As we have seen, there are a number of reasons young people choose to disengage with the church. But at its heart, the issue is a matter of worldview. In light of our research and experience, we believe the primary reason Gen Z disconnects from the church is our failure to equip them with a biblical worldview that empowers them to understand and navigate today’s culture.
Sean McDowell, So The Next Generation Will Know
The great teachers of the world knew the power of questions. They knew that if the teacher is doing all the work, very little life change is happening. But when the student is doing most of the work, something significant is in process.
Roy Moran, Spent Matches, p. 90.
As Christians we are called to be missionaries to our world, and that means learning the language and thought-forms of the people we want to reach. In America, we don’t have to master a new language, but we do have to learn the thought-forms of our culture. We need to speak to philosophers in the language of philosophy, to politicians in the language of public policy, and to scientists in the language of science.
Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, page 149.
Every time a minister introduces a biblical teaching, he should also instruct the congregation in ways to defend it against the major objections they are likely to encounter. A religion that avoids the intellectual task and retreats to the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings will not survive in today’s spiritual battlefield.
Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, page 127.
Jesus didn’t call us to be communicators, He called us to be disciple-makers.
Roy Moran, Spent Matches, p. 91.
“But,” I found myself saying, “you will find that you cannot help teaching children your own religion, whatever it is. If you are an atheist, that will be clear to them, even if you think you’re teaching nothing but social studies. If a belief in God motivates your life, the children are going to know that, too, whether you ever mention God or not. If you are more interested in money than anything else, that’s not going to escape them. You’ve got to accept the fact that you are basically not teaching a subject, you are teaching children. Subjects can probably be better taught by machines than by you. But if we teach our children only by machines, what will we get? Little machines. They need you, you as persons.” And I quoted Emerson: “What you are speaks so loudly over your head that I cannot hear what you say.”
Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet, pages 156.
A friend of mine, a fine story-teller, remarked to me, “Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories.”
Yes. God who told stories.
Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water, page 54.
Jesus didn’t call us to be communicators, He called us to be disciple-makers.
Roy Moran, Spent Matches, p. 91.
The praise even which one cannot accept is sweet from a true mouth.
George MacDonald, The Princess and Curdie, p. 72.
We have no more the moral reasoning to arrive at all of this. So I think the last bastion of this that is left as far as I’m concerned, you can go to scientific proofs, you can go to design proofs, you can go to so many other things. But the average person who really opens up their eyes and is listening to you recognizes there has to be a moral framework with which I do my thinking. What is it that makes me a person or a creature of value? So in that essential nature is the image of God. The image of God gives to me moral reasoning. We cannot communicate truth while compromising the implications of truth.
So I would say how you communicate in this society is conviction with compassion. Convictions are very different to opinions. Opinions are something that you hold to. Convictions are those which hold you. You can change an opinion – one time you might like blue and next year you might like green – it’s okay. But you cannot change your convictions about the sacredness of life or the sacredness of sexuality or love and those that you put into this category. The challenge to the Christian is how to communicate conviction with compassion.
Ravi Zacharias
starting at 35:19 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtOhPCp1XXo
When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men seek to perpetuate an unjust ‘status quo’, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sunday, A.M., May 5
Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5
Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said “Get out and stay out.”
Sunday, A.M., May 12
Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19
Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19
Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26
Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2
Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2
Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.
From John Wesley’s journal
Hypki's Good Quotes 