like Jesus Christ means living a fully human life in this world in union with Jesus Christ and growing in conformity to his image. In our discussion of discipleship in the early church of Acts, we discovered two important components of biblical discipleship. On the one hand, discipleship consists of being molded by the apostolic teaching, being empowered by an experience with the living god, and being a participant in a community of disciples. On the other hand, it involves both a way to walk and a mission to fulfill. [Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship, Zondervan, 1992, p. 342]

Disciple-Making

ERRONEOUS: “when many people are being converted and discipled through the preaching of the gospel” [Al Baker, “Challenging the Status Quo,” Banner of Truth, April 30, 2018] – RKS comment: People are NOT discipled by preaching of the gospel. Rather, they agree discipled by being taught what repentance and how to do it, taught all of Jesus’s commands, and taught how to, in practical life, obey them. Making disciples is a discipline and must be done with competence and care by one who knows how to make disciples, not merely how to preach. - RKS, May 4, 2021]

Disciple-making vs. Belief

It should be obvious that belief in Christianity does not make people more moral than those who do not believe in gods. In fact, a case can be made for the opposite. The failure of Christianity to impart morality is evidence that it is not a product of a supernatural deity. [Michael Runyan, “4015 Reasons Christianity is False," Kyroot, Oct. 7, 2022]

Discipleship

Definition of Discipleship: Leading people to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, become like Jesus and do what Jesus did. … he nature of it is to increasingly submit all of life to his Lordship and to his empowering presence in order to do that. [Jeff Vanderstelt, “Decentralized Discipleship, Saturate Webinar [Dr. Bob Roberts Jr. and Jeff Vanderstelt],” Jul 9, 2020, @4:30; 1:04:22]

Doctrine

You cannot learn doctrine well until you follow the doctrine you learn! [Paul Washer, Ten Indictments against the Modern Church, HeartCry Missionary Society, 2011, p. 34]

“Doing Church” vs. Following Christ

Church planters will be tempted to give up and settle for producing Christians who are busy with church activities, rather than striving to help Christians grow in Christlikeness. [Robert Elkin (Dir. of Training at Redeemer City to City), “Following Jesus in the City,” City to City New York City, Apr 16, 2018]

“Dones”

[Josh Packard’s research, Exodus of the Religious Dones] shows that American congregations have lost over 30 million adults who are the Dones–those who have left the organized church, but not their faith. . . . They aren’t done because they lack faith in God. They aren’t done because they lack faith in the concept of Church–the community of believers. They’re done because they lack faith in the current church model that some leaders desperately try to defend. “The type of person that is typically found among the Dones is this really high-capacity, super-involved congregant, who’s super-involved -- really the, sort of, lifeblood and pulse of a lot of these churches before they walk out. And so they are really the movers and shakers that are often leaving. [Thom Schultz, “Are the Dones Really Christian?” Holy Soup Podcast, Apr. 20, 2016]

Some church people have judged the Dones as guilty of “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,” as mentioned in Hebrews 10:25. But many Dones say they’re not forsaking assembling. They’re just not assembling in that place with the steeple on top. They’re getting together organically with others to share their faith journey. One described a weekly mealtime with fellow believers: “A bunch of people coming together around a common meal to talk about life. It’s nothing like church. We all talk, and we all listen.” I’ve found that Dones often bristle when someone says they left the church. “We didn’t leave the church. We are the church,” they say. “The church is not some branded religious bureaucracy in some building. It’s us, all of us. We are the Body of Christ–the church.” [Thom Schultz, “Done with Church, but Not with God,” Holy Soup, May 12, 2015]

There was a time when churches promoted a culture of helping people in physical and spiritual suffering. Now churches I've experienced wouldn't care less about you if you had cancer, or any kind of personal or spiritual struggle. For those that practice prosperity gospel, they may quietly believe God isn't blessing you because you are doing something wrong. A prominent pastor with immense personal wealth here has no problem accusing congregation members who don't tithe to be "thieves," and promised God would curse them. But if they give their 10% then God would bless them while he buys another vacation home. I tried to do what he said when I was 24, and I quickly found I couldn't pay my electric bill. / Go to a church that caters to millennials like me, and narcissism and self-absorption are completely rampant. Nobody gives a shit about you unless you can do something for them (only time a clique leader will talk to me "Hey man, I heard you know how to make apps. I have an idea that I want you to build and you can take 20%"). Maybe the Instagram, self-celebrating culture has permeated millennial churches. Another young adult’s group said they couldn't have me join because they "already have a full headcount". I actually encountered that twice, and I'm not the only one who gets tired of trying to break into cliques. [u/RacerRex9727, “The American church is sick, I'm done,” Reddit, May 3, 2018]

Easy-Believism

There was no “easy believism” in Paul’s presentation of the Gospel. Decision was to be accompanied and followed by devotion. Jesus Christ IS Lord and, therefore, MUST be Lord in our lives. [Stephen F. Olford (1918-2004). Billy Graham called him "the man who most influenced my ministry.”]

The gospel according to Jesus explicitly and unequivocally rules out easy-believism. To make all of our Lord’s difficult demands apply only to a higher class of Christians blunts the force of His entire message. It makes room for a cheap and meaningless faith – a faith that may be exercised with absolutely no impact on the fleshly life of sin. That is not saving faith. [John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, Zondervan, 1988, p. 31]

Ekklesia

EXCERPT: (@10:36) – In Matthew 16:18, Jesus is typically quoted to say, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” In this passage the exact translation of the word church is ekklesia this is significant because the concept of ekklesia originated hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth. Ekklesia originated in Greece as a governing assembly but it was perfected by the Roman Empire when Rome would conquer a territory. They would win the peace by sending out what they called an “ekklesia.” A small number of upstanding Roman citizens who had moved into the conquered territory. They move in with the locals, acculturating them in the language and the lifestyle of Rome, until everyone around them walked and talked like a Roman. It's striking that in Matthew 16:18 Jesus did not say, “I will build my synagogue,” or, “I will build my temple,” although he loved them both. Jesus said, “I will build my ekklesia,” a small number of fully devoted followers who will infiltrate the culture around them for Christ –and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” / This was a brilliant strategy on Jesus’s part. He was co-opting a familiar Roman concept and infusing it with Kingdom DNA. The early church executed this strategy with excellence within a few hundred years it had grown from a hundred and twenty believers in an upper room in Jerusalem to become a transformational force for change across the Roman Empire. [Chuck Proudfit, “Citywide Marketplace Ministry as 21st Century Workplace Ekklesia”; Faith@Work Summit, Oct. 25, 2017; 15:32]

Enemy

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Vol 2, “Table-Talk,” 1857]

Entrepreneurship

We need people to be creative thought leaders in the marketplace. – This goes back to the idea that we shouldn’t just sit around and wait for the world to invent everything. Christians should feel the freedom to be innovative. Innovators change the direction of society. When you think about the most influential people in history, so many of them were innovators. We know who Gutenberg was because he invented the printing press, and out of the printing press came all of the books and libraries and the bookstores that we know today. Christians ought to be right in the middle of shaping the culture around us. We shouldn’t be afraid of science, psychology and other various disciplines but instead, fully engaging and being creative thought leaders in our marketplaces. This kind of engagement will make for better communities. [Brandon Cox, “4 ways Christian entrepreneurs are needed,” Christian Leadership, July 11, 2019]

Evangelicalism

If secularism is the pursuit of the Kingdom without the King, Evangelicalism has come to worship the King without the Kingdom. [Brad Edwards, “The Church of Individualism,” Mere Orthodoxy, Sept. 8, 2020]

Evangelicalism (Gospel as Atonement Believism)

Still others have a practical theology that simply will not allow for spiritual growth. Indeed, they just might see it as a bad thing. Having been saved by grace, these individuals have become paralyzed by it. For them, any attempt to make progress forward in the spiritual life smacks of “works righteousness.” Since their liturgies tell them that they sin in word, thought, and deed daily, they have concluded that this is their fate until they die. Heaven is their only release from this world of sin and rebellion. Hence these folk—good folk, well-meaning folk—will sit in the pew year after year without a millimeter of movement forward in the spiritual life. [Richard J. Foster, Casting a Vision: The Past and Future of Spiritual Formation, Renovaré, 2019, p. 1]

“If you had asked Paul to define what a Christian is,” [Gordon] Fee once told CT, “he would not have said, ‘A Christian is a person who believes X and Y doctrines about Christ,’ but ‘A Christian is a person who walks in the Spirit, who knows Christ.’” [Gordon Fee quote – Daniel Silliman, “Died: Gordon Fee, Who Taught Evangelicals to Read the Bible ‘For All Its Worth’,” Christianity Today, Oct. 26, 2022]

QUOTE: For centuries, art and religion in the Western world were inextricably linked, with faith providing a bedrock for artistic practice. Yet looking at art today, it seems unfathomable that these two spheres were once indivisible. In noted art historian James Elkins’ words, “Contemporary art is as far from organized religion as Western art has ever been, and that may be its most singular achievement — or its cardinal failure, depending on your point of view. The separation has become entrenched.” [Press Release, September 29, 2021 — New York City & Charleston, South Carolina Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts to Bridge Longstanding Divide between Religion and Contemporary Art; ref.: James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, Routledge, Sep. 4, 2004]

Evangelicalism (Soterianism)

Key indicator: Belief that when they die, they will go to Heaven only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior: 39% in 2011; 30% in 2021. [CRC Staff, “Declining Christianity Leads to Dramatic US Religious Realignment, CRC Study Finds,” American Worldview Inventory, CRC; Arizona Christian U, Jun 8, 2021]

When audiences hear the soterian gospel, the awareness of their own sin and guilt before God are the reason why they come to God and ask his forgiveness. They believe in Jesus because of what he can give them, not necessarily because of who he is. [Joshua Washington, “The Soterian Gospel,” The Scripture Says: Connecting Scripture to Jesus (website), Aug. 8, 2017]

Experience vs. Knowledge

"And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest." [Cloud of Unknowing Author, The Book of Privy Counseling, Ch. 23, latter half of 14th century]

Faith

Definition of faith: The state of being constantly concerned. [Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith, Harper & Bros., 1957, p. 1]

“Faith is not for overcoming obstacles; it is for experiencing them—all the way through!” [Richard Rohr, Radical Grace: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr, Franciscan Media; Jun. 1, 1993]

“Paul makes it clear that the only way anyone participates in this kingdom is by believing in Jesus Christ and living a life that demonstrates the reality of that faith (1 Cor. 6:9-11, 15:50).” [“What is ‘the gospel of the kingdom’”? 9Marks, undated]

The modern definition of faith eliminates repentance, erases the moral elements of believing, obviates the work of God in the sinner’s heart, and makes an ongoing trust in the Lord optional. Far from championing the truth that human works have no place in salvation, modern easy-believism has made faith itself a wholly human work, a fragile, temporary attribute that may or may not endure. [John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, Zondervan, 1988, p. 172]

Genuine faith must go beyond the mere intellectual assent concerning biblical doctrines. People must let the implications of these doctrines radically affect their hearts so that they respond positively to God with the obedience and works of faith. [Daniel Fuller, The Unity of the Bible, Zondervan, 1992, p. 312]

Fake Smile

I think some Christians are masterful pretenders. I don’t mean that those who profess Christ aren’t genuine, though that can be the case, but that believers put on painstaking performances…like celebrities who act in front of the camera for a living. And Sunday seems to be the apex of it all, week after week. It has always fascinated me how that the church is meant in part to be a clinic for hurting sinners (i.e. you and I), yet the believers within do their best to keep all [their woes] locked in the closet, and especially on the Lord’s day. It’s as though presenting a seemingly ordered, difficulty-free life glorifies God and serves the body of Christ. My point? Well, when is the last time you can vividly recall someone walking through the doors of your local church teary-eyed? Or, when do you remember the last time a Christian that seems to smile all the time, doing the very opposite? I have a suggestion for you believer; don’t always buy the smile. / Christ never wanted us to put a smile, a dam of sorts, in front of the rushing waters of our increasingly crushing burdens. Eventually it will collapse, and by then who knows what the spiritual ramifications will be? Please allow Romans 12:15 and I Thessalonians 5:11, just a couple applicable verses, to challenge you to not always buy the smile. Would you dare enter the muck of another Christian’s spiritual difficulties? If so…God will be honored, that hurting child of God may eventually smile from the heart again…grow in leaps and bounds, and you will be eternally blessed! It’s a win-win for all! [Justin Joseph, “Don’t Always Buy the Smile; Hurting Christians know how to hide behind a smile. They act just as skillfully as those in Hollywood. We need to work on getting past the smile.” Millenials for Jesus Christ, Mar 19, 2014]

False Witness

Am I a true disciple becoming more and more like the one I claim to follow? Does my life reflect the quality of the One I love, or, do I fundamentally bear false witness to Him and so damage His cause? [Alan Hirsch, blurb for: Lance Ford, UnLeader: Reimagining Leadership... and Why We Must, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Sep. 1, 2012]

Fanatic

“The fanatic is he who loves God, but does not love his neighbor.” [Soren Kierkegaard; source not identified]

Favoritism

James 2 (NIV) - My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Fellowship

We cannot revive the faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by exhibition of a Christian fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be forced to respect it. [D. Elton Trueblood, “A Radical Experiment,” Delivered at Arch Street Meeting House, Philadelphia, 1947; Alternative to Futility, Harper & Brothers, 1948]

Francis Chan [San Francisco pastor] . . . talked about a gang member who got saved and then baptized in his church yet disappeared a year later. A leader in the congregation noticed and sought him out and asked: “What happened?” He said “I had the wrong idea about what I thought church would be. I thought it would be like family, a different kind of family. See, when I was in the gangs, we hung together, watched each other’s backs, took care of each other, we committed to each other 24-7, not just two meetings a week. When I got here, it was like each one was on his own. There was just no reason for me to be here with these people.” Chan said this broke his heart. The gang was better at being the church than the church was at being the church. [David Fitch, “Whoah, That Just Felt Like Christianity!” Missio Alliance, Feb. 7, 2009]

Flourishing

Human flourishing is using our minds, affections, wills, and bodies to enjoy loving relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. [Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic, Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn't the American Dream, Moody Pub, 2019]

God wants far more for the poor than a materialistic, hyperindividualistic version of the American Dream plus Jesus. God wants us all restored to our vocation as priest-kings joining our King Jesus in the mission of renewing all things. He desires nothing less for us than the recovery of all that was lost in the Fall: the shalom of peace with God, with self, with others, and with creation. He wants us to truly flourish -- with sufficiency of economic provision to be sure, but also with an abundance of meaning, love, purpose, community, laughter, resiliency, and self-giving. [Ann L. Sherman, in Brian Fikkert & Kelly M. Kapic, A Field Guide to Becoming Whole: Principles for Poverty Alleviation Ministries, Moody Publishers, 2019, p. 12]

Focus / Meditation

Dallas Willard asserted that our primary object in spiritual formation was to “help people love what is lovely” and that we do that by “help[ing] them place their minds on the lovely thing.” [Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, Harper San Francisco, 1998, p. 323]

Follow

Our biggest problem is that we have an entire culture shaped by a misunderstanding of the gospel. That so-called gospel is deconstructing the church. [Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited, 2016, Zondervan, p. 16]

Those who aren't following Jesus aren't his followers. It’s that simple. Followers follow, and those who don't follow aren't followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it. [Scot McKnight, One Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow, Zondervan, 2010]

What the church most needs is not heroes of faith, but faithful followers of Jesus. [Scot McKnight, A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God's Design for Life Together, Zondervan, 2015]

There are millions of people in our country who call themselves Christians because they believe the Christian life is about admiring Christ’s example, not realizing it is a call to follow it. [Francis Chan, Letters to the Church, David C Cook, Sep. 1, 2019, p. 127]

Friend

Do you know what a “Job’s friend” is? In the book of Job, a series of terrible things happened to Job. His children died; he lost all of his money; he became sick. Job’s friends said, “Clearly you are not living right! God must be judging you for your sins or these bad things would not be happening.” [Tim Keller, Sep. 16, 2001, sermon, “Tim Keller’s Sermon After 9/11,” TGC (The Gospel Coalition), Sep. 11, 2021]

Gospel, The

It is quite easy to assume that if we understand the gospel accurately and preach it faithfully, our ministry will necessarily be shaped by it – but this is not true. [Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, Zondervan, 2012]

Gospels, The Four

Discipleship is becoming like Jesus our Lord and Founder and experiencing his life as it is lived through me/us, and it lies at the epicenter of the church’s task. It means that Christianity must define all that we do and say. It also means that in order to recover the ethos of authentic Christianity, we need to refocus our attention back to the Root of it all, to recalibrate ourselves and our organizations around the person and work of Jesus the Lord. It will mean taking the Gospels seriously as the primary texts that define us. [Alan Hirsch, ‎The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements, Brazos Press; 2nd edition, Sep. 20, 2016, p. 101]

Gospel (Defining “The Gospel”)

Brian Fikkert – I think the Gospel is the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God brings about Shalom. So, it's a really interesting question. Try this: go to your churches and ask people why did Jesus come to earth. In When Helping Hurts, the first chapter starts off – that's the title of the chapter: “Why did Jesus come to Earth?” – and what most of us most of our parishioners, or Brothers and Sisters in Christ, will say: “Jesus came to Earth to die on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins.” That is certainly true. / There is no question about that. I don't want to cast any doubt on that, at any level, but it's so interesting to me that the very start of Jesus’s earthly ministry he says he's come to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God, which is the coming of all of the goodness that God intends for his – all of his – creation. / It means the transformation of the cosmos into a new heavens and new Earth, where there is Shalom; where human beings once again enjoy all that it means to be human – which we argue is to live in right relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation. That's the good news of the Gospel is that the Kingdom has come in Christ. And it's still coming. And so, what are the implications of that for gospel proclamation, for preaching? That's the message. What bothers me is the church doesn't seem to know the message. / We don't have to pit these things against each other. Christ’s substitutionary atonement is necessary. It pays for the penalty for our sins, but then what? Well, it brings us into the very dwelling place of God, in which there is Shalom. And so, for me, the Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom. And our response is to repent and trust in Jesus, and grow into our new skin as new creatures in Christ. [Brian Fikkert, “When Helping Hurts With Brian Fikkert,” #MissionsPodcast, ABWE International, Nov 6, 2022, 38:48; @ 14:31-16:30; spoken words, edited for text presentation]

What is the gospel—the "good news"? "Just believe on the name of Jesus and you will be saved" is a common message of many preachers. Others proclaim that the gospel is that Jesus came to die for our sins. Still others preach a rather insipid and saccharine "Jesus loves you" message. All of those catchy phrases have relevance to Jesus' message—we certainly must believe in Jesus, He did die for our sins, and He surely loves us—but nowhere does Jesus directly state that the gospel is about Him! Instead, the good news is about a momentous purpose that God is accomplishing. Jesus spoke the words that the Father gave Him to preach, most emphatically confirmed in John 12:49-50: For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak. What is Jesus' own testimony about the subject of His preaching? Notice these verses: » Matthew 4:23: "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." » Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." » Luke 4:43: "[Jesus] said to them, 'I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.'" » Luke 16:16: "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the Kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it." [John W. Ritenbaugh, “Where Is God's True Church Today?” Forerunner, "Personal," Nov.-Dec. 2010]

Key to encountering the biblical Jesus is a step that many Christians seem to find painful, that is, our preparedness to read the Gospels in order to emulate Jesus. [Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub (USA), 2009, p. 17]

Grace

Grace always helps us do what we could not do on our own. [John Rasicci, “Grace Can Produce Generosity In The Midst Of Poverty,” John Rasicci Blog, Jun. 30, 2018]

Great Commandment: Its Unity

“The Good Samaritan: In order to understand why Jesus told the lawyer to “go and do” we must understand that for Jesus to love God and love your neighbor are virtual synonyms (1 John 4:20a; cf. Matt 5:23-24; 25:40, 45).” [Alan P. Stanley, Did Jesus Teach Salvation by Works? - The Role of Works in Salvation in the Synoptic Gospels, Pickwick Pub., 2006, p. 330]

Regarding the two parts of the Great Commandment – God says they go together. You can’t love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength if you don’t love your neighbor as yourself. And you can’t love your neighbor as yourself if you don’t love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. [Rick Warren, "A Faith That Loves My Neighbor as Myself" with Pastor Rick Warren, Pastor Rick (channel), May 23, 2020, 55:27; @8:06]

Great Commission

The last command Jesus gave the church before he ascended to heaven was the Great Commission, the call for Christians to “make disciples of all the nations.” But Christians have responded by making “Christians,” not “disciples.” This has been the church’s Great Omission. / The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ. But the point is not merely verbal. What is more important is that the kind of life we see in the earliest church is that of a special type of person. All of the assurances and benefits offered to humankind in the gospel evidently presuppose such a life and do not make realistic sense apart from it. We cannot be Christians without being disciples, and we cannot call ourselves Christians without applying this understanding of life in the Kingdom of God to every aspect of life on earth. [Promotional copy for: Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, HarperOne, 2006]

Discipleship is so important because it is the fundamental task of the church. We have tended to interpret discipleship as a peripheral adventure. We've tended to read the Great Commission as an evangelistic text. It is surprising when I say to people it is not about evangelism. / We built a whole movement called the “church growth movement,” on the fact that it was evangelistic, telling us we must evangelize” everyone. Really? where does it say that? / If you go back to the Great Commission it says, “Go around all the world and make disciples, yeah? – teaching them to obey all that I've commanded.” You know it doesn't sound like evangelism to me. That sounds like disciple-making. So in other words, go into to all the world and make disciples. Well, get on with it. And the problem is that most of us don't know how to do it. / Oh, that's a sham. And what we [I and Verge Network] say is that evangelism takes place in the context of discipleship, not the other way around. Evangelism is not sharing certain facts about Jesus as if we got no obligation before or afterwards. But actually evangelism takes place in the context of a relationship that is called the discipleship that can go a whole lifetime. [Alan Hirsch, “The Great Commission Isn't Just About Evangelism,” Verge, Pub. on Youtube, Jun. 10, 2013; 0:17-2:19]

In his Great Commission mandate to “make all disciples of all nations,” Jesus not only provided salvation from judgement, but he also provided through salvation from judgement, but he also provided through conversion the all-embracing transformation of life. New disciples are gathered into the church, where the process of comprehensive discipleship is lived out. This transformation of life through the process of comprehensive discipleship is often neglected in the church. Discipleship is not just a limited program within the church. Discipleship is the life of the church. Since the true church is composed only of disciples, the overall activities of the church are to provide for the care, training, and mission of the disciples as they follow Jesus in this world. The purpose and mission of the church, therefore, must be understood in terms of comprehensive discipleship. [Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship, Zondervan, 1992, p. 299]

If Christ were to comment on the Great Commission today, perhaps he might tell us that if we want to see his “lordship” over all of culture, we shouldn’t begin in Washington; we should begin in our own churches and with ourselves. . . . We also need to notice that the commission to ”teach” (Matt. 28:20) explicitly focuses not, in the first instance, on belief, but rather on behavior: “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. Jesus’s new commandment was that his disciples were to love one another as he had loved them (John 13:34-35). This love for one another – was how the world would know they were followers of Jesus. His commands also included specific instructions about the need for continuing forgiveness (Matt. 18:21-22). And the way to resolve conflicts and disputes within the church (Matt. 5:23-24; 18:15-18) – injunctions that have been unevenly and inconsistently practiced in the history of the church. [John Jefferson Davis, “Slow Discipleship and the End of Christendom,” in: Collin Hansen, Revisiting ‘Faithful Presence’, The Gospel Coalition, 2015.]

Heart

In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts. [Leonard Ravenhill, Source?: Why Revival Tarries, Bethany Fellowship, 1950] [Cross-referenced: Revival]

Hebrew View (vs. Hellenic)

Essentially, on the one hand, a Hellenistic view of knowledge is concerned with concepts, ideas, the nature of being, types and forms the Hebraic view, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with issues of concrete existence, obedience, life-oriented wisdom, and the interrelationship of all things under God. It is quite clear that, as Jews, Jesus and the early church operated primarily out of a Hebraic understanding rather than a Hellenistic one. [Alan Hirsch, ‎The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements, Brazos Press; 2nd edition, Sep. 20, 2016, p. 130]

Hell

“The gates of hell are locked from the inside.” [C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, The Centenary Press, 1940]

“Christianity asserts that we are going to go on forever...Now there are a great many things that wouldn’t be worth bothering about if I was only going to live eighty years or so, but I had better bother about if I am going to go on living forever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are getting worse so gradually that the increase in my lifetime will not be very noticeable but it might be absolute hell in a million years. In fact, if Christianity is true, hell is precisely the correct technical term for it. Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others, but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or to even enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on and on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God ‘sending us’ to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will *be* Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.” [C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, Geoffrey Bles (UK),1945]

Helping Others (Calvin)

When God gives someone more than he needs, he establishes him there as if he was [God’s] own person, to say that “doing good is my special character, for all good things come from me– I make the earth fruitful, I give it the power to produce its fruits”; but in giving me his office God makes me his deputy (lieutenant) as it were; and what is the nature off that honour? So all rich people, when they have the means to do good, are certainly there as God’s deputies (officiers) and carry out what is in their character as such–that is, helping their neighbours to live. (Bieler, pg. 284) [Steven Wedgeworth, “John Calvin on the Use of Goods and Money,” The Calvinist International, Aug. 10, 2017]

Heresy

"Heresy is not so much rejecting as selecting. The heretic simply selects the parts of the Scripture he wants to emphasize and lets the rest go. This is shown by the etymology of the word heresy and by the practice of the heretic. "Beware," an editorial scribe of the fourteenth century warned his readers in the preface to a book. "Beware thou take not one thing after thy affection and liking, and leave another: for that is the condition of an heretique. But take everything with other." The old scribe knew well how prone we are to take to ourselves those parts of the truth that please us and ignore the other parts. And that is heresy." [A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), We Travel an Appointed Way, Moody Pub., 1988]

Holistic Ministry

Holistic ministry entails more than sponsoring a program here and there. It goes beyond short-term, relief-oriented aid. Holistic ministry in our churches means modeling God’s concern for the total well-being of persons and communities. It means an incarnational lifestyle of integrity, compassion, and invitation. It means sharing good news both for this life and for the life after death. /// It means loving neighbors both far and near with the same joyous abandon that Jesus displayed, especially those who are most needy and least lovable. [Ronald Sider, Philip N. Olson & Heidi Rolland Unruh, Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community With Good News and Good Works, Baker Books, 2002]

Holism is not simply a strategy for winning people to Christ, but a theological commitment. This commitment seems especially important today, when Christians are increasingly viewed with suspicion around the globe. Some see us as arrogant, manipulative, or even hypocritical, talking about love and service but living for ourselves in a world apart, complacently apathetic towards the pains and turmoil of today’s world. We suffer a crisis of credibility. David Bosch, the eminent missiologist, insists: “Our mission has to be multidimensional in order to be credible and faithful to its origins and character” (Transforming Mission). Our authenticity as gospel people demands a response of compassion (Matt. 25:35-46, Jas. 2:15-16, 1 Jn. 3:16-18). Such compassion is inherent in the gospel of the kingdom, which has laid hold of us. This service—a foretaste of redemption—is the irrepressible fruit of the gospel in our own lives. If we do not make this clear, then our ministry to human needs risks looking like mere public relations. Our goal is not to get a promotion, to look good, or to make the evening news. We simply delight in seeing God transform, heal and redeem. [Rob O’Callaghan, "What do we mean by 'Holistic Ministry?'" Word Made Flesh International, May 6, 2009] (cross-referenced: Compassion)

Holy Spirit

Is the Holy Spirit so at work in your heart through the preaching of the Gospel, that a change has been wrought, so that the sin you once loved you now hate, and the sin you once desired to embrace, you are wanting to run from it as though you were running from a dragon? [Paul Washer, Ten Indictments against the Modern Church, HeartCry Missionary Society, 2011, p. 18]

Hospitality

Looking to Jesus as your example: Are others welcome in your home? Do they know they are welcome? What can you do to communicate an “open door” mentality? Are you a “safe place”? Can people be themselves and share openly with you without fear of judgment? Do friends and family members leave your company feeling refreshed, enriched, nourished in spirit? Who have you encouraged lately? Have you provided for someone in need recently? What are you doing to pursue deeper relationships? Who are you reaching out to? Do others know you’re sincerely interested in getting to know them more? Are you able to “entertain” others with stories of the goodness of God in your life? Are you willingly sharing real stories about your own experience rather than trying to hide the truth about your less-than-ideal circumstances? What can you talk about with the people in your circle of influence that might draw them nearer to Jesus Christ? Proverbs tells us that “love covers” (Proverbs 10:12, Proverbs 17:9) . . . Do you have a tendency to gossip? Is your speech seasoned with grace? When you serve others, is it with eagerness, or is it begrudgingly? Have you welcomed and shared your life with someone you wouldn’t normally reach out to? Someone who isn’t within your “comfort zone”? Bottom line: Hospitality is about loving others. It’s the second greatest commandment. And we can’t do it well apart from our love for Jesus – those two go hand in hand. [Jana Carlson, “Jesus: Our Primary Example of True Hospitality,” Wield the Power, Sep. 24, 2018]

Hospitals

It is to the Christians that one must turn for the origin of the modern hospital. Hospices, initially built to shelter pilgrims and messengers between various bishops, were under Christian control developed into hospitals in the modern sense of the word. [L. Cilliers, F. P. Retief, “The evolution of the hospital from antiquity to the end of the middle ages,” Curationis, Nov. 2002; 25(4): 60-6]

Hospices/hospitals in Western civilization are primarily an outgrowth of the teachings of Jesus. Soon after Greek monastic orders constructed buildings for the sick and dying, noblewoman Fabiola [died Dec. 27, 399] established the first hospices in the western Mediterranean. The hospice/hospital movement spread widely in medieval Europe. In modern society a distinction has been made between hospitals and hospices. Hospitals are devoted mostly to curing patients while hospices are concerned with terminal care. St. Christopher's Hospice is the acclaimed model of what a hospice program should contain. Caring for the sick and dying has contributed greatly to the positive influence of Christianity. [W. E. Phipps, “The origin of hospices/hospitals,” Death Studies. 1988;12(2):91-9.]

Humility

Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself… The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings. [Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness, 2012, (Youngstown, OH: 10 Publishing), pp. 280-83]

Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself. The humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others. /// There are three thoughts in this definition. First, humility presupposes your dignity. The one being humble acts from a height, so to speak, as the “lowering” etymology makes clear. True humility assumes the dignity. The one being humble acts from a height, so to speak, as the “lowering” etymology makes clear. True humility assumes the dignity of strength of the one possessing the virtue, which is why it should not be confused with having low self-esteem or being a doormat for others. In, fact, I would go so far to say that it is impossible to be humble in the real sense without a healthy sense of your own worth and abilities. [. . . ] Second, humility is willing. It is a choice. Otherwise, it is humiliation. /// Finally, humility is social. It is not a private act of self-deprecation – banishing proud thoughts, refusing to talk about your achievements and so on. I would call this simple “modesty.” But humility is about redirecting of your powers, whether physical, intellectual, financial or structural, for the sake of others. One of the earliest Greek texts on this topic, written about 60 AD to the Roman colony of Philippi, puts it perfectly: “In a humble frame of mind regard one another as if better than yourselves – each of you taking care not only of your own needs but also the needs of others.” [13] Humility is more how I treat others than how I think of myself. [John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership, Zondervan, 2011, p. 24]

Hypocrisy

Frankly speaking, sometimes I feel religions, if not properly practiced, then religion also gives us practice of hypocrisy, pretension. 'Oh, I'm Holy. Whatever I say is God's instruction.’ Then faithful people are easily manipulated. [Dalai Lama, “Beyond Religion: Ethics, Values & Well-Being,” The Center at MIT, Oct. 14, 2012; 1:48:49; @21:53]

It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites. [Thomas Sowell, “Is Reality Optional?” and Other Essays, 1993, Hoover Institute Press]

Anyone can see that intending and not acting when we can is not really intending, and loving and not doing good when we can is not really loving. [Emmanuel Swedenborg, in: Thupten Jinpa, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives, Hudson Street Press, 2015, p. 69]

“Your religion is what you do in your solitude.” [Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944). Quoted by Timothy J. Keller, “Neighbors” From series: “The Meaning of Jesus,” Part 2; “Following Him,” Feb. 23, 2003]

To conclude, how moral character guides moral judgments and deeds depends on reputation management motives. When people are motivated to attain a good reputation and high status, their moral character may stimulate more hypocrisy by displaying stronger harshness towards others than towards themselves. Thus, seeing oneself as a moral person does not always translate into doing good deeds, but can manifest as showcasing one’s morality to others. Desires for a positive reputation might help illuminate why (some) moral people are susceptible to accusations of hypocrisy—for applying higher moral standards to others than to themselves. [Mengchen Dong, Tom R. Kupfer, Jan-Willem Van Prooijen, “Moral Character And Reputation Management: Being Good to Look Good: Moral Character Is Positively Associated with Hypocrisy Among Reputation-Seeking Individuals,” British Journal of Psychology, Dec. 30, 2020, p. 21]

There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve, renowned Christian theologian Miroslav Volf pointed out to me. / “It’s analogous to what is going on in the book of James 2:16: If a person says to those who are cold and hungry, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? Or if you look at the story of the good Samaritan, we can easily imagine that the priest, who walked by a person robbed and left half-dead by the road, prayed as he was passing by. Still, he was a bad priest. The Samaritan was good because he did something to help the suffering person.” [Miroslav Volf, in: Kirsten Powers, “Why ‘thoughts and prayers’ is starting to sound so profane,” Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2017] [Cross-posted in “Intercessional Prayer Criticized by Christians”]

Ignorance

Imagination

“The function of imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange; not so much to make wonders facts as to make facts wonders.” [G.K. Chesterton, "A Defence of China Shepherdesses," The Defendant, London: J. M. Dent, 1914]

Imitation of Christ

We possess Christ’s truth only by imitating him, not speculating about him.” [Soren Kierkegaard in: Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub, 2009, p. 53]

A mature disciple is one who effortlessly does what Jesus would do if Jesus were him. [Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, NavPress, 2002, p. 241]

[T]he Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.” [C. S. Lewis, BBC radio broadcast, March 28, 30, 1944; book: Beyond Personality, Ch. 8. “Is Christianity Hard or Easy?”; (1945; collected in Mere Christianity, 1952]

If the church does not look, sound, and act like Jesus its Founder, then it is not the church, but rather something else. Jesus is always the only true measure of its authenticity. [Alan Hirsch, Twitter, May 21, 2021]

[L]est everything in the Church become superficial and insipid, the true undiminished program must read: the greatest possible radiance in the world by virtue of the closest possible following of Christ. [Hans Urs von Balthasar, Rechenschaft (“In Retrospect”), 1965, pp. 57-8]

Looking to Jesus as your example: Are others welcome in your home? Do they know they are welcome? What can you do to communicate an “open door” mentality? Are you a “safe place”? Can people be themselves and share openly with you without fear of judgment? Do friends and family members leave your company feeling refreshed, enriched, nourished in spirit? Who have you encouraged lately? Have you provided for someone in need recently? What are you doing to pursue deeper relationships? Who are you reaching out to? Do others know you’re sincerely interested in getting to know them more? Are you able to “entertain” others with stories of the goodness of God in your life? Are you willingly sharing real stories about your own experience rather than trying to hide the truth about your less-than-ideal circumstances? What can you talk about with the people in your circle of influence that might draw them nearer to Jesus Christ? Proverbs tells us that “love covers” (Proverbs 10:12, Proverbs 17:9) . . . Do you have a tendency to gossip? Is your speech seasoned with grace? When you serve others, is it with eagerness, or is it begrudgingly? Have you welcomed and shared your life with someone you wouldn’t normally reach out to? Someone who isn’t within your “comfort zone”? Bottom line: Hospitality is about loving others. It’s the second greatest commandment. And we can’t do it well apart from our love for Jesus – those two go hand in hand. [Jana Carlson, “Jesus: Our Primary Example Of True Hospitality,” Wield the Power, Sep. 24, 2018]

Incarnational Ministry

A working definition of incarnational ministry is “the immersion of one’s self into a local culture and ‘becoming Jesus’ to that culture.” Incarnational ministry seeks to dispense with ministry “from a distance” and embrace ministry “up close and personal”—the love of God and the gospel of Christ are “incarnated” or embodied by the person ministering. Just as the Son of God took on human flesh and came into our world, we should adopt the culture to which we are ministering and “become Jesus” within it. The idea that Christians should represent the incarnated gospel is called incarnational theology. A central tenet of the incarnational ministry concept is “live the good news rather than preach the good news.” [“What is incarnational ministry / incarnational theology, and is it biblical?” Got Questions Ministries (2002-2023), Updated, Jan. 4, 2022]

Institutions

Most of all there is a scandal of the Gospel, which constantly calls all human beings and human institutions to repentance and transformation rather than accommodation and self-preservation. [Andy Crouch, in: Peter Greer, Chris Horst, Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Bethany House Pub., 2014, p. 12]

Integrity

We now say and vouch for whatever is necessary to "win," whatever "winning" is in a universe with no moral compass. … Integrity has become as light as the truth itself, and both have floated away, unnoticed and unmourned. … [I]n the American culture and economy, integrity has no value. …Truth has become too dangerous to the status quo, so it must be strangled every day, by tens of thousands of people, and its limp corpse hidden away. [Charles Hugh Smith, “The Banality Of (Financial) Evil,” Of Two Minds, Sep. 11, 2021]

Integrity of the Gospel

Brian Fikkert: “Do you realize that what is at stake here is not just the children of this city, but the very integrity of the gospel itself is at stake?” [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tn.), Mar. 2016]

Intention

At the center of care for the heart is the love of God. This must be the joyful aim of our life. This must be the joyful aim of our life. That is why Jesus, underlining the deep understanding of life worked out through the Jewish experience, stated that the first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, in all your strength. (Mark 12:30). This is a command. It is something we are to do, and something we can do. We will learn how to do it if we intend to do it. God will help us, and we will find a way. [Dallas Willard, “Living in the Vision of God” (2003), booklet, Church of the Savior, Washington, DC.; reprinted in: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, Harper, 2006, p. 100]

Intercessional Prayer Criticized by Atheists

"When everything is up to a higher power it is much easier for people to be complacent and just pray rather than take action against oppression." The Maoist Internationalist Movement, MIM Notes 185, May 1, 1999]

Because Christianity encourages belief in a responsive God with the ability to send angels and make miracles, it can encourage people to believe that prayer is just a wish-granting telegram and that God just gives out what people want like a big vending machine. [Frederic Christie, Quora, Jul. 27, 2015]

Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” An objective person must realize that the promises described in these scriptures are not true. The fact that there is no discernible efficacy for [intercessionary] prayers is a valid clue that there is no god listening and responding to them. One of the most definitive examples of the failure of [intercessionary] prayer involves the story of Eva Peron (Evita), Argentina’s adored first lady from 1946 to 1952. Eva became sick with ovarian cancer and asked the Argentinian people to pray for her health to be restored. The ensuing 10+ million people praying for her had no effect on the progression and ultimately fatal consequences of her disease. [Michael Runyan, “4015 Reasons Christianity is False,” Kyroot, Oct. 7, 2022]

Intercessional Prayer Criticized by Christians

Justification & Sanctification

The American gospel separates justification from sanctification. Of course, justification and sanctification do have different meanings: the reality of the new birth and the process of becoming like Jesus, respectively. However, we’ve incorrectly made the line of demarcation meant to distinguish them into a wall that divides them. /Most of the damage we’ve done to the gospel with this separation is subtle without malice. The problem is that separating these two theological terms gives the impression that being a Christian means obtaining a protected status before God. We’ve taught that this act of justification settles the issue – “Come in where it’s safe and secure” – rather than teaching that a call to believe in Christ should also compel following him. in other words, the point of salvation (justification) isn’t the finish line; instead it’s the starting line for a lifelong journey (sanctification). [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, 2006, NavPress, 42]

Kenosis / Self-Emptying

In essence, to have the mind of Christ means being shaped by Christ’s own example of self-emptying (Phil. 2), the true mark of compassion. We serve the other not out of a sense of duty but out of a deep commitment to God who calls us to pursue unity and love. We serve the other not to merit their approval, acceptance, and esteem. We serve in self-emptying love as a way of honouring Christ by infusing his story into ours, by living under his lordship not ours, thereby bringing glory to the Father. The focus remains outward to others and upward to God, and the motive power of compassion lies in the fact that we are “united in Christ” (Phil 2:1). [Rolf Nolasco, “Imitating Christ,” Compassionate Presence Org, Calgary, undated (2016?)]

Kingdom

“Discipleship is learning how to live in heaven before you die.” [attributed to Dallas Willard, Matt Trendall, “Now and Not Yet: What the Bible says about the Kingdom of God,” Christianity Today, Dec. 27, 2018]

“Jesus is not saying, ‘Make sure you pray a prayer of repentance, start going to church, and wait for Me to come back.’ He is saying, ‘You can live a radically different life because there’s a new world order that just broke in, so stop walking in the direction you’re going, turn 180 degrees, and walk toward Me and life in the kingdom of God.’” [Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, David C. Cook, 2014, p. 53]

“Discipleship, then, is not an issue of transferring world view, or getting ideas about the Bible from one person’s head to another. Discipleship is about transferring authority, so the lordship of Jesus and the creation of Kingdom culture become the norm on our planet. [Jon Tyson; 36:44; “National Leadership Conference 2014 Session 4: Jon Tyson,” Mar 20, 2014, 57:07 – FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), San Antonio, Jul. 6-10, 2014]

The heavenly sovereign showed his love for us by sending his one and only Son, the Prince of Heaven, into the rebellious world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9). Our love for God is therefore a response to his love for us: we love because he first loved us (4:19). That’s why loving God is expressed by living as his kingdom, by loving one another (4:20). [Allen Browne, “How do you love God?” Seeking the Kingdom, May 25, 2020]

“Jesus never said to build the church. Jesus said he’ll build the church; Jesus said, “You seek the Kingdom.” And the Kingdom of God is the lordship of Jesus in all of culture, so God’s Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.” [Jon Tyson; “National Leadership Conference 2014 Session 4: Jon Tyson,” Mar 20, 2014, 57:07 – FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), San Antonio, Jul. 6-10, 2014, 54:28]

Jesus is not saying, “Make sure you pray a prayer of repentance, start going to church, and wait for Me to come back.” He is saying, “You can live a radically different life because there’s a new world order that just broke in, so stop walking in the direction you’re going, turn 180 degrees, and walk toward Me and life in the kingdom of God.” [Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, David C. Cook, 2014, p. 53]

“That means you are willing to make a conscious calculated kingdom bet with the agency and capital of your life to advance to cause of our people in our church this year.” [“A Creative Minority: Covenant,” sermon; Jon Tyson - Church of the City New York, Youtube, sermon begins @46:07, Jan 10, 2021, 1:05:09]

“Jesus’ Gospel: ‘Re-think how you’re living your life in light of your opportunity to live in God’s Kingdom today and forever by putting your confidence in him.’” [Bill Gaultiere, “Dallas Willard’s Definitions,” Soul Shepherding (website), undated 2022]

“The Kingdom of God is God reigning. It is present wherever what God wants done is done. It is the range of God’s effective will. God’s reign is all around you and is from “everlasting to everlasting” — it is the natural home of the soul. Matthew uses the term the Kingdom of the Heavens to emphasize that the Kingdom of God is not far off and way later but is immediately and directly accessible to us through Jesus Christ. (Note that “heavens” is plural because the Bible presents levels to the heavens.)” [Bill Gaultiere, “Dallas Willard’s Definitions,” Soul Shepherding (website), undated 2022]

“As far as the content of what I try to present is concerned it focuses on the gospel of the kingdom of God and becoming a disciple of Jesus in the kingdom of God. So, it doesn’t merely have an emphasis on the forgiveness of sins and assurance of heaven as you are apt to find in most evangelical circles. I think that is vital but it is not the whole story. The issue is whole life, other issues are subordinate to that. After all Jesus said, “I came that you might have life to the full,” which is more than life beyond death.” [Dallas Willard, “Interview: Following Jesus and Living in the Kingdom,” Renovare, Apr. 2002]

“As regards the kingdom of God? Theologians such as Ladd say that the kingdom is both present and absent, but this basically means we focus on the absent! But I didn’t come to understand the kingdom through theologians. I came to the understanding when I was a young Baptist Minister. I noticed that I spent a lot of my time trying to get people to come and hear me, and other ministers did the same. But when I looked at Jesus his problem was getting away from people! So, I said there has to be something different here. So I found what every scholar will tell you, that Jesus’ message was the kingdom of God. He proclaimed it, he manifested it and he taught it. When he sent out his disciples, he didn’t send them out to teach (that’s the hard part), but to proclaim and manifest (the easy part!) It was very powerful.” [Dallas Willard, “Interview: Following Jesus and Living in the Kingdom,” Renovare, Apr. 2002]

Within his overarching dominion God has created us and has given each of us, like him, a range of will – beginning from our minds and bodies and extending outward, ultimately to a point not wholly predetermined but open to the measure of our faith. His intent is for us to learn to mesh our kingdom with the kingdoms of others. Love of neighbor, rightly understood, will make this happen. But we can only love adequately by taking as our primary aim the integration of our rule with God’s. That is why love of neighbor is the second, not the first, commandment and why we are told to seek first the kingdom, or rule, of God. [Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, Harper, 1998, p. 26]

Reggie McNeal wisely suggests that we need a kingdom-shaped view of the church, not a church-shaped view of the kingdom. In other words, as God’s people we must always assess ourselves in the light of God’s active rule in the world and not the other way around. … Why all this church-kingdom stuff? Well, because if we are to be effective agents of God’s kingdom in this world, we need to be freed to see his kingdom express itself everywhere and anyplace—as indeed it does. God turns up in places where we might least expect to see him, but we need the eyes to see what he is doing if we are going to join him in the redemption of the world. A complete association of the kingdom with the church looks up God’s activity and links it exclusively to organized church activities like Sunday school, communal worship services, and the like. And as wonderful and necessary as these are to Christian community, the diminished view of the kingdom that results from this will never get us beyond the four walls of the church so that we might fulfill our mission of discipling the nations. [Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford, Right Here, Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People, Baker Books, 2011]

The fact is that if Jesus's future kingdom is secure, those who trust in its coming will enact it now. [Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch (2011). The Faith of Leap (Shapevine): Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage, Baker Books, p. 181]

Worship that is in some way divorced from mission is counterfeit worship. [Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, Baker Books, 2013, p. 93]

The central message of all four canonical Gospels is that the Creator God, Israel’s God, is at last reclaiming the whole world as his own, in and through Jesus of Nazareth. That, to offer a riskily broad generalization, is the message of the kingdom of God, which is Jesus’ answer to the question, "What would it look like if God were running this show?" [N. T. Wright, “Kingdom come: The public meaning of the Gospels,” The Christian Century, Nov. 2007]

Love is that gift of the spirit, above all others, which will characterize our perfected fellowship in the age to come. This love we now enjoy, and the church on earth will be a colony of heaven, enjoying in advance the life of the age to come. [George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959, p. 74]

In short, the kingdom gospel calls us to discipleship. Being a disciple of Jesus, learning from him and submitting to his leading and his teaching, is the norm rather than the exception or the option. It calls us to become apprentices of Christ and learn from him how to live our life as though he were living it. [Bill Hull, “The Kingdom Gospel,” The Bonhoeffer Project, Jan. 18, 2017]

The good news of the kingdom is that eternal life begins now—the moment you repent, believe the good news of Christ, receive the Holy Spirit, and start following him [3] Those elements go together. God never intended them to be separated out (as if that were possible). The kingdom is holistic: you enter a new realm where “all things are become new.”[4] When you start following Jesus, you prove that you believe what he says. This is quite different from what is commonly taught as the gospel—that if you believe the right religious facts, you’re saved, and following Jesus is just an option. What we must teach, however, is that Jesus started with the call to follow him; his disciples, then, started believing in him and grew spiritually in stages. We defy any experienced follower of Jesus who says that growing through a gradual process is not an accurate description of their life in Christ. Life in Christ doesn’t begin with instant maturity and immediate understanding. [Bill Hull and Ben Sobel, The Discipleship Gospel Primer, HIM Publications, 2018]

“Wow! These people are really different. I can’t wait to meet their King. He must really be something special.” [Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, June 24, 2009, Moody Publishers]

Knowledge / Propositional

Sadly, we are often led by pastors and ministers who are experts in theology, but whose prayer life is stunted. They understand doctrine but struggle to articulate or model how to love others. They have Bible information, but their love for God and people have cooled. We’re all guilty of this on some level. These are the people we hire and choose to lead our churches. Love, relationship, and connection with Jesus are devalued. Knowledge, expertise, and “know-how” are prized. In many contexts, “right theology” has replaced relationship and mystery. [Jonathan D’Elia, “Can Theology Be an Idol?” Red Letter Christians, Nov. 29, 2021]

"God is not pleased with superficial discipleship." [John Stott, Sep. 1999, First International Consultation on Discipleship, South Coast England; quoted in Editorial, Make Disciples, Not Just Converts: Evangelism without discipleship dispenses cheap grace.” Christianity Today, Oct. 25, 1999]

Known

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything." It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us. [Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, Dutton, 2011]

Lay Disciple-Making

I often wonder what discipleship could look like if it was designed and implemented by apostolic (entrepreneurial, creative, pioneering — see Ephesians 4:11–16) lay people in our churches, instead of by “professional” church planters. Could our churches be filled with people willing to dream, imagine, and lead new ideas that advance the kingdom of God, including a movement of discipleship? Urban Christians understand the demands and realities of urban life better than anyone. So could they best figure out how they can grow into the image of Christ? Should church leaders primarily give vision for discipleship, then let lay people themselves decide how it could play out in relationships, rhythms, activities, and programs? [Robert Elkin (Dir. of Training at Redeemer City to City), “Following Jesus in the City,” City to City New York City, Apr 16, 2018]

Leadership

“During my years as a CEO – first in the for-profit sector and later in the non-profit sector – I’ve always found it a challenge to stay on mission. Many of us in leadership have learned – often painfully – that our mission needs to be built into every aspect of our organization, from leadership to receptionist, from hiring to execution. We can’t afford not to follow the lessons in this valuable book.” [Richard Stearns, president of World Vision US and author of The Hole in Our Gospel, blurb for: Peter Greer, Chris Horst, Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Bethany House Pub., 2014.]

In Matthew 23:8 Jesus says "but you are not to be called 'Rabbi', for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers." And two verses later he restates the point: "Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah." In other words, the church shouldn't elevate individuals into a place of lofty esteem, where they begin to act as a proxy or High Priest between the people and their God. Is Jesus suggesting that there shouldn't be any leaders in the church? Paul and the rest of the early church certainly don't seem to interpret him that way. But he is making a profound and provocative statement about the danger of idolising leaders. [Martin Saunders, “Cultivating monsters: the problem of leader idolatry,” Christianity Today, May 9, 2016]

I think as leaders, our responsibility as leaders to define what is real. The battle is won at the level of, first and foremost, imagination. I think if you can't think it, you can't do it. [Alan Hirsch, “Rethinking the Chessboard,” City to City, March 20, 2020]

Leadership Failure

There are thousands of ‘pastors’ who can explain the Bible like nobody’s business but are mentally & emotionally a little kid. [Bob Roberts Jr., Twitter, Jun. 21, 2021]

Do not confuse discipleship with growing someone mentally & emotionally - you can set the table but they have to pick up the fork, stab a piece of meat & chew for themselves. [Bob Roberts Jr., Twitter, Jun. 21, 2021]

I’ve done hundreds of psychological assessments for pastors. The assessments include long narratives, personality tests, and assessments of clinical disorders. What I’ve found is stunning: the vast majority of pastoral candidates show elevations in the category of Cluster B personality disorders. I call this the “narcissism family.” It’s a cluster of disorders that feature dramatic, attention-seeking behavior along with a heavily armored personality that protects them from anything that makes them feel vulnerable. The two disorders with the most elevated results are narcissistic and histrionic personality disorders, two close cousins in the narcissism family. [Chuck DeGroat, “Finding Narcissism in Church,” Banner, Dec. 28, 2020]

The Richest Pastors in the world are Black Africans! Pastoring the poorest people in the world: Black Africans! In Black Africa: shepherds feed themselves on the tithes and offerings of their sheep: as they feed their sheep on "motivational prophecies" on social media! Ezekiel 34. / The GREAT COMMISSION IS NOT GO YE AND BUILD CHURCHES AND MINISTRIES but go and make disciples of Jesus Christ of all nations! And the Great Altar CALL: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take their CROSS and follow me"! Not follow the shepherds! [Dr. Alenga Amadi (Kenya), Twitter, Apr. 5, 6, 2021]

“The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

Listening

“There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. It is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother's confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.” [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, (Gemeinsames Leben) 1939; 1954 (English)]

Loneliness

What prepares men for totalitarian domination in the non-totalitarian world is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience … [Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace, 1951]

Countless faithful Christians find the church an incredibly lonely place. Despite the fact that we may be the most prosperous, sophisticated, self-fulfilled Christians in history, we’re also by far the most disconnected. [Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan, 2001, flap copy]

Loneliness is incredibly common among the general population, especially among millennials — yet it is rarely discussed in many religious circles. … Some Christians, as well as other religious people, feel that displaying loneliness or sharing other “negative” feelings is a sign of weakness — or weak faith. After all, if faith alone is supposed to sustain you, a person shouldn’t need anyone else’s company, validation, or support, according to some interpretations of Scripture. [Emily Deaton, Medically Reviewed By: Christie Hartman, PhD, Psychology, “Christian Loneliness: Why People Of Faith Often Feel Lonely,” The Roots Of Loneliness Project, undated (2021)]

[T]he loneliness epidemic is a momentous gospel opportunity. Dr. Douglas Nemecek, chief medical officer for behavioral health at Cigna, suggests that “loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, making it even more dangerous than obesity.” As loneliness reaches epidemic levels, the church has an incredible evangelistic opportunity, not only to mitigate the health risks involved, but to help lonesome hearts feast on Christ! /// Another significant pattern related to the Cigna study of loneliness and social isolation is that Generation Z (aged 18-22) is now the loneliest generation in history. Although Gen Z is perhaps the generation that is most technologically connected, they scored the highest on the UCLA loneliness scale. /// This is a significant discovery, for it reveals that social interactions online cannot fill the need for face-to-face interactions as a generation or as a society. As treatment for depression and anxiety reach hyperbolic levels and suicide rates skyrocket, the call to the church to be light in the darkness has never been clearer. /// It has been said that the gospel is one hobo telling anther hobo where the bread is. For a culture starving for love, the church now has an historic opportunity to usher in a gospel movement unseen since the Jesus movement. [Sam Kim, “Why the Current Loneliness Epidemic Is a Historical Gospel Opportunity,” podcast, The Exchange with Ed Stetzer, Feb. 20, 2020]

Americans are a lonely people. Our loneliness was epidemic before the coronavirus pandemic was immense. According to a January 2020 survey by Cigna of 10,000 Americans, three out of five adults over 18 said they are lonely. Now [September] it’s worse. As Time magazine put it, “For the 35.7 million Americans who live alone, that means no meaningful social contact at all, potentially for months on end.” [Daniel C. Kanter and Thandeka, “Americans were experiencing a loneliness epidemic before coronavirus. Here’s how churches can help.” Dallas Morning News, Sep. 6, 2020]

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of men who elect to end their own lives prematurely through suicide. While women tend to experience more suicidal thinking, men are far more likely to die by suicide. In 2017, the suicide rate for men was 3.5 times higher than it was for women. The suicide rate is highest among middle-aged white men, who accounted for almost 70% of all suicides in 2017. Research also suggests that while women attempt suicide more often, men choose more lethal means of suicide. The World Health Organization reports that suicide represents half of all male violent deaths worldwide. Men over the age of 65 are at the greatest risk of suicide. [Jerry Kennard; Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD, “Understanding Suicide Among Men,” Very Well Mind, Updated Dec 13, 2019]

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. [Mother Teresa, A Simple Path - Compiled by Lucinda Vardley, Ballantine Books, 1995, p. 79.]

Lordship

In the minds and methodologies of most evangelicals, the entire gospel was finally reduced to one easy idea: that Jesus is a kind Savior who patiently waits for sinners to “accept” Him (or invite him into their hearts), and that He offers eternal life – no strings attached – in exchange for anyone’s decision to do so. [John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith?, Zondervan, 1988 (rev. 2008), p. 11]

The lordship of Christ is clearly at the heart of true saving faith. Nevertheless, many influential voices in contemporary evangelicalism are preaching with great fervor that we should not tell unbelievers they must yield to Christ as Lord. His lordship has nothing to do with the gospel, they claim. They make the preposterous allegation that calling the unsaved to surrender to Christ is tantamount to preaching salvation by works. [John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith?, Zondervan, 1988 (rev. 2008), p. 11]

Opponents of lordship salvation admit that one of the reasons they exclude obedience from their concept of saving faith is to make room in the kingdom for professing believers whose lives are filled with sin. “If only committed people are saved people, then where is there room for carnal Christians?” one leading advocate of the antilordship view pleads. [John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith?, Zondervan, 1988 (rev. 2008), p. 11]

I think it is a completely wrong concept in Christian circles to look upon Jesus as a kind of divine nurse to whom we can go when sin has made us sick and, after He has helped us, to say, “Goodbye, Jesus” and go on our own way. Suppose I go into a hospital in need of a blood transfusion. After the staff has ministered to me and given their services, do I just slip out with a cheery “goodbye” as though I owe them nothing and it was kind of them to help me in my time of need? That may sound far out to you, but it draws a picture of attitudes among us today. But the Bible never in any way gives us such a concept of salvation. Nowhere are we ever led to believe that we can use Jesus as a Savior and not own Him as our Lord. He is the Lord, and, as the Lord, He saves us because He has all of the offices of Savior, Christ, High Priest, and Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption! He is all of these—and all of these are embodied in Him as Christ, the Lord! [A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), “Confess Christ’s Lordship,” Devotional]

“To urge men and women to believe in a divided Christ” – that is Savior but not Lord – “is bad teaching for no one can receive half of Christ or a third of Christ or a quarter of Christ. We are not saved by believing in an office or a work.” What did he mean? We are saved by believing in a person; the fullness of all that He is as well as what He did. [A. W. Tozer; quoted by John McArthur, “The Lordship of Christ: Introduction,” original source not identified, Jan. 10, 1988]

Love One Another

"The blessed John the Evangelist, whilst he was living at Ephesus, in his extreme old age, was scarcely able to be brought to the church by the hands of his disciples, and could not weave together many words into a sentence. He did nothing at the different assemblies but repeat the same words, 'My little children, love one another.' At last, the disciples and brethren who were present, getting tired of always hearing the same thing, said: Master, why do you always repeat this? He replied in a sentiment worthy of St. John: 'Because it is the precept of the Lord, and if this alone be observed it is sufficient.'" [St. Jerome (ca 342-7 – 420); Sermons by The Fathers of the Congregation of St. Paul The Apostle, New York, Volume VI. New York: The Catholic Publication House, 1871.]

One thing the New Testament makes clear is that the Church is supposed to be known for its love. Jesus says our love for one another is the very thing that will attract the world. But can you name a single church in our country that is known for the way its members love one another? I’m sure you can think of churches known for excitement or powerful preaching or worship or production value. But can you name a church known for supernatural love? [Francis Chan, Letters to the Church, David C Cook, Sep. 1, 2019, p.73]

Lukewarm

Churches are filled with people who attend every Sunday service, don’t say bad words, don’t watch bad movies, and make sure to give their offering every week. However, they don’t actually know, love, or walk with God at all. They have simply adopted a cultural Christianity, an exoskeleton of religious trappings. They are people whom Jesus called “lukewarm” (Revelation 3:16) and “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:13), who say one thing but behave contrary to the ways of Christ. Jesus reserved his most scathing critique for these people (Matthew 23:1–39). Jesus warns us that at the end of days, a group of religious people will say to him, “Lord, Lord,” but he will cast them out and say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22–23). It is a scary thing to think about, but nonetheless true: there will always be those who deceive others, sure, but there are also those who deceive themselves. [Mark Clark, Hypocrisy is Keeping People from the Church - An Excerpt from The Problem of God, Zondervan Academic, Aug. 2017]

LYNAY

Just as Christianity’s joyful message is contained in the doctrine of humanity’s inherent kinship with God, so is Christianity’s task humanity’s likeness to God. But God is love, and therefore we can be like God only in loving, just as we also, according to the words of the apostle, can only be God’s co-workers—in love. Insofar as you love the beloved, you are not like God, because for God there is no preference, something you have reflected on many times to your humiliation, but also many times to your rehabilitation. Insofar as you love your friend, you are not like God, because for God there is no distinction. But when you love the neighbor, then you are like God. [Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, 1847; 2nd Hong translation, pp. 62-63]

Mercy

James 2:12-13 (NIV) – Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.” [Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, One World; Oct. 21, 2014]

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) defined the virtue of "mercy" in his great Summa Theologiae (ST II-II.30.1) as "the compassion in our hearts for another person's misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him." For St. Thomas this virtue has two aspects: "affective" mercy and "effective" mercy. [Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M., “St. Thomas Aquinas on the Virtue of Mercy,” The Divine Mercy, Nov. 4, 2005]

This Hebrew word is usually translated as “mercy” or “kindness.” It is derived from the root חסד (Hh.S.D, Strong’s #2616), which is usually translated as “to be merciful” or “to be kind.” However, these abstract English terms do not convey the more concrete meaning of the original Hebrew. A related word that will help in understanding this concrete meaning is the noun החיסד (hhasiydah, Strong’s #2624), meaning a “stork.” The stork’s curved neck provides the clue, which is the “bowing” of the head, which one would do when showing respect, kindness or mercy. [Jeff A. Benner, “Mercy,” Ancient Hebrew Research Center, undated]

Mercy – Withholding Mercy & Status

If you look down at the poor or stay aloof from their suffering, you have not really understood or experienced God's grace. [Tim Keller, Twitter, Jun 3, 2021]

“Here’s one excuse: ‘But you say, “They are not truly poor. I only have to help people when they are truly destitute and poor.” And Edwards’ answer: ‘We should relieve our neighbors only in extreme destitution? That is not agreeable to the rule of “love our neighbors as ourselves.” We get concerned about our situation long before we become destitute. We know something about our situation long before we become destitute. So, we should love our neighbors as ourselves.’” [@ 21:17 in Timothy J. Keller, “Neighbors” From series: “The Meaning of Jesus,” Part 2; “Following Him,” Feb. 23, 2003; (43:13); Scripture: Luke 10:25-37; ref. to passages in Jonathan Edwards, Protestant Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced, 1732]

“Some have said that Luke 10:25-37 [Good Samaritan parable] only teaches us that we should help non-Christians in unusual emergency situations. But that interpretation ignores the context . . . . the parable of the Good Samaritan clearly defines our “neighbor” as anyone at all – relative, friend, acquaintance, stranger, or enemy – whose need we see. Not all men are my brothers [co-religionist], but every man is my neighbor.” [Timothy Keller, Ministries of Mercy (3rd ed.), P&R Publishing, 2015, p. 89]

Metanoia

Metanoia continues to be the basis on which the individual adult Christian’s relationship with God rests. [Aloys H. Dirksen, “The New Testament Concept of Metanoia” (DD diss., Catholic University of America, 1932), p. 31; From: Tom Zille, “A Change of Mind: The Reception of Treadwell Walden's The Great Meaning of Metanoia (1896),” Mar. 2020, History of Humanities 5(1):97-110]

Embracing the movement within metanoia requires that we recognize regret and repentance as active states necessary to the overall experience, but repentance can overshadow the transformative dimensions of metanoia. For example, Matthew Arnold objects to the translation of metanoia as “repentance,” stating that the “main part was something far more active and fruitful—the setting up an immense new inward movement for obtaining one’s rule of life. And ‘metanoia,’ accordingly, is: A change of the inner man” (178). [Arnold, Matthew. Literature and Dogma: An Essay towards a Better Apprehension of the Bible. New York: Macmillan, 1914; Kelly A. Myers, “Metanoic Movement: The Transformative Power of Regret,” CCC (College Composition and Communication, National Federation of Teachers), 67:3, Feb, 2016, 385-410; p. 391]

The very word for “repentance” in the New Testament (metanoia) requires a paradigm shift (and change of nous; lit., mind-set/rationality) and a reversal of direction. [Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements, Baker Books, 2016, p. xxviii]

[W]herever the term [metanoia] or its cognates appear in the Greek New Testament, English translators have replaced it with ‘repentance,’ a word that implies a remorseful turn away from disobedience, rather than an active embrace of unfamiliar possibilities” (“Radical” 597). These authors warn us that repentance and regret cannot dominate the concept of metanoia. Therefore, as a foundation for the process of metanoic revision, I propose that we combine all of these important elements—action, movement, repentance, and remorse—in order to frame metanoia as an active embrace of the remorseful turn. [Kelly A. Myers, “Metanoic Movement: The Transformative Power of Regret,” CCC (College Composition and Communication, National Federation of Teachers), 67:3, February 2016, 385-410; p. 391; Priscilla Perkins, “A Radical Conversion of the Mind": Fundamentalism, Hermeneutics, and the Metanoic Classroom,” Journal of College English, 2001/5/1 Volume 63; Issue 5; pp. 585-611]

“Metanoia” means literally “meta-,” or, “above or beyond,” un, “nous” is “mind,” noia is “your mind,” or “thinking,” so, thinking above or beyond what we are thinking now, and the best translation, I think actually, that kinda makes sense to us is “paradigm shift.” Metanoia is to have a paradigm shift, to think beyond what you’re currently thinking: to change the rationality of both your own soul as well as the organization. [United Breaks Out Extra, Alan Hirsch, Metanoia, Oct 14, 2020, New Wine, 30:41; @12:13]

Charles Taylor defines metanoia as "to change one's mind of attitude" and builds his pastoral counseling method on the "metanoia model." In doing so, Taylor recalls that the center of Jesus' ministry was a call to metanoia. [Charles Taylor, The Skilled Pastor, Augsburg Fortress, 1991, pp. 8, 64.]

We would rather be ruined than changed.
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die. [W. H. Auden: The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, 1947, Faber: London]

Middle-Class Values

For many suburban, middle-class churches, niceness is the supreme expression of discipleship. But any cursory reading of the Gospels will serve to remind you that Jesus wasn’t all that nice. The church must abandon its preference for good-manners piety and adopt again the kingdom values as taught by Jesus. [Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub (USA), 2009, p. 184]

Our preferences for stability and security blind us to the opportunities for adventure when they present themselves. [Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, The Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage, Baker Books, 2011, p. 31]

The church of Jesus needs to wake up from the exile of passivity and embrace liminality and adventure or continue to remain a religious ghetto for culturally co-opted, fearful, middle-class folk. [Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, The Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage, Baker Books, 2011, p. 92]

There are four groups the middle class dislikes: aristocrats (soldiers); mystics and monks (as opposed to conformist parish priests); artists (people with integrity to an idiosyncratic vision); and scientists (by which I mean the lone genius who follows the logic of his ideas to their terminal conclusion, regardless of society’s views). The commonality between these groups is that none is very concerned with social propriety or moralism. The aristocrat justifies himself by his blood, he does not need to show that he is a “good person”; the mystic takes his instructions from God and there is no negotiation with God—a fact that threatens middle-class people who want to “cut a deal” with everybody; the artist has loyalty to their inner visions, whether considered depraved or despicable by mainstream standards; and the scientist is prepared to cut against social norms if logic and data so dictate. [Xenopolitix, “Liberalism, communism, and the middle class,” Xenopolitix.com, Apr. 15, 2021, updated: Apr. 23]

Mindfulness

“The human mind, when it doesn’t do the work of mindfulness, winds up becoming a prisoner of its myopic perspectives that puts ‘me’ above everything else,” [Robert Booth, “Master of mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn: ‘People are losing their minds. That is what we need to wake up to’,” The Guardian, Oct. 22, 2017]

[F]ar from being a foreign import, mindfulness is not only endemic but essential to the Christian understanding of how the human person relates to the divine. [Peter Tyler (Prof. of Pastoral Theory and Spirituality, St. Mary’s U, London), Christian Mindfulness: Theology and Practice, SCM, 2018, p. viii]

Mission Drift

In a survey of hundreds of Christian leaders at the Q conference in Los Angeles in 2013, 95 percent said Mission Drift was a challenging issue to faith-based nonprofit organizations. [Peter Greer, Chris Horst, Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Bethany House Pub., Feb. 18, 2014, p. 20 (note 13)]

Narcissism

[Important Secular source] Even when therapists speak of the need for “meaning” and “love,” they define love and meaning simply as the fulfilment of the patient’s emotional requirements. It hardly occurs to them—nor is there any reason why it should, given the nature of the therapeutic enterprise—to encourage the subject to subordinate his needs and interests to those of others, to someone or some cause or tradition outside himself. “Love” as self-sacrifice or self-abasement, “meaning” as submission to a higher loyalty—these sublimations strike the therapeutic sensibility as intolerably oppressive, offensive to common sense and injurious to personal health and well-being. To liberate humanity from such outmoded ideas of love and duty has become the mission of the post-Freudian therapies and particularly of their converts and popularizers, for whom mental health means the overthrow of inhibitions and the immediate gratification of every impulse. [Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, Norton, 1979]

Narcissism / Insolent Pride

“Proud,” “Haughty,” “Scoffer,” are his names, who acts with insolent pride. (Proverbs 21:24) - Prior to the widespread use of the term narcissism, people commonly recognized the traits of these people by other labels, such as: megalomania, egocentricity, conceit, arrogance, haughtiness, vanity, self-absorption, etc. We can equate the Bible’s terminology with the term narcissism used by the secular world, based on comparable descriptions of the same people. [“Dealing With Narcissists – Crying Out, Seeking God – continued,” Biblical Perspectives on Narcissism (website), Oct. 27, 2016]

Neglect

“Neglect is a deadly form of abuse and is highly contrary to godliness. It bears on people with the message that they are irrelevant and insignificant.” [Ray Beeson (Overcomers Ministries) and Chris Hayward (Cleansing Stream Ministries), Wounded in the Church: Hope Beyond the Pain, Whitaker House, 2017]

I’m sorry that you have been neglected by your church. Yes, I seem to find that many Christians pay only lip-service to those that come through the door… counting heads, if you will, so they can say “praise the Lord, we now have 10 new members!” But do they notice, do they really have compassion, do they expect to learn anything or gain anything from these new faces? Or do they just assume that you are less than them? I find it is usually the latter. [Galacticexplorer, August 18, 2013, Comment on: Matt Marino, “Unintended Consequences: How the ‘relevant’ church and segregating youth is killing Christianity.” Board: What’s so uncool about cool churches? Sep. 23, 2012]

A primary reason churches decline into impotence is their almost legendary neglect of strangers. [John Borkent, “7 Reasons Churches Stop Growing and Decline Into Impotence,” Grow a Healthy Church, undated]

Recently I read an article by a newly retired Baptist minister who recounted experiences while searching for a new church home. He sadly reported members in most churches where he visited ignored him. Hospitality was lacking. Members were so busy enjoying each other they were unaware or inattentive to guests. He filled out a guest card at each church, but most never followed up after his visit. Just one church he visited was prepared for and welcomed guests. No surprise, but he said that church will likely become his new spiritual home. I have had similar experiences when visiting churches. While on a mini-sabbatical a few years ago I attended different churches four Sundays in a row. The only people who spoke were staff ministers who knew me. Would you agree a hospitality gap exists in most churches? If so, how can we address the problem? [Terry Maples, “Bridging the hospitality gap,” Baptist News Global, Oct. 15, 2012]

Neglect of One’s Congregation

The Chalmers Center [founded by Brian Fikkert] has witnessed stories of churches shifting millions of dollars to help transform the lives of the poor in their neighborhoods. Since 2012 the staff has trained 232 churches and 144 nonprofit organizations from mega churches to 70-member congregations from coast to coast to use their faith-and-finance class. / They’ve heard many stories similar to North Avenue Presbyterian Church in midtown Atlanta whose 950 members revamped their benevolence giving, then looked within their own congregation and found dozens of members homeless. Church leaders offered the faith-and-finance class. After 10 people graduated, they set up a matched-savings account to help with purchases for goals to get better jobs or to go back to school. [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tn.), Mar. 6, 2016]

Neighbor / Proximate Other

A bishop was once asked the following question: "What is the moment, the place, or the person that is the most important of my life? He answered: "It is the present moment I am living, the place where I am, and the person before me with whom I am speaking. If that person is there, is it not because the Lord has placed him on my way, and has made this meeting possible?" [Michel Evdokimov, To Open One's Heart: A Spiritual Path, Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2014, p. 23]

Neuroplasticity & Following the Commandments

In Christian theology, in particular, there is a notion that through conscious processes, we can alter the overall state of our mind to become a more spiritual and moral person. This has important theological implications. For example, the Bible suggests that by following the Ten Commandments, we become more spiritual and more in line what God wants us to do. The more we follow the Commandments, the more our mind functions in moral and spiritual ways. Such a process is supported in brain studies that have shown that performing specific practices such as meditation alters the brain and supports the belief system associated with that meditation. [Andrew Newberg, Neurotheology: How Science Can Enlighten Us About Spirituality, Columbia UP, 2018, P. 247]

Niceness

“Christians today hold firmly to the 11th Commandment, and the 11th Commandment is, “Thou Shalt Be Nice,” and we don’t hold to the other ten. This is where we are. ["Voddie Baucham on the 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Be Nice," Pulpit & Pen, Feb. 28, 2018]

Obedience

The missing note in evangelical life today is not in the first instance spirituality but rather obedience. We have generated a variety of religion to which obedience in not regarded as essential. … I don’t understand how anyone can look ingenuously at the contents of the scripture and say that Jesus intends anything else for is but obedience. So my first point is simply: life in Christ has to do with obedience to his teaching. If we don’t start there, we may as well forget about any distinctively Christian spirituality. [Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, HarperOne, 2006, pp. 44, 45]

Obey

Neither is it a verbal acknowledgement, in owning that which Christ suffered at Jerusalem, which will free any from this charge and guilt. Unless the Lord Christ, that Christ which is God and man in one person, is owned, received, believed in, loved, trusted unto, and obeyed in all things, as He is proposed unto us in the Scripture, and with respect unto all the ends of righteousness, holiness, life, and salvation, for which He is so proposed, He is renounced and forsaken. [John Owen, The Nature of Apostacy From the Profession of the Gospel and the Punishment of Apostates Declared, or An Exposition of Heb. VI. 4-6, Ch. VII., London, 1676]

Orthopraxy

[Orthopraxy:] Here is an emerging, provocative way of saying it: "By their fruits [not their theology] you will know them." As Jesus' brother James said, "Faith without works is dead." . . . Jesus declared that we will be judged according to how we treat the least of these (Matt. 25:31-46) and that the wise man is the one who practices the words of Jesus (Matt. 7:24-27). In addition, every judgment scene in the Bible is portrayed as a judgment based on works; no judgment scene looks like a theological articulation test. [Scot McKnight, “Five Streams of the Emerging Church: Key elements of the most controversial and misunderstood movement in the church today.” Christianity Today, Jan. 19, 2007]

Outcasts

What a radical idea! The “freaks and lunatics” going to heaven before the morally upright tribe? But Jesus said the same thing, when he announced to the shocked religious leaders of his day, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you (Matthew 21:31). [Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, Viking, Feb. 14, 2008, p. 240]

People-Pleasing

People-pleasing is the enemy of what Christ calls us to, which is vulnerability. So, this is so important. I want you to get this. What people-pleasing does – over the time – is it causes the erosion of the soul. [Jonathan Moynihan, “The Cure to People Pleasing,” Church Redefined, Jonathan Moynihan, Feb. 16, 2021, 35:25, @ 4:45]

Piety

It is as difficult to get charity out of piety as it is to get reasonableness out of rationalism. [Reinhold Niebuhr, The Mike Wallace Interview, 4/27/58, ABC, NTA Film Network, 29:30, @25:44]

Poverty

Woman from Moldova: “For a poor person, everything is terrible -- illness, humiliation, and shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of?” [Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, June 24, 2009, Moody Publishers]

“Poverty isn’t permanent.” [Chris Brooks, Rethinking Urban Poverty, Faith@Work Summit, Oct 24, 2017]

Glen [Kleinknecht, Campus Crusade for Christ] says that by hanging out with the poor, he has learned more about faith in God. He believes that the ingredient that causes their faith to be strong and dynamic is the very thing that repels most of us: their desperation. Poor folks are desperate, and their desperation leads them to a greater need: a longing for God to show up in their lives. [Mac Pier & Katie Sweeting, The Power of a City at Prayer: What Happens When Churches Unite for Renewal, InterVarsity Press, 2002, p. 137]

How do you define poverty? This question was posed to a group of women in rural Rwanda who live on less than $2 a day. Their first five answers were … 1) Poverty is an empty heart; 2) Not knowing your abilities or strengths; 3) Not being able to make progress; 4) Isolation; 5) No hope or belief in yourself. What is unexpected is that not having enough money isn’t mentioned. Lack of access to clean water, eating one meal a day, or being uneducated isn’t either. While the answers from women in rural Rwanda may be surprising, several years ago researchers at the World Bank asked the same question to over 60,000 people living in poverty. And the answers were strikingly similar. Researchers Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett at The Chalmers Center for Economic Development summarize the results: They tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. [Peter K. Greer, “Five Ways the Poor Describe Poverty,” 58: blog; Reposted on Peter K Greer, Mar. 1, 2021]

The poor have much to teach you. You have much to learn from them. [St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660); Back-translation : Les pauvres ont beaucoup à vous apprendre. Vous avez beaucoup à apprendre d'eux., source is probably Correspondence (pub. in Eng. In 18 vols.).]

We’ve asked many people over the years how they would define poverty. In the vast majority of cases, middle-to-upper-class Westerners describe poverty differently than the materially poor in lower-income communities or countries do. While people who are poor mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms than our North American audiences. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. Wealthier individuals tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc. This mismatch between many outsiders’ perceptions of poverty and the perceptions of poor people themselves can have devastating consequences for poverty alleviation efforts. [Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, Moody Publishers, 2009]

Prayer

Whenever if we're not praying as we should, we are most artificial in prayer, and we feel that when we are praying. You're phony in a circumstance for pretending. And, of course this is something we should at times feel, because as soon as prayer becomes too much of a project, we do tend to pretend. We pretend that we're praying rather than praying. We discover some kind of a rule, some part to play. We find out some particular kind of prayer that we think that we ought to furnish to God and we put ourselves in that role and try to act the part of somebody praying in that particular way. Well then, it's right away artificial. And that is well the great curses. Healthy life of prayer is that when it becomes a rule one learns how to play the part of a nun pray “I am sister so-and-so and I am praying.” Or worse still, the role of having a certain degree of Prayer which is all nonsense. So I put myself in that role and I play that. It gets to be very artificial. [Tomas Merton, “Merton in His Own Voice” – Audio recordings of Thomas Merton teaching the novices at Gethsemani; a talk he delivered in the 1960s. @3:50; 59:08]

Most Christians pray to be blessed. Few pray to be broken. [Leonard Ravenhill, ?: Revival Praying, Jan. 1, 1962, Bethany Fellowship]

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. [Leonard Ravenhill, ?: Revival Praying, Jan. 1, 1962, Bethany Fellowship]

Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way, but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way. [Leonard Ravenhill, ?: Revival Praying, Jan. 1, 1962, Bethany Fellowship]

Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle! [Leonard Ravenhill, ?: Revival Praying, Jan. 1, 1962, Bethany Fellowship]

Throughout the Old and New Testaments and church history, every spiritual awakening was founded on corporate, prevailing, intensive, kingdom-centered prayer. We cannot create spiritual renewal by ourselves, but we can “prepare the altar” and ask God to send his Holy Spirit to change our hearts, our churches, and our communities. Christians are used to thinking about prayer as a means to get their personal needs met. More mature Christians understand prayer as a means to praise and adore God, to know him, to come into his presence and be changed by him. [Tim Keller, “Kingdom-Centered Prayer,” Redeemer City to City, Jan 1, 2005] (RKS: If you are not changed – given clear vision, given greater ability to notice, and be made highly effective – that means what you engaged in was false prayer rather than genuine prayer.)

Prayer is a power-sharing device that God has worked out for a world of recovering sinners. He wants to get you involved in his Kingdom work and he gives you this opportunity. [Dallas Willard, “Considering the Whole Person: Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength and Neighbor,” The Hideaway, Monument, Colo., Jan. 4, 2010, @ 25:58]

“Prayer is awe, intimacy, struggle—yet the way to reality. There is nothing more important, or harder, or richer, or more life-altering. There is absolutely nothing so great as prayer.” [Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, Viking, Nov. 4, 2014]

“If your prayers are not helpless, they’re not really prayers.” [Owe Hallesby, Prayer, 1931, Carlsen Translation, p. 18]

“Prayer is the way that all the things we believe in and that Christ has won for us actually become our strength. Prayer is the way that truth is worked into your heart to create new instincts, reflexes, and dispositions.” [Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, Viking, 2014]

If the emphasis on prayer were an escape from direct engagement with the many needs and pains of the world. [Donald McNeill et al, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, Doubleday, 1982, p. 127]

James 1:5-8 - But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. - [I]n addition to crying out “God help me!”, God invites us to ask Him for wisdom. This is HIS wisdom – not human wisdom – including practical tips, things of the heart, and even things from God’s perspective. James says that if you ask for wisdom, He will give it to you – generously. [“Dealing With Narcissists – Crying Out, Seeking God – continued,” Biblical Perspectives on Narcissism, Oct. 27, 2016]

In “Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?” (Zondervan, 2006), Philip Yancey writes: “In the Gospels people approached Jesus with a question 183 times whereas he replied with a direct answer only three times. Instead, he responded with a different question, a story, or some other indirection. Evidently Jesus wants us to work out answers on our own using the principles that he taught and lived.” Today, few sermons, Christian media programming, movies, or books force us to ask our own questions, work through a process, or create a desire to go deeper. Most often, they just supply simple, practical answers. [Phil Cooke, “Is This a Big Reason We Have So Many Shallow Christians?” Phil Cooke, Sep 13, 2020]

False prayer is all about self and is based on what we think we deserve. Many times, it’s a monologue focused on what we want from God. But true prayer comes from a sense of humility, realizing that we are accepted on the basis of the Lord’s mercy, not by our conduct. It’s a dialogue with God because we are not just interested in giving Him our list of requests, but we want to hear from Him. [Bill Coibion, “True Prayer/False Prayer,” Forging Disciples, May(?), 2018] [This applies to petitionary prayers on behalf of others, too; RKS]

Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. If we turn our mind toward the good, it is impossible that little by little the whole soul will not be attracted thereto in spite of itself. [Simone Weil, Notebooks, 1956, p. 205]

“A man prayed, and at first he thought prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.” [Soren Kierkegaard, Christian Discourses, Apr. 26, 1848]

Prayer & Agency

God does answer everyone’s prayers, but not in the way we think. He answers our prayers by giving us the talent, the ability and the opportunity to achieve things, to make things happen. But then He expects US to get on with it, not go bleating to Him every time we have a problem, or sitting around praying while we wait for Him to solve our problem for us – or waiting for Heavenly signs before we will act. /// So God’s answer to our Prayers is – US. He expects US to get on with it and solve our own problems – or the problems He Himself as put in front of us to overcome. [David Barber (Founder: The Arise-Africans Initiative), “God DOES answer your prayers, but not in the way you think,” The Zimbabwean: A Voice for the Voiceless, Feb. 11, 2017]

Honest exertion, to the extent of our ability, in the work of God, will be found greatly conducive to liberty and earnestness in that God would do what man cannot do; and it is vile hypocrisy or strange self-delusion to seem to be anxious that, in a work where our agency as well as his is required, He should do everything, while we are doing nothing. [John Brown, D.D., An Exposition of Our Lord's Intercessory Prayer: With A Discourse on The Relation of Our Lord's Intercession to The Conversion Of The World, 1866, William Oliphant, Edinburgh, pp. 76-7]

Social action without prayer is soulless; but prayer without action lacks integrity. [Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1992, p. 325 in 25th ann. Ed.]

When the only prayers available to you are prayers of praise, confession, and request, your response to suffering inevitably becomes easy, causal explanations, misplaced guilt, and pragmatic solutions. These are the instincts forged in the centers of power. It makes idols of knowledge, judgment, and quick-fixes. [Abraham Cho, “Reaching the West with a Spirituality of the Margins,” Redeemer City-to-City, Mar. 2, 2020]

Prayer / Hypocrisy

There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve, renowned Christian theologian Miroslav Volf pointed out to me. / “It’s analogous to what is going on in the book of James 2:16: If a person says to those who are cold and hungry, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? Or if you look at the story of the good Samaritan, we can easily imagine that the priest, who walked by a person robbed and left half-dead by the road, prayed as he was passing by. Still, he was a bad priest. The Samaritan was good because he did something to help the suffering person.” [Miroslav Volf quoted in: Kirsten Powers, “Why ‘thoughts and prayers’ is starting to sound so profane,” Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2017]

Pride

Narcissist is a modern colloquial term for what the Bible calls “insolent pride” [Searching4Wisdom, “Dealing with Narcissists – The Narcissist Pastor,” Biblical Perspectives on Narcissism (website), Oct. 27, 2016]

Prosperity Gospel

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and aa moral code that glorifies it. [Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850), 1849?]

According to historian Kate Bowler, the prosperity gospel was formed from the intersection of three different ideologies: Pentecostalism, New Thought, and "an American gospel of pragmatism, individualism, and upward mobility". This "American gospel" was best exemplified by Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth and Russell Conwell's famous sermon "Acres of Diamonds", in which Conwell equated poverty with sin and asserted that anyone could become rich through hard work. This gospel of wealth, however, was an expression of Muscular Christianity and understood success to be the result of personal effort rather than divine intervention. [Wikipedia, “Prosperity Theology”]

Proximity

“You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close,” [Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, One World, 2014]

Empathy and incarnation are the heart of it all. If we are good missionaries, we have to get as close to people as possible, understand them well, act as participant-observers, and understand language and thought-forms and desires and challenges intimately. [Tyler Prieb, “Design Thinking and Christian Mission: What is it? Why does it matter? Is it helpful?” Missional Labs, Jul. 17, 2020]

Radicalism (Jesus’s)

The truth is Jesus’ teachings weren’t all things to all people. He created division. Stirred up controversy. Many of his followers walked away because his teachings of unconditional love were as radical then as they are today. His denouncement of hate, bigotry, and pride didn’t sit well with the powerful, the elitists, or the sanctimonious. They did everything they could to make him uncomfortable in their religious services because he made them uncomfortable. But that didn’t stop Jesus from attending or questioning. Scriptural references: John 8. [“Jesus didn’t feel welcomed by religious people either.” He Gets Us (website), 2022]

Repentance

“If the man does not live differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented of, and his conversion is a fiction.” [Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Savior. Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895]

I've watched people in my clinical practice try to walk back from significant moral errors it is not that easy. You know there's that Catholic doctrine that you can be saved and redeemed no matter what your sin. It's like that's true, but that doesn't mean you don't have to face the consequences of what you've done. And if you want to repent and you've done something seriously wrong so much of you have to change that it's almost like you have to die in order to be reborn. [Jordan B. Peterson, "College of Psychologists vs Jordan B Peterson," Mikhaila Peterson; EP 322, Jan 12, 2023; 1:20:29; @1:12:31; slightly edited for readability]

Red Letter

If you listened only to the voice of Jesus, read only the words that came out of His mouth, you would have a very clear understanding of what He requires of His followers. If you listened only to modern preachers and writers, you would have a completely different understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Could there be a more catastrophic problem than this? [Francis Chan, Letters to the Church, David C Cook, Sep. 1, 2019, p. 128]

Redeemer Vision (Redeemer Presbyterian NYC)

This demographic is reflective of the typical New York Yuppie, which includes “techies and entrepreneurs” who “claim they want to ‘change the world’ but instead have a goal of ‘making money and leveraging power.’” Consumption, from social media to the newest technology, also defines Yuppie behavior, while religion typically has a weaker presence. Yet this reality is precisely what Redeemer aims to alter. [“West Side Gospel,” Crown & Cross (Redeemer West Side, New York), Nov. 8, 2017]

[The Redeemer congregation] demographic is reflective of the typical New York Yuppie, which includes “techies and entrepreneurs” who “claim they want to ‘change the world’ but instead have a goal of ‘making money and leveraging power.’” Consumption, from social media to the newest technology, also defines Yuppie behavior, while religion typically has a weaker presence. Yet this reality is precisely what Redeemer aims to alter. [“West Side Gospel,” Crown & Cross (Redeemer West Side, New York), Nov. 8, 2017]

“WE WANT TO SEE New York City—and the people in it—flourish. If more New Yorkers embody the gospel in how they live and work, it advances the common good. It will catalyze growth in philanthropy, mercy, justice, racial reconciliation, more humane workplaces, arts that promote hope, and less crime and institutional corruption.” [Redeemer Rise Campaign, website, 2016]

“[W]e are a church that exists not for itself but for the city — in particular the poor and marginalized.” [Elise Chong (Hope for New York), “Equipping Our Church to Do Justice and Love Mercy,” Redeemer Report, 2014]

“What transforms Christians in our city to live out a sacrificial lifestyle of evangelism?” [Excerpt from: Redeemer City to City New York Project: 2019 Mission Investment Guide; see addendum]

Religion

Religion is about helping us to deal with the sorrow that we see in life, helping us to find meaning in life, and helping us to live in relation to that transcendence that I was speaking about earlier. Religious people are ambitious. They want to feel enhanced. They want to feel at peace within themselves. They want to live generous lives. They want to live beyond selfishness, beyond ego. All the world religions say that the way to find what we call God or Brahman, Nirvana, or Tao is to get beyond the prison of egotism, of selfishness which holds us in a little deadlock and limits our vision. That if we can get beyond that, especially in the practice of compassion, when we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, we live much more richly and intensely. [Karen Armstrong, “Karen Armstrong Builds A 'Case For God',” interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, Sep. 21, 2009]

Religiosity

Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not," said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a co-author of the study. "The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns." [University of California, Berkeley, “Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers,” Medical Express, Apr. 30, 2012]

Imagine how you would feel if someone new on the religious scene began to attack what you considered to be precious and holy! This new teacher started criticizing spiritual practices that you, and generations before you, had been taught were sacred. Imagine this new teacher also directly challenged what occurred in the places that you considered holy. He directly confronted you with what you believed and criticized those who had taught them to you. This teacher even challenged the foundation on which your holiest of days rested, saying they weren't instituted to honor God but to bless people. You don't have to imagine these things: Jesus was the teacher who did them! . . . When the places, practices, pomp, and rituals of religion forget the heart of God for broken and lost people, they are not just hollow ceremonies and rules. They are an affront to God and abuse to his purpose for his people. Jesus went to the cross of Calvary because of religion's fury at the God who would dare to love the lost so sacrificially. [James Nored & Phil Ware, “The Way of Jesus #2: Unsettling the Religious Status Quo,” Heartlight, Mar. 29, 2021]

We’re worshipping religion, not God. It’s hard, when we’ve been endowed with these amazing buildings, these historic legacies and these time-honored traditions, not to mistake them for the thing we’re supposed to really focus on. To paraphrase the recent TV show, ‘Halt and Catch Fire,’ religion isn’t the thing; it’s the thing that gets us to the thing. Organized religion, and all that comes with it, is a means to an end. Its intent is to facilitate community, spiritual growth, mutual accountability, worship of God and transformation of the world around us. But so much of our energy in recent decades has gone into propping up aging, hollowed out institutions and preserving empty rituals for the sake of themselves that we’ve turned them into the golden calf, taking precedent over God and the Gospel at the center of our hearts. We’ve fallen victim to mistaken assumption that we have to resurrect dying religious infrastructures in order to reveal God to ourselves and others. But in doing so, we’ve run the risk of losing connection with God’s call all together. [Christian Piatt, “Five Reasons post-Christianity Is Good for Us,” Soujourners, Aug. 12, 2014]

Religious Professionalization

“When we send the whole church to build the church (instead of leaving it to the religious professionals), God’s power is unleashed in full force.” [Bob Roberts Jr., Real-Time Connections: Linking Your Job with God's Global Work, Zondervan, 2010]

Renewal Of The Church

The renewal of the church will come from a new type of monasticism which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this. [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jan. 14, 1935 letter to his brother Karl-Friedrick]

Repentance

Revival

In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts. [Leonard Ravenhill, source?: Why Revival Tarries, Bethany Fellowship, 1950] (Cross-referenced: Heart)

Genuine revival will not take place until the body of Christ undergoes reformation. [Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Unmasking the Truth Behind the World Wide Counterfeit Revival, W Pub Group, 1997, p. 11 (Paperback: July 30, 2001)]

While multitudes clamor for a massive revival, what the body of Christ desperately needs is a mighty reformation. Only as the church is reformed will the culture be revived. [Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Unmasking the Truth Behind the World Wide Counterfeit Revival, W Pub Group, 1997, p. 17 (Paperback: July 30, 2001)]

When evangelicals perceive cultural declension, revival becomes a popular topic. But it’s much less popular to recruit allies to build institutions and structures for the long haul. And yet history suggests that revivals leave a lasting legacy on earth when they change social structures and not just hearts. Such was the case with the work of William Wilberforce and the revived Clapham Sect when they abolished slavery in early 19th-century England. [Collin Hansen, “Revisiting ‘Faithful Presence’: ‘To Change the World,’ Five Years Later; A New eBook from TGC, The Gospel Coalition, Nov. 12, 2015]

Revival could happen. There’s just nothing in the current data that indicates it will. [Daniel Silliman, “Decline of Christianity Shows No Signs of Stopping,” Christianity Today, Sep. 13, 2022]

Revival / Praying for Revival

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late -- and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” [A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Keys to the Deeper Life, Christian Pubs. Inc., 1957]

Ritual (Empty)

Like the churches of Laodicea and Sardis, described in the Bible as distasteful to God because of their complacency and spiritual deadness, too many Christians and churches in America have traded in spiritual passion for empty rituals, clever methods and mindless practices. The challenge to today’s Church is not methodological. It is a challenge to resuscitate the spiritual passion and fervor of the nation’s Christians.” [“Annual Study Reveals America Is Spiritually Stagnant,” Barna Group, March 5, 2001]

Routine

“Christian leadership is a dead-end street when nothing new is expected, when everything sounds familiar and when ministry has regressed to the level of routine.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972]

“The current church structure does serve a purpose. There are a lot of people who find value there. But from my perspective, it serves too narrow a purpose. It primarily serves the purpose of order and routine. The problem is that they’ve taken that order and routine and rigidity and liturgy and applied it to absolutely everything. It’s like everything has become liturgy. It’s all routine. And a lot of people need that, but there has to be room for me, too. I mean, shouldn’t there also be room for me in the church?” [“Mark,” in: Josh Packard & Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal why people are done with church but not their faith, Group pub., 2015, p. 129]

Rules

"Rules are to guide the wise and command the foolish." [Anonymous]

Salvation / Individualistic

The third of the seven counterproductive traits of the White Evangelical church is “very individualistic. It's all about just me and getting myself right and getting to heaven.” [“Tim Keller on the Rise + Fall of the American Evangelical Church, Pastoral Failures, and Forgiveness,” Carey Nieuwhof, Jan 26, 2023, 35:23; 9:42]

Salvation / Obedience

"The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures. . . . Apart from obedience there can be no salvation, for salvation without obedience is a self-contradictory impossibility." [A. W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit: Volume 2, Ten Messages on The Holy Spirit, 1968. Christian Pubs., Inc.,1968]

Salvationism

“Many think Jesus came to earth so you and I can have a special kind of spiritual experience and then go merrily along, as long as we pray and read our Bibles and develop intimacy with the unseen God but ignore the others-oriented life of justice and love and peace that Jesus embodied.” [Scot McKnight, ‎Becky Castle Miller, Following King Jesus: How to Know, Read, Live, and Show the Gospel, Harper Christian Resources; Workbook edition, Apr. 16, 2019]

[T]he whole goal of Christianity in America has been going to heaven... We've been super-deceived in this country – making the gospel all about blessing, provision, protection and going to heaven - not about transformation - image of God - becoming love and living in the Spirit – super deceived. [Dan Mohler @ TSCC - Encounter weekend - 2 - Sunday service - July 2019, New Creation LIFE, Jul. 17, 2019; 1:39:39; @ 28:00]

I believe the word gospel has been hijacked by what we believe about personal salvation, and the gospel itself has been reshaped to facilitate making decisions. The result of this hijacking is that the word gospel no longer means in our world what it originally meant to either Jesus or the gospels. [Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel, Zondervan, 2011]

The teaching about salvation that is now an American cultural artifact is that you confess faith in the death of Jesus on your behalf, and then you join up with a group that is trying to get others to do the same. That is all that is essential. So it is thought and taught. “Spiritual growth” is not required on this scheme, and there is no real provision for it. Salvation is free, which means you need do nothing else but “accept.” Then you too can sing Amazing Grace. Just observe who sings “Amazing Grace” now, and in what circumstances. You don’t really even have to accept it, just sing about it. Not even that. It is wholly passive. Dallas Willard – A Letter from Dallas Willard to Bill Hull, Dec. 27, 2007; Bill Hull, Conversion and Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other, Zondervan, 2016, p. 206-9]

Scripture Fetishism

“Most Christians are educated way beyond the level of their obedience already! We don’t need to know more, we need to do more.” [Mark Batterson; in Craig T. Owens, “Living Sermon,” Craig T. Owens (website), Aug. 16, 2012]

Self-Compassion

Self-hatred is “the traitor within when temptation comes.” Our failure to accept oneself as the “first great barrier to wholeness in Christ.” [Leanne Payne, Restoring the Christian Soul: Overcoming Barriers to Completion in Christ through Healing Prayer, Baker Books, 1996, pp. 19-29.]

Self-deception

Self-deception is not the worst thing you can do, but it’s the means by which we do the very worst things. The sin that is most distorting your life right now is often the one you can’t see. [Timothy Keller, Twitter, July 10, 2021]

Shalom / Neighbor

I think of such “caring about as aimed at shalom and as having two fundamental dimensions. To care about your neighbor is to seek to enhance how your neighbor’s life is going, that they will flourish in their life. But also, I have come to think that it includes the dimension of seeing to it that one honors the neighbor, that one pays the neighbor respect for – [the] due respect for the neighbor’s worth. So both: that their life goods be enhanced, but also that they not be demeaned, not treated with disrespect. [Nicholas Wolterstorff (Presbyterian), “Loving Justice,” (Interview), The Table, Biola CCT, Youtube, May 30, 2017, 45:34; @ 9:12-9:50]

Sin

Sin has a remarkable ripple effect, touching those around us and everything we do. That means sin affects our work. [David Kim, NIV Faith & Work Bible, Zondervan, 2016, p. xii]

From a neuroscience perspective sin is deeply reflected in the degree to which our minds are dis-integrated, or in Paul’s language, depraved. In other words, what the language of neuroscience calls dis-integration offers a correlate to the scriptural language of sin. [Curt Thompson MD, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships, Tyndale Momentum, 2010, p. 184]

Sinner’s Prayer

We have taken the glorious gospel of our blessed God and reduced it down to four spiritual laws and five things God wants you to know, with a little superstitious prayer at the end; and if someone repeats it after us with enough sincerity, we pope-ishly declare them to be born again. We've traded regeneration for decisionism. [Paul Washer, Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church, Heart Cry Ministries, 2011, p. 21]

In modern day evangelism, this precious doctrine [of regeneration] has been reduced to nothing more than a human decision to raise one's hand, walk an aisle, or pray a 'sinner's prayer.' As a result, the majority of Americans believe that they've been 'born again' even though their thoughts, words, and deeds are a continual contradiction to the nature and will of God. [Paul Washer (source?)]

Spiritual Growth

We often see life in Jesus as being more about survival in this life until we “die and go to heaven” than about grace, adventure, and genuine, concrete, life-giving change. [Curt Thompson MD, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships, Tyndale Momentum, 2010, p. 16]

Struggle

“Israel”, after all, means to struggle with God. But unlike today’s radical doctrines, which fight violently against “oppressive structures of power,” benign religious struggle is metaphysical, interior, and oriented towards achieving personal goodness rather than world utopia. In this form, at least, faith does not force the rest of us to pay the price for its own mistakes. [Harrison Pitt, “The Route to Re-Enchantment,” Quillette, Jun. 26, 2021]

Suffering

Jesus did not suffer for us so that we would not suffer. He suffered so that when we suffer, it makes us like him. [Tim Keller, Sep. 16, 2001 sermon, “Tim Keller’s Sermon After 9/11,” TGC (The Gospel Coalition), Sep. 11, 2021]

When the Church offers herself in love to a world that is hurting, when she sits beside the bedside of the sufferer or at the table of the oppressed one in hopeful solidarity, she becomes a living embodiment of what she in fact is: the Cruciform Presence of God: offering not idle philosophical speculation, but the tender and committed love that awakens the hope that God has not abandoned, and that there is future beyond the circumstance. . . . We have something better to offer the world than thin theological “answers.” We have love. We have Cruciform Presence. The kind of presence that cuts through agony and awakens hope, making our message of God’s concrete redemption of human life credible. Resist the temptation to theologize with those who hurt. Give yourself instead. Your love. Your time. Your attention. It will make all the difference in the world. [Andrew Arndt, “The Church’s Strategy for Responding to Suffering,” Missio Alliance, Nov. 8, 2017]

LONGER VERSION: When the Church offers herself in love to a world that is hurting, when she sits beside the bedside of the sufferer or at the table of the oppressed one in hopeful solidarity, she becomes a living embodiment of what she in fact is: the Cruciform Presence of God: offering not idle philosophical speculation, but the tender and committed love that awakens the hope that God has not abandoned, and that there is future beyond the circumstance. . . . We have something better to offer the world than thin theological “answers.” We have love. We have Cruciform Presence. The kind of presence that cuts through agony and awakens hope, making our message of God’s concrete redemption of human life credible. Resist the temptation to theologize with those who hurt. Give yourself instead. Your love. Your time. Your attention. It will make all the difference in the world. . . . We rush to fill the void created by the mystery of suffering by saying good-hearted but fundamentally misguided things like: “This is all part of God’s perfect plan” or “There must be unrepented sin in your life” or “God is trying to teach you something.” . . . [Andrew Arndt, “The Church’s Strategy for Responding to Suffering,” Missio Alliance, Nov. 8, 2017]

Suffering (Perceived as Deserved)

[S]uffering proceeds from the magical action of an enemy, from the breaking of a taboo, from entering a baneful zone, from the anger of a god -- and when all other hypotheses have proven insufficient -- from the will or the wroth of the Supreme Being. (p.97) The primitive... cannot conceive of an unprovoked suffering; it arises from a personal fault... or from his neighbor's malevolence... but there is always a fault at the bottom of it[.] [Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return, or, Cosmos and History, Princeton University Press, 1971]

Suffering is rarely talked about in the American church. I find this ironic because suffering is all through the New Testament. I did a sermon one time where I went through every book of the New Testament and started reading verse about suffering to show it’s not just in one book. It’s not just one verse. It’s all over the place. It’s one of the clearest doctrines in the New Testament. Over and over it says that as followers of Christ we’re going to suffer for Him; we’re going to be hated; we’re going to0be rejected. I preach messages on suffering and people think it’s some kind of strange or new teaching, which is crazy given how prominent it is in the Bible. But we just don’t talk about it. [Francis Chan, Letters to the Church, David C Cook, Sep. 1, 2019, p. 132]

Suicide

On Monday afternoon, Jarrid Wilson, a pastor at a Riverside megachurch and the founder of a mental health advocacy group, took to Twitter. “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts,” Wilson wrote. “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety. But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that.” That night, Wilson, 30, killed himself, according to Harvest Christian Fellowship, where he was an associate pastor. … Wilson died on the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day, and he had been tweeting on Monday about the occasion. Hope, he wrote, is for everyone, and “you don’t have to keep living in the darkness.” That morning, he also tweeted that he was officiating a funeral “for a Jesus-loving woman who took her own life today. Your prayers are greatly appreciated for the family.” [Hailey Branson-Potts, “Another young pastor advocating for mental health dies by suicide,” Los Angeles Times, Sep. 12, 2019]

Sunday-Centered

Great worship services don’t change the world, empowered, impassioned disciples do. People in our communities (and people on the other side of the globe) aren’t looking at the quality of our worship to see if we have something to offer them. They’re looking for people who are living the heart and values of the sermon on the Mount. [Bob Roberts Jr., Lessons from the East: Finding the Future of Western Christianity in the Global Church, David Cook, 2016, p. 60]

Superficiality

Despite the fact that we place a premium on “authentic relationships,” very few people within the church ever come to enjoy them. We make great boasts of “the way and the truth and the life”, but gather us together into our churches and all this truth speech goes silent. We clam up about the interior of our own souls and personal struggles. We hide from one another. What you tend to hear in church instead of soul-exposing honesty is cliché driven dialogue adorned with spiritual speak. “Fine,” we say to one another, “I’m doing fine.” We accept these sorts of answers from one another and move on to sports, kids or weekly routines. But, we are not “fine,” and we know it. We are all fallen people (Rom. 3:23). All our silence is needless and destructive (Psa. 32:3-5). [Byron Yawn (Senior Pastor, Community Bible Church, Nashville), “All Alone Together: The Tragedy of Superficial Relationships at Church,” Christianity.com, Sep. 14, 2014]

Church culture can sometimes prevent genuine fellowship. Ironically, there are aspects of church culture that can drive us away from the friendships that are ours in Christ—not towards them. Here are some common barriers to fellowship in the local body. -- A judgmental spirit that keeps sinners back from confession (Matt. 7:1-5). -- A shallow message that avoids frank talk of sin and the root problem with humanity (Col. 1:21). – A moralistic culture that is only concerned with improving behavior rather than getting to the heart (Matt. 6:1). -- A privatized view of faith that avoids any contact with others or the accountability fellowship offers (Heb. 3:13). -- A lack of compassion in the church that overlooks individuals or certain demographics (1 Cor. 12:22-23). -- A selfish perspective that approaches church with personal needs in mind (Phil. 2:4). [Byron Yawn (Senior Pastor, Community Bible Church, Nashville), “All Alone Together: The Tragedy of Superficial Relationships at Church,” Christianity.com, Sep. 14, 2014]

The False Smiles – Interestingly, with this self-imposed worship & false humility, a couple of other questions arise, such as, how many false smiles do you see in your church by so-called pastors with this false humility? How many so-called pastors do you know that are as shallow as a 2-ft pond, that when you look into their eyes and shake their hands, you can see right through them and read their whole life story? [Curtis W. Carter, “Unhealthy Leadership in the Christian Church: A Study of the Divorce Rate," Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity, D. Min. Thesis, Lynchburg, Virginia, Sep. 22, 2020, p. 50]

“A sentimentalist is simply one who wants to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it. We think we can have our emotions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing emotions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine. The intellectual and emotional life of ordinary people is a very contemptible affair. Just as they borrow their ideas from a sort of circulating library of thought—the Zeitgeist of an age that has no soul—and send them back soiled at the end of each week, so they always try to get their emotions on credit, and refuse to pay the bill when it comes in. You should pass out of that conception of life. As soon as you have to pay for an emotion you will know its quality, and be the better for such knowledge. And remember that the sentimentalist is always a cynic at heart. Indeed, sentimentality is merely the bank holiday of cynicism.” [Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis,” 1897, pub. 1905]

Superstition

post hoc, ergo propter hoc – Post hoc (a shortened form of post hoc, ergo propter hoc) is a logical fallacy in which one event is said to be the cause of a later event simply because it occurred earlier. "Although two events might be consecutive," says Madsen Pirie in "How to Win Every Argument," "we cannot simply assume that the one would not have occurred without the other." [Richard Nordquist, “What Is a Post Hoc Logical Fallacy?” Thoughtco., Jan. 17, 2020]

Theology

A theology should be like poetry, which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do. [Karen Armstrong, “Karen Armstrong Builds A 'Case For God',” interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, Sep. 21, 2009]

Thought

To head toward a star – this only. To think is to confine yourself to a single thought that one day stands still like a star in the world's sky. [Martin Heidegger, The Thinker as Poet (Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens), 1947]

The more original the thinking, the richer will be what is unthought. Martin Heidegger, What is Called Thinking? (Was heißt Denken?), 1954]

Transformation

“Serving others is the best way of applying our faith in such a way that it leads to real transformation and change.” [Bob Roberts Jr., Real-Time Connections: Linking Your Job with God's Global Work, Zondervan, 2010]

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live! [Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying: An Urgent and Powerful Message for the Family of Christ, Baker Books, 2005; sometimes erroneously attributed to C. S. Lewis, or Ravi Zacharias]

Wishing and praying alone will not transform your mind; you also need reason—reason ultimately grounded in your own experience. And you won’t be able to transform your mind overnight; old habits, especially mental ones, resist quick solutions. But with effort over time and conviction grounded in reason, you can definitely achieve profound changes in your mental attitudes. [Dalai Lama, (Tenzin Gyatso), The Compassionate Life, 2003, Wisdom Publications, p. 19]

Unemployment

Unemployment should be a primary concern for Christians. . . . Long-term unemployment is not just a mental health crisis; it’s also a spiritual crisis. And the church is the only institution in America that can adequately respond. For reasons such as these, helping people find work uniquely contributes to the flourishing of the wider community and should be a concern for Christian leaders. [Joe Carter (McLean Bible Church in Arlington, Va.), “Economics for Church Leaders: Unemployment Is a Spiritual Problem,” TGC (The Gospel Coalition), May 10, 2021]

Unemployment isn't just a lack of income; it's a lack of humanness. You see the person who is unemployed is going to have a broken self-image. He's going to start to feel crummy about himself. His relationship with his wife is about to be strained. All the relationships [to: God, creation, self, others] get warped and the inner being gets warped. There's emotional and psychological trauma from not being able to work. [Dr. Brian Fikkert, "The Opposite of Poverty Isn't the American Dream" - Keynote Address, Jobs for Life "Labor Day for Dignity" conference, Sep. 6, 2019; (pub. on Youtube: Nov 6, 2019; 38:52); @ 21:55]

"You can't teach people to be moral. You have to be moral." [Chris Hedges, Wilfrid Laurier University, Maureen Forester Recital Hall, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; May 31, 2012, 1:07:27]

What happens when society crams historically oppressed, uneducated, unemployed, and relatively young human beings into high-rise buildings; takes away their leaders; provides them with inferior education, health care, and employment systems; and then pays them not to work? Is it really that surprising that we see out-of-wedlock pregnancies, broken families, violent crimes, and drug trafficking? Worse yet, we end up with nihilism, because these broken systems do serious damage to people’s worldviews. Worldviews affect the systems, and the systems affect the worldviews. [Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, Feb 1, 2014, p. 86]

In our capitalist society, where identity is measured by economic and individual success, the absence of work brings shame and discouragement. Since our society also defines identity by individual success, the absence of meaningful employment corrodes a sense of self and, by extension, family and community. To feel unable to support a family and the wider community—which is what occurs with the structural absence of work in the inner city—can severely constrain the manner in which one thinks, feels, and acts with respect to the future. The effects of this in Sandtown have been severe. [Mark Gornik, To Live in Peace: Biblical Faith and the Changing Inner City, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Sep. 17, 2002, p. 46]

Vision

Those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. [Apple advertisement, “Think Different,” Aug. 3, 1997]

Way, The

And when Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, he didn't mean once you believe in me, you've got it. He meant there is a way which you can enter into through belief in what he was teaching and in what he showed by his example that would take one where one wishes to be able to go. [“Iain McGilchrist & John Vervaeke: God, Being, & Meaning,” Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal, Sep 26, 2022,2:11:05, @ 49:04]

Weeping

But when Jesus weeps, we see that he doesn’t believe that the ministry of truth (telling people how they should believe and turn to God) or the ministry of fixing things is enough, does he? He also is a proponent of the ministry of tears. The ministry of truth and power without tears isn’t Jesus. You have to have tears. … Maybe we are going to have to be a little less concerned about our own careers and more concerned about the community. So let’s enter in. Let’s not just “fix it.” Let’s weep with those who weep. This is the first lesson about suffering, learned from the tears of Jesus. [Tim Keller, Sep. 16, 2001 sermon, “Tim Keller’s Sermon After 9/11,” TGC (The Gospel Coalition), Sep. 11, 2021]

Will of God

A Christian is free. And the will of God in the life of a Christian is the work of the Christian and God, working together, both freely. This is the work of two freedoms together. [Thomas Merton, 'Renunciation and Contemplation,' Abbey of Gethsemani, 6:27 – 1960s, CD set from Creedence Communications.]

Work

Although God has withdrawn from the work of creation, he has put an image of himself on earth with a mandate to continue. The earth had been completely unformed and empty; in the six-day process of development God had formed it and filled it – but not completely. People must now carry on the work of development: by being fruitful they must fill it even more; by subduing it they must form it even more. Mankind, as God’s representatives on earth, carry on where God left off. But this is now to be a human development of the earth. The human race will fill the earth with its own kind, and it will form the earth for its own kind. from now on the development of the created earth will be societal and cultural nature. in a single word, the task ahead is civilization. [Albert Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview, Eerdmans, 1985; 2nd ed 2005]

Worship

Nowhere does Jesus call us to worship him in the Gospels; what is clear is that he demands obedience. [Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub (USA), 2009, p. 155]

The surprising fact is that when one looks at the Gospel records, it is clear that “Jesus did not ask for homage but obedience.” [Paul Minear, The Commands of Christ, 1972] [bottom para] Note, 163: this does not mean that we believe we that we should not worship Jesus, but it does force us to try to understand what Jesus meant by worship. What it does mean is that our worship must be based on obedience and not just songs. [Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Hendrickson Pub (USA), 2009, p. 154]

Worship (Insufficiency of)

“Jesus did not say 'Worship Me;’ Jesus said ‘Follow Me.’” [Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM]

Jesus did not say “worship me”. Jesus said “follow me.” Following Jesus is both harder and more important than simply worshiping the divinity of Jesus on a Sunday morning. Following Jesus is about what we do in the world and how we help reveal God’s presence in community and Creation. [Michael Jackson Chaney What Would Jesus Tweet?” Medium, Jul 2, 2017 (conversation with The Rev. Gina Gore)]

“The Sunday service alone seldom leads people on deeper or even real journeys.” [Fr. Richard Rohr O.F.M., Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation, ‎Franciscan Media, Jan. 22, 2014]

Author Richard Rohr notes that Jesus did not say, “Worship me.” Never. Not once. Rohr said, “We worshipped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of “belonging and believing” instead of a religion of transformation.” [abqecc, “Jesus as Paradox -- Richard Rohr,” abqecc wordpress, Jul. 29, 2014; Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, Crossroad pub., 2009, p. 23; and Richard Rohr, “A New Way of Seeing, a New Way of Being: Jesus and Paul,” Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, Ca.]

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[Updated October 10, 2022; Nov. 1, 2022]

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[Revised: Sep.9, 2023]

The Compassion Renaissance

CHRISTIAN QUOTATIONS: CLASSIFIED & ANNOTATED

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