Quotes About Community

Did you get that? Vibrant and living churches look after the interests of others. They are concerned for their communities. They open the door for others.

Membership in the church is not country club membership. It's not about paying your dues and getting perks.

It's likely that every day presents an opportunity for you to practice radical hospitality to someone with whom you cross paths. There is no shortage of people who could use the fit of a caring, welcoming person in their life. How awesome would it be if, in a time of need, the first thing people would say is, "I need a Christian!" If you expect to be that person, you'll be surprised at how often the opportunities come along for you to show love through radical hospitality.

God has equipped us with his Holy Spirit simply to tell our own story---the good, the bad, and the real. The best part is no one can argue with us. It's our story. And when others realize you don't need a degree in evangelism, they become empowered to tell their own God-story. It's not that complicated. Maybe the early church thrived because they didn't pay people to be the professional 'church people'---they all were 'it.

Is it possible to create an environment where people are welcomed and accepted…no matter what they look like? No matter what they say? No matter what they believe? Is it possible for church to be the place where the average person can walk in off the street, warts and all, and be fully embraced? Is it possible for the church to become known as the least judgmental place Americans know?

There's the beautiful people and then there's the rest of us.

God hath thus ordered it, that we may learn to bear one another's burdens; for no man is without fault, no man without his burden, no man sufficient of himself, no man wise enough of himself; but we ought to bear with one another, comfort one another, help, instruct, and admonish one another.

Nothing will hinder you more than thinking only about yourself.

If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity -- adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.

It's meaningless to live a long life if you think only about yourself, and give no thought to caring about others.

of the primitive Christians at Jerusalem

We are not wise in ourselves.7 So we must support one another,8 be tolerant of each other,9 help, teach and advise one another. It is in times of trouble that we really discover the true value of our helpers. They do not weaken us, but reveal their true nature.

In liturgical prayer we experience most intensely that we are not made to be individual supermen who transcend the limits of humanity and no longer need anyone else. Rather we are called into ever deeper relationships with everyone as we grow in our relationship with God.

See to whom Jesus is drawing near, three kinds of people: to those who make peace with him, to those who are devoted to God, and to those who are kind to their neighbors.

Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.

Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need

Human beings are by their nature social and political, living in community even more than every other animal.

Shepherds of the flock should . . . seek the good of their flock, and every ruler the good of the people subject to him.

The rich do not act improperly if they before others take possession of property that was in the beginning common and share the property with others. But the rich sin if they indiscriminately prevent others from using the property.

Religion, then, is not limited to our relation to God, but embraces, our neighbour as well.

enemy than to suffer his people to be exposed to rapine

There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits.

The thinking man always finds himself in a gigantic orphanage in which people are continually proving to him that he has no parents.

The lives of such are most desirable, and the deaths of such will be most lamented, who make it their business to serve their generation.