Quotes About Church

As well, she [i.e., Joan of Arc] is the only person ever condemned to death for heresy by the same faith that made her a saint—evidence of the deep bewilderment about women in a church run by men.

In church they sang "Gott is de liebe" and made such a month-long fuss over Christmas that customs in America changed as well. They

He referred to Pope Paul III as "His Hellishness." Were not the pope and his associates at least members of the church? Yes, as much as spit, snot, pus, feces, urine, stench, scab, smallpox, ulcers, and syphilis are members of the body. Luther was never one to mince words.

Moreover, liberals asserted, the church maintained unsanitary practices, such as interring the remains of pious elites in the walls and beneath the floors of cathedrals, and it was unalterably opposed to science, progress, and liberal political ideas, making free use of censorship and spiritual intimidation to uphold its dogmas

As these were appearing, however, the official bull of excommunication, Exsurge Domini, was being posted throughout German lands, giving Luther sixty days to recant. Instead, on 10 December 1520 Luther burned the bull (and a copy of canon law) outside the Elster Gate in Wittenberg in protest.

You see, then, that the whole church is filled with the forgiveness of sins. But there are few who really receive and welcome it.o For they do not believe it and would rather rely upon their own works.

But what if what the working class—white, black, Hispanic, etc.— needs most isn't a check from the government but inclusion in community? And what if the most accessible form of community—the church—is under constant assault by both culture and the government? And finally, what if the elites frowning upon the deplorable poor won't include them in their community, citing their deplorability?

Other leaders center on those who are far, designing their programs to bypass parents and reach children whose families are fractured and fragmented. The problem is this focus on reaching children directly can become so thoroughgoing that the church never explicitly expects any parents— even Christian parents—to disciple their children.

One of Gregory's most familiar legacies flowed from his concern for the church's music. Remembering his concern for the music of the church, one form of Roman plainsong—the "Gregorian chant"—was named after Gregory after his death.

In the book Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow notes that when a mother comes to faith in Christ, the rest of her family follows 17 percent of the time; however, when the father comes to faith, the family joins him 93 percent of the time. In other words, as men go, so goes the church.5 The family-integrated church calls men to become full participants in the mission of leading their homes.

This faulty model places the professional minister at the center and makes gaining and retaining students the goal. In the case of student ministry, it turns youth group into a holding pattern for the church's future instead of calling students to live as servants of the gospel in their community of faith here and now.

Throughout the Middle Ages and particularly during the Renaissance period, the word "Witchcraft" was liberally applied by the Christian church and its authorities to the native religious practices and customs that existed for thousands of years before Christianity.

Jesus is not manufacturing a new idea for human relationships or the church. His prayer reflects what God's design has always been.

This passage is not encouraging unwise activity that overloads your schedule with church events and obligations. Nor does it ask you to turn normal relational moments into abnormal witnessing encounters.

Change within community is counterintuitive to the way we often think, but Scripture clearly presents it as God's way of making us more like Christ.

So that the body of Christ may be built up

A Lutheran church in Nebraska is typically a place where any mad passion for Christ is politely concealed. Men and women recite the various creeds in hypnotic monotone; the hymns, pumped from wheezy organ pipes, are sung with no lilt or musicality. The members of the choirs not only don't dance, they don't sway. That's not to say no one is ever smacked hard with God's love or filled up to the eyeballs with the Holy Spirit, but when you are, you keep it to yourself." (48)

It is part of my duty as a decent member of my local hamlet to mow the grass in front of the church. It's a pleasant little task and mowing is a favorite activity of mine; it gives me a lot of pleasure to make the churchyard look tidy. I sometimes pause at the grave of someone or other and speculate what he might have been like when he was alive, but gravestones don't tell much.

If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church.

I use both the 'I' and the 'we.' For on many, many matters, I am not simply expressing ideas that have happened to occur to Joseph Ratzinger, but I am speaking out of the common life of the Church's communion.

My church's antics were such that we were constantly at odds with the world. That reinforced our 'otherness' on a daily basis.

I think a bishop who doesn't give offence to anyone is probably not a good bishop.

If a church offers no truth that is not available in the general culture - in, for instance, the editorials of the New York Times or, for that matter, of National Review - there is not much reason to pay it attention.

I sing this song in church - 'I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me.' I got a feeling that all these shows, all this everything, is part of my blessing. And in my heart, I know I'm going to do every show, and everything is going to be OK.