That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," and he drove off with a look of disgust and righteousness.
Flannery O'ConnorTags: atheism preachers nihilism clergy righteousness
A missionary church cannot rely on the professional ministry for the primary work of mission. The role of the laity is critical because it is the lay members of the church who have the greatest contact with those who are outside of the normal structures of church life. In such a situation the task of clergy is not so much to engage in mission themselves, as to support the laity in their mission.
Martin RobinsonTags: church leadership clergy missionary laity
Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy.
Richard RohrTags: religion atheism failure clergy
Anytime you feel like you don't have any work to do, just look around. Look for what God had started doing and ask for his permission to assist him in doing it.
Israelmore AyivorTags: god jesus food-for-thought jesus-christ clergy christ lazy evangelism reverend idle pastor extra ask bishop preach anytime evangelist extra-mile israelmore-ayivor arcbishop god-s-work look-around permison preach-the-word
We are like the moon. The moon shines anyway, but it does not produce its own light. It reflects the light illuminated onto its surface by the Sun and is never proud to say "I am the source of light". God shines through us, hence He deserves the glory; not us.
Israelmore AyivorTags: reflect love god sun humility moon light reflection bible jesus own shine worship glory pride sermon praise food-for-thought jesus-christ adoration clergy humble planets christ sunshine honour illumination glow ability illuminate blessing preaching surface shines pastor human-beings word-of-god solar-system proud source bishop reflects produce radiates israelmore-ayivor shining king-of-kings glowing god-loves-me glorify god-is-good light-rays lord-of-lords luminary owner praise-the-lord work-for-god
Because sometimes the Church seems like those posed circus tableaus where the curtain lifts and men, white, zinc-oxide, talcum-powder statues, freeze to represent abstract Beauty. Very wonderful. But I hope there will always be room for me to dart about among the statues, don't you, Father Stone?
Ray BradburyTags: beauty religion church clergy
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
James MadisonTags: ignorance persecution clergy
Sometimes silences are pregnant and sometimes not. It is hard to know what to make of the silence of much of the New Testament about the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps it is simply an accident of time and circumstance. There was not a felt need to address the matter. What we should not likely conclude is that it was not seen as an important matter in the latter part of the first century A.D. What we can observe is that the Lord’s Supper continued to be an in-home ceremony taken in the context of a fellowship meal. We also now know it was important in both Gentile and Jewish contexts in the church in the second half of the first century, and beyond. We see no evidence anywhere in this material that clerics of any kind are in charge of the meal and its distribution. Even in the Didache, prophets, who were mouthpieces for God, are only allowed to say the thanksgiving prayer as often as they like. The low ecclesiology, coupled with the ever-present eschatology, suggest that the Didache does indeed go back to the end of the first century A.D. But one precedent in the Didache does stand out: the Lord’s Supper is for baptized Christians, and in particular for those who repent of their sins. We are on the way to the church of the Middle Ages in some respects, but we have not begun to localize or confine grace to the elements of the Lord’s Supper itself and then have it controlled by clerics.
Ben Witherington IIITags: clergy baptism eucharist sacrament early-church lord-s-supper didache
« first previous
Page 2 of 2.
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.