#church

Safari, so goody. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#humor #pun #humor

Confession is a difficult Discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We cannot bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy. But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners, we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our needs openly before our brothers and sisters. We know we are not alone in our sin. The fear and pride that cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. We are sinners together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied, but transformed. ↗

— Richard J. Foster

#sin #sinners #the-church #imagination

The best I can tell you in that way is that I’m much more at ease with fellow-Catholics than I am with heathens or Protestants. One has so many basic assumptions in common that there’s so much that doesn’t need saying, and when you’re talking to even the most amusing and intelligent heathen you suddenly find that something you’ve said has no meaning at all to them. ↗

— Evelyn Waugh

#intelligence

live as temporal, serve as eternal ↗

— John Paul Warren

#john-paul #leadership #pastor-john-paul-warren #sozo-life #voice-of-the-nations

1883. ...The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which "a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good. ↗

— The Catholic Church

#freedom #seperation-of-church-and-state #freedom

Count your blessings, discount you’re loses ↗

— John Paul Warren

#john-paul-warren #leadership #pastor-john-paul-warren #sozo-life #leadership

I experienced one of the common miracles of the Christian life. Our spirits recognized each other. ↗

— Brother Andrew

#life

I sometimes wonder if God calls us into the church because it represents not the people of God at their best but us at our worst. I wonder if he calls us to become embedded in this wretched institution precisely because it is wretched. And calls us to be a part of it not to reform it or save it or control it in any way, but to simply love it. ↗

— Mark Galli

#grace #sin #love

The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others. ↗

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#service #men

God has always been about the business of shattering expectations, and in our culture, the standards of leadership are extroverted. It perfectly follows the biblical trend that God would choose the unexpected and the culturally "unfit" - like introverts - to lead his church for the sake of greater glory. ↗

— Adam S. McHugh

#church #god #introverts #leadership #business