Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent...
Solidarity is a group that stands together, and would do so for its weakest member. It is that community which resists the intoxicating lie of individuality—we live for ourselves and by ourselves. Solidarity dismisses self-preservation in favor of a new way—to sense...
You can have real Christian community with seekers of the truth. But never possessors of the truth.
While all were granted the right of conscience in matters of faith, Luther still stressed the necessity of evaluating faith in community. Indeed, for Luther, the very freedom of the Christian was paradoxical as the believer is both freed from all in Christ and at the...
Anyway, most of the openhearted wanderers I’ve encountered are looking not for a bulletproof belief system but for a community of friends, not for a spiritual encyclopedia that contains every answer but for a gathering of loved ones in which they can ask the hard...
Church was not designed to be an entertaining spectator sport. Church was designed for us to bring our gifts together so that we can serve and share the love of Christ with our community.
If you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself. Something to repair tears in your community. Something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That's what I think a meaningful life is--living not for oneself, but...
God is not a belief-system. Jesus is not a religion. Christianity is not a check-list. Church is not an address. The Bible is not a book of doctrines. Community is not a meeting. Grace has no exceptions. Ministry is not a program. Art is not carnal. Women are not...
Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
Every church should be able to get a letter of recommendation from the poor in their community.