THE CHURCH AS THE ANSWER TO CHRISTIANITY'S CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

'How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross? I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.'

Lesslie Newbiggin in Belousek, Marriage, Scripture and the Church, p.290.

MISSION AS SPIRITUAL CONFLICT

'The deepest motive for mission is simply to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.'

Lesslie Newbigin in Fleming Rutledge, Three Hours, p.78.

INSTITUTIONS ARE COMPROMISED - BUT NEEDED

'All human traditions, institutions, and structures are prone to evil - including religion and including Christianity and the Church. They are all part of this present age. They are all prone to make absolutist claims. They are all ambiguous. There are always good reasons for attacking them. But human life is impossible without them, and God in his mercy preserves them in order to give time for the Church to fulfill its calling to make manifest to them the wisdom of God...' 

Lesslie Newbigin in John G Stackhouse Jr., Why You're Here, p.283. 

A TEST FOR THE LOCAL CHURCH

'The question which has to be put to every local congregation is the question whether it is a credible sign of God's reign in justice and mercy over the whole of life, whether it cares for its neighbours in a way which reflects and springs out of God's care for them, whether its common life is recognizable as a foretaste of the blessing which God intends for the whole human family.' 

Lesslie Newbigin in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.129. 

BEING A PASTOR

'A true Christian pastor will be one who can dare say to his people: "Follow me, as I am following Jesus." That is a terrible test for any pastor. A true pastor must have such a relation with Jesus and with his people that he follows Jesus and they follow him.' 

Lesslie Newbigin in Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.155. 

TRUTH,

'The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about "what is true for me" is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary sympton of death.'

Lesslie Newbiggin in C FitzSimmons Allison, The Cruelty of Heresy, p.20.

REALITY

'We are not honest and open-minded explorers of reality; we are alienated from reality because we have made ourselves the center of the universe.'

Lesslie Newbigin in Dick Keyes, Seeing through Cynicism: A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion, p.106.