“Susan Cain suggests that introverts actually make better leaders than extroverts. Introverts have a softer, more compassionate, servant-oriented kind of leadership, she says, that enables families, businesses, and churches to thrive.””
“We each have a particular journey to make with God, and no one can prescribe that journey for us.””
“In his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson gives us a fine definition of how a humble person approaches life: “I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God’s business. I will not pretend to invent the meaning of the universe; I will accept what God has shown its meaning to be. I will not noisily strut about demanding that I be treated as the center of my family or my neighborhood or my work, but seek to discover where I fit and what I am good at.”8””
“What if evangelism was simply about being genuinely centered on, and connected, to God? What if tending to our own relationship with God, not others’ relationship with God, was the first priority of evangelism? What if becoming salt and light was more important than knowing sales techniques? What if evangelism was about being connected to people, so that we know them and they know us, and we don’t have to cram our faith down their throats? What if we’re so present to people that they just catch grace and faith from being around us? What if evangelism was about being a genuine human being, not a “plastic” saint? What if we were free to express our doubts, struggle with our sins, and admit our humanity? Would that ruin our witness to the world, or would it just make us more credible? Would it finally free us to be real instead of religious?””
“we doubt, we acknowledge our fallibility and humanity. We’re admitting we don’t have all the answers (and that some of the answers we thought we had have turned out to be wrong), but we want to keep discovering. We want to grow “in grace and knowledge” (2 Pet 3:18). Doubters at least have a chance of moving beyond superficial spirituality. If we don’t ask, seek, and knock, we can end up with a faith that is about as deep as a roadside puddle. If we decide to cast our lot with popular religion, with its bumper-sticker theology and emotional hysteria, we will be on a broad road traveled by many people.””
“popular religion produces shallow people. Several years ago, Bill McKibben wrote an article in Harper’s magazine that described the current condition of American Christianity: Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation’s educational decline, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that, “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counterbiblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans”
“The Bible is not a book of tips on successful living. It is a complicated story that is designed to show us our sin and God’s solution to our sin, which is Jesus Christ. We don’t go to the Bible to get inerrant answers to all of our questions. We go to the Bible to see how people through the ages have related to God and what God finally did to put us right with him. So keep reading past all of that strange stuff in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Keep going until you get to ‘in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Cor 5:19). Then, soak yourself in the teachings of Jesus,””
“What that means, in a practical way, is that we strive to know and love a few people deeply. We don’t have to distribute gospel tracts to strangers to be effective evangelists; we just have to be present to a few people who are in our lives. We go to their birthday parties. We watch them play softball. We drink coffee with them at the coffee shop. We laugh when they laugh and cry when they cry. And, in the process, we get to be salt and light to them. Even if we never quote the Bible to them or say a prayer with them, we are the presence of Christ to them.””
“I have observed a number of church people through the years who were grounded in biblical truth, faithful in church attendance, and models of morality and virtue. But some of them were mean-spirited. Some were angry. Some were bored with life. They seemed to observe all of the religious principles we Christians teach and treasure, but they didn’t have the joy those principles are supposed to produce. The “means,” somehow, never led to the “ends.” I have also observed a number of people who are not particularly religious and seldom, if ever, darken the doors of a church. But these people are full of life, laughter, and wonder. In their presence, I have come alive, too, for their joy is contagious. And I have thought, on more than one occasion, that these nonreligious people are closer to the kingdom than my mean-spirited, angry, bored church friends. Wherever there is joy, I have concluded, there is the presence of God.””
