HOLIDAYS

'Many see vacations as the end or purpose of work, and even of life itself. Their work earns a holiday; they then deserve a vacation. When they return from their two of three weeks, they hate the thought of going back to work; and they can hardly wait for the next set of holidays. By contrast, the Christian loves to serve. Ministry of all kinds is the end, the purpose; holidays are simply a means to that end. Far from serving in order to earn a rest, we take rests now and then in order to serve the better.'

DA Carson, When Jesus Confronts the World, p.110.

CHURCH

'Church is a place to give rest to your soul, a place of gathering where anyone should be able to come and involve themsleves with a community of believers who are joined by a common faith in the Lord Almighty. Church is believers - transparent, real and raw. Church is a lifetime of discovery as people brace themselves against their neighbour so both are able to stand and walk together. And yet there are still churches around this country with no sinners. I understand that there will always be people who feel intimidated and overwhelmed in church, but we must do everything we possibly can to rectify an image of perfection that no one can live up to, from the lead pastor down.'

Andrew Marin, Love Is an Orientation, p.59.

CHRISTIANS & THE GAY COMMUNITY

'...in real life both Christians and GLBT community are imagining themselves in the same role: each as the underdog who has to fight their way out of the corner. Both believe they are David and the other is Goliath. Two oppressed mindsets fighting each other will never be able to win the same battle.'

Andrew Marin, Love Is an Orientation, p.57.

HOMOSEXUALITY

'There are nine main concepts that both secular and religious GLBT communities think and fear regarding conservative evangelical churches and people.

1. How can I possibly relate to Christians in a church environment?

2. Will Christians always look at me as just gay?

3. Will I be able to be like everyone else in church activities and groups?

4. Do they think homosexuality is a special sin?

5. Do they believe that I chose to be life this?

6. Do they think I'm going to hit on them?

7. Do they think I'm going to abuse their children?

8. Are they scared that I'm going to infect them with an STD or HIV/AIDS?

9. When will I be rejected and kicked out?'

Andrew Marin, Love Is an Orientation: Elevating The Conversation with the Gay Community, p.31.

PRAYER

'When God seems silent and our prayers go unanswered, the overwhelming temptation is to leave the story - to walk out of the desert and attempt to create a normal life. But when we persist in a spiritual vacuum, when we hang in there during ambiguity, we get to know God. In fact, that is how intimacy grows in all close relationships.'

Paul E Miller, A Praying Life, p.192.

GOD'S GLORY

'Spiritual blindness not only blinds me to the reality of my sin, but it also blinds me to the glory of God that is everywhere around me. God has created his world to be a constant sight-and-sound display of his power, glory, faithfulness, and love. Yet, the eyes of my heart can be so clouded by the duties of the day, by the busyness of the schedule, and by the problems of life that I don't see the God of grace whose glory is evident everywhere I look.'

Paul David Tripp, A shelter in the time of storm, p.36.

RHETORIC

'Outside a few black evangelical churches, formal rhetoric is almost dead in Britain; there are as few people left in the country who can hold an audience spellbound for an hour by the sheer power of their language as there are sword-swallowers.'

Andrew Marr, My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, p.139.

MINISTRY

'...we recruit the wrong people. There are a number of common mistakes:

• We only recruit people like ourselves - people who fit with our particular personality or style of ministry.
• We overlook the maverick or the revolutionary, who is harder to train but might evangelize nations.
• We miss the creative or intuitive person, who is poor administrativley but will reach people in ways we haven't thought of.
• We recruit the flashy, outgoing young superstar rather than the person of real character and substance.
• We recruit only for one kind of ministry - usually the traditional form of it in our denomination - rather than starting with a gifted, godly person and thinking about what kind of ministry might be built around them.
• We don't let people escape from the box into which we've put them; we don't let them outgrow the first impressions we have of them.
• We wait too long to recruit someone, and they make family or career decisisons that close off ministry options.'

Colin Marshall & Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, p.148.

PREACHING

'To say that sermons (in the sense of Biblical exposition in our Sunday gatherings) are necessary but not sufficient is simply to stand on the theological truth that it is the word of the gospel that is sufficient, rather than any one particular form of its delivery. We might say that the speaking of the word of the gospel under the power of the Spirit is entirely sufficient - it's just that on its own, the 25 minute sermonic form of it is not.

We say this because the New Testament compels us to. As we have already seen, God expects all Christians to be disciple-makers by prayerfully speaking the word of God to others - in whatever way and to whatever extent their gifting and circumstances allow. When God has gifted all the members of the congregation to help grow disciples, why should we silence the contribution of all but one of them (the pastor), and think that this is sufficient or acceptable?'

Colin Marshall & Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, p.102.

EVANGELISM

'...I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect them at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...How much do you have to hate someone to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that...'

Penn Jillette in Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything, p.53.