Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all.”
In a quote that is complementary to Spurgeon’s quote, Billy Graham is credited with saying, “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it: you’d spoil it.”
Part 1 of 2 What do you think of when you hear the word “sacred?” Does it make you think of temples, idols, revered objects of some kind? Or does it make you think of people? People you know, people you respect, people you love? Sacred Spaces The truth is, the word “sacred” can apply…
Sometimes, asking people to jump into an existing ministry works, but more often it doesn’t. People may be excited about their faith, but that excitement fades when they are told to embrace the constraints and guidelines of an existing ministry merely because “we’ve always done it this way at this church.” That vetted ministry may have been dying for a reason, and throwing a new and excited individual at it will probably not bring it back to life, because their creativity and passion will have been saddled with a vision that is not their own.
Some people attend charismatic or pentecostal churches because they need to see the miraculous to understand a God that provides healing, or understands them deeply, beyond what they share of themselves with the world. Some people attend churches that focus on social justice because they need to see a God that serves up justice and cares for the oppressed. Some attend legalistic churches because they need to experience order and clear cut rules amidst an otherwise chaotic life. And each of these churches provides an aspect of God to the world.
I’ve been working my way through Paul Tillich’s collection of sermons in The Eternal Now, and came to the sermon entitled Forgetting and Being Forgotten. Tillich says the following: Forgetting is probably more difficult for a religious tradition than any other human heritage. But God is not only the beginning from which we came; He…
On the Slaying of Dragons
In The Little Flowers of St. Francis, a collection of stories about St. Francis, his brothers, and the people whose lives he touched, we find a little story about how St. Clare had desired to eat with St. Francis. But St. Francis kept refusing to eat with her. His brothers finally came to him and said, “St. Clare converted at your preaching, and not eating with her seems a bit stiff and lacking in charity.” So St. Francis replied, “Does it seem right to all of you that I should consent to eat with her?” And all the brothers gave a resounding Yes! And so, St. Francis agreed to meet her and her companions with his own brothers at the chapel of St. Mary and the Angels, where St. Clare had performed her religious vows. As they ate, they began to talk about God, and, we are told, the glory of God descended upon all those present to such a degree that they were all in a state of ecstasy.