Quotes about Church

St. Paul had to deal with some of these people in the church at Thessalonica. They were saying that since God had done everything in Christ there was nothing more for them to do.

The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

So much of the time it is not complacency that threatens but its opposite, impetuosity. We see something that is wrong, whether in the world or in the church, and we fly into action, righting the wrong, confronting sin and wickedness, battling the enemy, and then we go out vigorously recruiting "Christian soldiers".

The vocation of pastor(s) has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans.

It has been religious people, often within the organized church, who have been the most critical of and even hostile to my relationship with God.

I read the Bible, I speak through issues, I see what I think is hypocrisy in the church and things that are wrong, and I speak to these things. But I could be wrong.

I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

If the Church is a living body united to the same head, governed by the same laws, and pervaded by the same Spirit, it is impossible that one part should be independent of all the rest.

I believe that the great tragedy of the church in our time has been its failure to recognize the importance of the spiritual gift of leadership. It appears to me that only a fraction of pastors worldwide are exercising the spiritual gift of leadership, organizing the church around it, and deploying church members through it. The results, in terms of church growth and worldwide spiritual impact, are staggering.

It's difficult to get the same fruit as the early Church when we value a book they didn't have more than the Holy Spirit they did have. To value the Scriptures above the Holy Spirit is idolatry. It's not "Father, Son, and Holy Bible." The Bible reveals God, but is itself not God.

We need all five of them, working together. In short, apostles govern, prophets guide, evangelists gather, pastors guard, and teachers ground.