Quotes from James Emery White

The great opposition to reading is what I allow to fill my time instead of reading. To say we have no time to read is not really true; we simply have chosen to use our time for other things, or have allowed our time to be filled to the exclusion of reading. So don't add reading to your to-do list. Just stop doing the things that keep you from doing it. But read.

Salvation is not the stopping point; it is the starting point.

Christians must pioneer new ways to bind ourselves to Scripture, to our traditions, and to each other—not for mere survival, but so that the church can be the authentic light of Christ to a world lost in darkness.

Three Tasks of a Good Missionary Learn the language: educate yourself on how to talk in a way that people can understand and to which they can relate and eventually respond Study the culture: become so sensitized to that culture that you can operate effectively within it Translate the gospel: translate it into its own cultural context so that it can be heard, understood, and appropriated

So what does this mean for a church trying to reach out to an internet-based generation? Here are some internet browsing statistics that may cause you to rethink everything: average length watched of a single internet video: 2.7 minutes percent of page views that last less than 4 seconds: 17 percent of page views that last more than 10 minutes: 4 percent of words read on web pages with 111 words or less: 49 percent of words read on an average (593 words) web page: 286

Only authentic Christianity brings together both truth and grace.

To doubt," Os Guinness writes, "is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at once and to be 'in two minds.

When you believe something to be true, you are "in one mind" about accepting it; when you do not believe something to be true, you are "in one mind" about rejecting it. "To doubt," Os Guinness writes, "is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at once and to be 'in two minds.

There's one thing that 82 percent of all unchurched people can't seem to resist. It cuts through their defenses and penetrates their barriers. According to surveys at LifeWay Research, 82 percent of them seem to have a single weakness: if a friend, or someone they know, invites them to church. Reread that: 82 percent of all unchurched people would come to church this weekend if they were invited by a friend.2

Because the greatest value for this generation is nothing less than individual freedom.

Whenever we make a decision about something, most of us want to be sure, beyond any doubt, of what is absolutely true. That will never happen spiritually. We're talking about God, and there is no way you can get every question about him answered. If you could fathom everything that there is to know about God, he'd be no bigger than your mind—no larger than your intellect—and that would be a small God. The goal isn't to get every answer, but enough answers.

The great crisis of this seventh age is that there has been a second fall. The first fall led to God's expulsion of human beings from the Garden of Eden. The second fall was when we returned the favor.

The heart of secularism is a functional atheism. Rather than rejecting the idea of God, our culture simply ignores him.

Today, if asked about their religion, people in the center say they're nothing, because that's the cultural thing to say.

The vast majority of those who are unchurched are not actively seeking a church home. Further, they are divorced from seeing it as a need in their life, even when they are open to and interested in spiritual things.

And the influence of their peers can be utterly overwhelming. As their closest friends succumb to the trend of G.O.Y., many children feel pressured to match them for the sake of popularity and acceptance. And sadly, instead of stepping in to be the voice of reason, many parents are feeding into this cultural trend. Many

Biblical unity is about working through conflicts, avoiding slander and gossip, and being generous in spirit. It is giving each other the benefit of the doubt, distributing ample doses of grace in the midst of our sin and imperfection, and demonstrating fierce loyalty.

The relevance of the church is not found in its capitulation to culture but in its transformation of culture.

Unloving attitudes and words cause a "stench that the world can smell. . . . Our sharp tongues, the lack of love between us . . . these are what properly trouble the world."17