Quotes about Church

I had begun to comprehend that the Bible's story is about the relationship of God to human beings, and of human beings to one another, and that this meant that it is our friendships, marriages, families, and even church congregations that best reveal what kind of theology we have, who our God is. Or, as Thomas Merton once put it, "because we love, God is present." That is the story.

My introduction to the Roman Catholic world was a full immersion baptism in the heady milieu of an Irish—American wedding. The man I was dating, who later became my husband, had invited me to attend the wedding ceremony of a high—school classmate, consisting of a weekend of dinners, parties and, of course, church. It was one of our first dates, a fact that now seems rich with God's good humor.

Regarding kids who attended church, Beemer found that: Eighty-three percent said their science teachers taught them that the earth was millions or billions of years old.10 What this means is that the secular, atheistic world is being more effective at training the church kids than the Church! It is time to reverse this trend!

A Building? There is not a single place in the New Testament where the term "church" refers to a building — not one! It wasn't until A.D. 190 that Clement of Alexandria referred to a meeting place as a "church." He was also the first person to use the phrase "go to church."34 Every single one of the appearances of the word ecclesia in the New Testament refers to a gathering or network of believers in Christ, not a physical structure or place.

To defend and teach the Bible from the very first verse — the great need for practical and relevant apologetics teaching for all ages To live an authentic, biblically based Christian life as individuals and as a church, so people will see Christ reflected in all that's done. Stop the hypocrisy!

Church" today is mostly driven by man-made traditions and not by the biblical mandates to defend the Word of God and live by the Word of God.

But it does mean we should be wary about "using" our relationships with churchless friends as means to the end of getting them to church.

We have wandered so far from fundamental spiritual knowledge in our culture that literally tens of millions of people—many of whom have long-term ties with the Christian church—have no clue how to even describe a true spiritual experience.

We've by far had the most success inviting people into our community life by inviting them to serve alongside us. As a matter of fact, that's about the only thing that's worked consistently as far as "official" church activities go. The other thing that has worked is parties—birthday parties, Super Bowl parties—where we invite churched friends and unchurched friends just to connect.

One thing we hear from churchless and churched people alike is that they intensely desire the local church to provide what no other group can offer: an experience of the presence of God.

In the midst of the emotional and spiritual upset that occurs when a church hurts or disappoints us, we tend to lose sight of the fact that the local church is merely a collection of people on a challenging journey - a group of people that are involved in a long-term transformation process.

But a local body of believers is the only place they can meet God together with his people. What a privilege to facilitate encounters with God week after week! When it's humble and sincere, it never gets old.