Church Quotes - Page 95

The Church of Christ, zealous and cautious guardian of the dogmas deposited with it, never changes any phase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither trims what seems necessary now grafts things superfluous . . . but it devotes all its diligence to one aim: To treat tradition faithfully and wisely; to consolidate and to strengthen what already was clear; and to guard what already was confirmed and defined.

Young men do not usually become inactive in the Church because they are given too many significant things to do.

Above all, I declare that Jesus Christ is the center of our faith; I testify to you that he lives. He leads his Church today; he hears our prayers when we humbly, earnestly, unceasingly seek to know his will, making this, too, a day of miracles and of revelation.

As long as the house of The Holy Spirit remains a haven for criminals the reputation of the church will remain in ruins.

A society like the Church, which claims to be Divine is perhaps more dangerous on account of the ersatz good which it contains then on account of the evil which sullies it. Something of the social labelled divine: an intoxicating mixture which carries with it every sort of license. Devil disguised.

I want a big church wedding.

I've worn it to church before. Camouflage and the other clothes.

My sisters have been baptized and my dad is a deacon at his church now. Sadly my mother passed away but what I can say is that the Jehovah Witnesses took very good care of her up until she died.

We know the Church wasn't born 200 years ago. It's encouraging to see some of the post-denominational churches actually wanting to reconnect with the story and the prayer life of the larger Church.

There is real value in these local congregations. For me, a lot of it is the value of the sacraments we share. In neighborhoods like ours, the churches provide stability.

We're not church planters. We are community planters and, as we work in our communities, we join local churches.

There is an innocence or purity that we see in renewals and in the Mennonite church and a new an invigorated civil rights movement.

It is the church's responsibility, the government's responsibility, and the personal responsibility of every one of us to love.

It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag. No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays.

I would love to see the Church on the right side of history.

The future of the church is also about looking back and looking at where we see these wonderful renewals and what we can learn from the early church. I think it is a really exciting time where Phyllis Tickle said every few hundred years the church needs a rummage sale where we can get rid of some of the clutter.

That is the power of the Eucharist. At the communion table you have rich and poor together in the early church and they were being challenged.

Over to my left is the big grey wall in front of the church. Are we the Thoughts of God? a poster asks. No, I realise. It's the reverse.

God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.

I am a Christian. My husband and I belong to the Episcopal Church.

When I'm really stressed out, I go to church. I light candles and sit and pray. And I'll ask myself, What's the lesson? Why am I going through this? There's got to be a reason I'm here. What am I supposed to learn?

[G]overnment endorsement . . . of religion . . . sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.

To doubt has more of faith ... than that blank negation of all such thoughts and feelings which is the lot of the herd of church-and-meeting trotters.

Clergymen who publish pious frauds in the interest of the church are the orthodox liars of God.

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.