T-shirt 5 - Christmas

Any of the shirts could cause employment problems, but whereas you might get away with it...well today's shirt treads upon the most sacred of people. Wear it and be redundant in moments.

Pastoral t-shirt 4

Pastoral t-shirt 3

Pastoral t-shirt 2

Pastoral t-shirts 1

I think it might save a lot of time at the door after a service, if a range of t-shirts embodying some helpful pastoral aphorisms were available. The full range will be available at www.iwanttolosemyjob.org - but more will follow on this blog in the days to come...

a Kempis 12

I know not how it is, nor what induces us, nor what we pretend to, that we who have the name of spiritual persons bestow all our labour, and very much of our care, on things which are transitory and worthless, and scarcely ever gather ourselves up to think about our own inward life. Alas, after recalling ourselves for a moment, we rush off to outward things again, and do not subject ourselves to a diligent examination. We do not consider where we are setting our affections, neither do we deplore the lack of purity in all our actions.

Book 3 ch.31

Everyone needs a hobby

Cow tipping is a pastime allegedly common in rural areas, in which participants sneak up on an upright sleeping cow and then push it over for amusement. Some variants of this urban legend state that the cow is then unable to get up.

One popular variant relies on a supposition that cows lean into a steady wind while asleep in order to keep balance. Based on this, the cow tipper lightly pushes against one side of the cow's torso, and gradually increases the force of push. The cow, while asleep, leans into the push and remains upright. Then when the cow tipper has all of their body weight on the cow, they jump to the side. The cow, still leaning into the ‘wind’, tips over in that direction.

There is no evidence, aside from mostly unreliable eyewitness reports, that any cows have ever been tipped in the purported manner. In particular, nobody has ever produced any video or other reliable photographic evidence showing that it has been done.

(Wikipedia)

a Kempis 11

Let not your peace rest in the utterances of men, for whether they put a good or bad construction on your conduct does not make you other than you are

Where is your true peace and true glory to be found? Is it not in Me?

And he who neither seeks to please men, nor fears to displease them, shall enjoy much peace.

Book 3 ch.29

Play

Through play we participate in this divine creative joy. We share God's delight in the world He has made.

Tim Chester The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness, 31

Volf on Monotheism & Evil

Consequently, critics say that by positing a cosmic struggle between good and evil, Christianity and other major religions are inescapably violent. Yet the absence of struggle against evil may bring more violence than the struggle itself, and not all struggle is properly described as violent. Critics say that monotheistic religions in particular divide the world into "us" (followers of the one true God) and "them" (followers of false idols). Yet polytheism divides people who worship incompatible gods into "us" and "them" even more fundamentally than does monotheism. Moreover, if we take the question of truth out of the sphere of religion, the only way to adjudicate competing claims of diverse gods is by violent struggle. And atheism did nothing to curtail the ravings of Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot.

...meeting needs

Willimon: Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs that I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them.

I used to ask seminarians, "Why are you in seminary?" They'd say, "I like meeting people's needs." And I'd say, "Whoa. Really? If you try that with the people I know, they'll eat you alive."

Consumerism

From a Leadership discussion:

Some would say there's nothing wrong with consumerism, that it's morally neutral, simply a reality of options, convenience, and choices. How do you respond to that? What are the spiritual issues at stake?

Will Willimon answers: I love the statement by G.K. Chesterton who said that we could have a really good argument over whether or not Jesus believed in fairies. But we cannot have any debate over whether or not Jesus believed rich people were in big trouble.

Wiersbe again

Ministers must have that eternal perspective, The man who forgets the ultimate is going to be trapped by the immediate, and this can only lead to a busybody kind of superficial service that takes refuge in schedules and statistics. The short-sighted servant forgets God's glory and soon begins to take shortcuts, play politics, and practice manipulation in order to "get results." But that's building with wood, hay, and stubble; and the result is ashes. A pastor friend often reminds me that the harvest is not the end of the meeting it is the end of the age. This is why it is dangerous to be too dogmatic in evaluating ministries today. The only motive that will survive the fiery test of that day is, "I served to the glory of God "

Johnson on ministry

A visitor told Samuel Johnson that he regretted not becoming a clergyman because he considered that life an easy, comfortable existence. Johnson knew better. "The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy," he told his visitor. "I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family [his church] than he is able to maintain. No, sir! I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life; nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life."

Wiersbe on ministry

Ministry is too sacred to be motivated by gain and too difficult to be motivated by duty. Only love can sustain us.

Warren Wiersbe

An old car

Concerning ANL Munby:

As a young man, while working for the famous dealer Bernard Quaritch, he had acquired two medeival manuscripts which he then sold to finance a share in a 1925 type 40 Bugatti. It was a fine vehicle, but it was always breaking down, one of its gaskets giving repeated trouble. Munby repaired it with a piece of thick vellum cut from an old book. When people asked him the age of the Bugatti he was thus able to reply, "Parts of it date back to the fifteenth century."

John Mitchell 'Bibliomaniacs', in A Passion for Books.

a Kempis 10

He is not truly patient, who is not willing to suffer except what seems right to himself, and from the person whom he selects.

Book3 ch.19

Aim for this

When I enter the pulpit with the Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes to sparkle for the sheer glory of having God's Word to expound. We need to emphasize the glory, the privilege, of sharing God's truth with people.

John Stott.

Nostalgia

We should not waste our time waiting for the present to turn back into the past; we should seize the day and do that which we have been called to do right here and right now.

Carl Truman

Faith in the storm

"Where is your faith?" (Luke 8:25) Well might He ask that question! Where was the profit of believing, if they could not believe in the time of need? Where was the real value of faith, unless they kept it in active exercise? Where was the benefit of trusting, if they were to trust their Master in the sunshine only, but not in storms?

JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel - Luke vol.1 265

Lewis: routine in war

It may seem odd for us to carry on classes, to go about our academic routine in the midst of a great war. What is the use of beginning when there is so little chance of finishing? How can we study Latin, geography, algebra in a time like this? Aren't we just fiddling while Rome burns?

This impending war has taught us some important things. Life is short. The world is fragile. All of us are vulnerable, but we are here because this is our calling. Our lives are rooted not only in time, but also in eternity, and the life of learning, humbly offered to God, is its own reward. It is one of the appointed approaches to the divine reality and the divine beauty, which we shall hereafter enjoy in heaven and which we are called to display even now amidst the brokenness all around us.

Sermon preached at University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, October 22, 1939.

The contradiction of mediocrity

The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy. This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions...

...the disciplined life will cost us. But, as Willard notes, the undisciplined life will cost us far more, now and forever.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr, reviewing Dallas Willard (CT)

The Cross and the Snake

I drew this when I was 19, whilst recovering from a serious illness. I'm not sure I ever drew anything better again, or quite how I managed to understand Christus Victor at that point in my life quite so clearly.

Drink

"As alcohol in the UK has become ever more affordable, alcohol consumption and the rate of alcohol-related deaths continue to rise.

"The price that society is paying for this is a level of heavy drinking that causes violence, crime and disorder and damages health."

Professor Martin Plant, University of the West of England

a Kempis 9

Love is a great thing, on all sides a great good; it alone can make the heavy burden light, and bears with evenness all inequalities. For it bears a burden without a sense of its weight, and makes every bitter thing sweet and pleasant.

Nothing changes

On skipping church:

Still, such is the wretched disposition of the many, that after so much reading, they do not even know the names of the Books, and are not ashamed nor tremble at entering so carelessly into a place where they may hear God's word. Yet if a harper, or dancer, or stage-player call at the city, they all run eagerly, and feel obliged to him for the call, and spend the half of an entire day attending to him alone; but when God speaks to us by the prophets and apostles, we yawn, we scratch ourselves, we are drowsy.

"And in summer, the heat seems too great, and we betake ourselves to the marketplace; and again, in winter, the rain and the mire are a hindrance, and we sit at home; yet at the horse races, though there is no roof over them to keep off the wet, the greater number, while heavy rains are falling, and the wind is dashing the water into their faces, stand like madmen, caring not for the cold, and wet, and mud, and length of the way, and nothing keeps them at home, and prevents their going thither.

"But here, where there are roofs over head, and where the warmth is admirable, they hold back instead of running together; and this, too, when the gain is that of their own souls. How is this tolerable, tell me?"

—John Chrysostom, On St. John, Homily LVIII, ca. A.D. 390

Don't freak

Accept that your life is abnormal. Nothing about life as a ministry leader—from its emotional toll to relational demands and constant interruptions—is normal. Accepting that you are a freak with a freakish life will help you not to freak out.

Mark Driscoll
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2006/002/13.33.html

Fickleness

31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Luke 7:31-35

Jesus warns us not to dance to the tunes of our generation. This isn't, surely, to prevent either relevancy in ministry and outreach, nor legitimate contextualisation of the gospel. But it is a warning against absorbing contemporary sensibilities too deeply.

For example, a church can survey its area and gain a lot of information; some of that information might change the way the church conducts itself when unnecessary obstructions are discovered that have been preventing effective ministry. There is hardly anything unBiblical about putting in new lighting if you discover that local people think your dingy church has the atmosphere of a mortuary (although there might be other reasons for this as well).

But to try to construct a church that fits in with cultural expectations, which removes all offense, which tries to give people the kind of church they can accept, is fatal. One reason is given here: people can be fickle, and disingenuously so. They are like children who cry out "Dance for happiness!" and when one does they shout "No! Mourn!" and so it goes on.

Or as Jesus goes on to say in vv33&34, John came along and was rejected: "he's so austere, hanging around in the desert like a fanatic, he's got a demon! Thanks, but we'll wait for someone more normal". So Jesus comes along and the response is "Look he stuffs himself, he's a drunkard, he goes to parties with weirdos! Thanks, but we'll wait for someone who's more..."

And so on. The underlying dynamic is not one of seeking a leader who matches God's criteria, but of inventing, deleting, rethinking criteria in order to make sure that no one ever fulfils it - because the deepest dynamic is: "I don't want anyone to be Boss of my life".

How many times will a person who calls in their locality to advertise their church get the response "Well, I prefer the Salvation Army, they do so many good things", implying of course that your church does not match their high criteria so they cannot possibly attend. I maintain the only time anyone says this is when there is no Salvation Army base for at least 10 miles. If there was one across the street they would say they preferred the Methodists or Elvis worship or Scientology. Because their true motivation is to avoid God.

Which brings us back to building a church in the image of society: it's pointless. Because if the underlying imperative is avoiding the Lordship of Christ then, as soon as you have made a service which matches their preference, then their preference will change.

It is best to learn to communicate, remove uneccesary obstructions and be faithful to the gospel. Because in the end that is what works (v35).

Badger

Tolerance

If you put up with yourself, why not put up with everyone else?

Guigo I, Meditations

The ultimate obsession

An obsession with the gospel is the one obsession that will stop all other obsessions, all other addictions, all other over-desires.

Tim Keller

Herbert: Justice (1)

I cannot skill of these thy ways.
Lord, thou didst make me, yet thou woundest me;
Lord, thou dost wound me, yet thou dost relieve me:
Lord, thou relievest, yet I die by thee:
Lord, thou dost kill me, yet thou dost reprieve me.
But when I mark my life and praise,
Thy justice me most fitly pays:
For, I do praise thee, yet I praise thee not:
My prayers mean thee, yet my prayers stray:
I would do well, yet sin the hand hath got:
My soul doth love thee, yet it loves delay.
I cannot skill of these my ways.

Pressure

More often than not, the problem (pressure) is not as great as it appears. And even if it is big, that doesn't block your ability to solve the problem. Losing your perspective, however, does prevent you from coming up with creative solutions.

I could tell you stories of the pressure I'm under, but instead, let me ask you a few questions and offer some guidelines to get started. Are you feeling overwhelmed? Have you experienced high pressure without a break for some time? Are you not sure what to do? If you answer these questions with a yes try these steps. First, write down all the issues, then put them in order of priority. That alone may help you to discover the list isn't as long as you thought. Then pray, lots. Give the list to God. Serious. You are His child and it's his church, so they are His problems. God wants you in the game for solutions, but not without Him. Do your part but let Him in. Then connect with two or three people you respect who are wise leaders and let them give you counsel. This is not a solution, but it will provide momentum to help you lower the pressure and begin to solve the issues...

[and]...I'll keep this idea short and simple. If you are not living a pure life as Christ has modeled, you will experience a sort of emotional and spiritual dissonance which will prevent you from experiencing God's peace and thereby increasing your pressure levels.

Dan Reiland

Excitement in perspective

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh", said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing, " he said.

from 'We Say Good-Bye' in Winnie the Pooh, by AA Milne

a Kempis 8

Be, then, thankful for that which is least, and you shall be worthy of greater gifts. Let the blessing be to you as a very great one, and a contemptible gift as one of special value. If the dignity of the Giver be considered, no gift will appear small or inconsiderable; for that cannot be small, which is given by the most High God.

Book 2 Chapter 10

Luther on faith

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith.
Preface to Commentary on Romans, Martin Luther

Proverb

The death of an old person is like the loss of a library.

African proverb

a Kempis 7

He who estimantes all things according to their true value, and not according to their name or reputation, is indeed a wise man, and taught of God rather than man.

Book 2, Chapter1

Prayer failure

"For many years I was bothered by the thought that I was a failure at prayer. Then one day I realized I would always be a failure at prayer; and I've gotten along much better ever since."

Brother Lawrence

Apostasy of hurry

For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

John Ortberg

Ministers & Angells

(Lord’s day). Up, and leaving my brother John to go somewhere else, I to church, and heard Mr Mills (who is lately returned out of the country, and it seems was fetched in by many of the parishioners, with great state,) preach upon the authority of the ministers, upon these words, “We are therefore embassadors of Christ.” Wherein, among other high expressions, he said, that such a learned man used to say, that if a minister of the word and an angell should meet him together, he would salute the minister first; which methought was a little too high.

from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 9th August 1663

a Kempis 6

There is more toil in resisting our vices and passions than in hard manual labour. The man who does not avoid small defects, will by little and little fall into greater. You will always be glad in the evening, if you have spent the day profitably.

Chapter 25

Lewis on wrinkles

Why shouldn't we have wrinkles? Honorable insignia of long service to this warfare.

from Letters to an American Lady

Lewis on cat conscience

We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance, he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"

from Letters to an American Lady

Hillary's seance

Over the next six months Houston and Bateson often visited Hillary Clinton in Washington, urging her to talk to the spirits of historical figures who would understand her travails and thus help her 'achieve self-healing'. Sitting with her two psychic counsellors at a circular table in the White House solarium, she held conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt (her 'spiritual archetype') and Mahatma Ghandi ('a powerful symbol of self-denial'). It was only when Houston proposed speaking to Jesus Christ - 'the epitome of the wounded, betrayed and isolated' - that Hillary called a halt. "That", she explained, "would be too personal." The reticence seems rather puzzling: don't millions of Christians speak to Jesus, both publicly and privately, through their prayers?

Francis Wheen "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World" , 55

a Kempis 5

When someone in suspense - who had often wavered between fear and hope - on a certain occasion, being oppressed with grief, had prostrated himself in prayer before an altar, he said within himself - "O that I could know that I should perservere to the end!" and immediately he heard a voice reply: "And if you knew it what would you do? Do now what you would do then, and you shall be quite secure"

Chapter 25

Trinity and individualism

Tim Chester's comments on how we balance the one and the many, how we maintain both individualism and community without losing either, are very helpful. Everything relates to the Trinity:

If a society organises itself around individual consumer rights alone or diminishes mutual obligations then it impoverishes its members.

This individualism has its seeds in Augustine’s focus on the human mind as that which best reflects the image of God within us. A century after Augustine, the Christian philosopher, Boethius, formed what proved to be an influential definition of a person as “an individual substance of rational nature”. This comes to fruition in René Descartes’ declaration that “I think, therefore I am.” A person is a solitary, rational individual. But if what makes me human is my rationality or my rights or any other supposedly universal characteristic of humanity then it is difficult to say what makes me unique. “If you are real and important.., as the bearer of some general characteristics, what makes you distinctively you becomes irrelevant.”(Colin Gunton) I am lost in the mass of humanity.

But if relationships define my humanity, then it is a different story. The matrix of relationships of which I am part are unique to me. The role I play within them defines my distinctiveness. "Everything ... is what it uniquely is by virtue of its relation to everything else." But, because I am defined by relationships, this uniqueness does not lead to a solitary, fragmented existence. We find ourselves by being related to others, not by distancing ourselves from them. We find ourselves in giving and receiving. We are neither wholly the active subject of individualism nor the passive object of collectivism. "The heart of human being and action is a relationality whose dynamic is that of gift and reception."(Gunton)

'When marriages and parenthood are deficient in love and its generous self-expression and self-giving, and when our old, sick, handicapped poor or disadvantaged are ignored and unhelped, then the life of the triune God is not reflected in our humanity as it should be; then personhood itself is wounded and reduced. Where recognition of others, where kindness, gratitude and care are lacking, the person who has left these behind, however successful in other respects, has shrunk not grown in terms of their true person-hood. They are diminished, not greatened, in their self-sufficiency.' (Peter Lewis)

Tim Chester "Delighting in the Trinity", 166,167

Quote of the week so far....

"Never underestimate a butterfly."

Matthew Oakes (National trust, on the return of the Adonis Blue butterfly)

For how long should I pray?

For as long as your appetite for God is deep.

Pick the right songs

Imagine that someone visits your church every Sunday morning for a month and only listens to the songs you sing. They don’t hear any preaching, liturgy, or prayers – just the songs. What would the songs say about your church’s theology and beliefs? How would they reflect the God you worship? It’s quite a scary thought.

Tim Hughes

A comfortable situation

Real communication happens when people feel safe.

Ken Blanchard, The Heart of a Leader

In post-Christian society where religion is suspected and ministers mocked, I think we have to spend longer creating a context in which we can be heard. I don't think this is the same as 'earning the right to be heard'. When it is the gospel we are dealing with, which is the Sovereign God's proclamation to His world, I'm not sure we have to earn the right as such; it's God's world and he can say whatever he likes through whomever he likes to whoever he likes whenever he likes.

But the fact is most people think Christians are wierd, and we need to work hard at creating contexts in which they find we're no more wierd than anyone else (well, you know what i mean). When they feel comfortable, real communication may follow. We can more comfortably speak; and they are more likely to truly hear.

Consuming

Christian critiques of consumerism usually focus on the dangers of idolatry—the temptation to make material goods the center of life rather than God. This, however, misses the real threat consumerism poses. My concern is not materialism, strictly speaking, or even the consumption of goods—as contingent beings, we must consume resources to survive. The problem is not consuming to live, but rather living to consume.

We find ourselves in a culture that defines our relationships and actions primarily through a matrix of consumption. As the philosopher Baudrillard explains, "Consumption is a system of meaning." We assign value to ourselves and others based on the goods we purchase. One's identity is now constructed by the clothes you wear, the vehicle you drive, and the music on your iPod.

In short, you are what you consume....

When we approach Christianity as consumers rather than seeing it as a comprehensive way of life, an interpretive set of beliefs and values, Christianity becomes just one more brand we consume along with Gap, Apple, and Starbucks to express identity. And the demotion of Jesus Christ from Lord to label means to live as a Christian no longer carries an expectation of obedience and good works, but rather the perpetual consumption of Christian merchandise and experiences—music, books, t-shirts, conferences, and jewelry.

Skye Jethani

Wrestling

Having just preached two sermons, the content of which I found difficult to understand - and once understood, to apply - this quotation from Mark Twain seemed, well....

Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand. The Scripture which troubles me the most is the Scripture I do understand.

a Kempis 4 BR (before Rick)

We ought every day to renew our resolutions, and to kindle our fervour, as though it were the very beginning of our conversion, and to say - "Assist me, O God, in this my good purpose, and in Thy Holy Service, and grant that this day I may begin perfectly, for that which I have hitherto been able to carry out is as nothing"...
....Our success depends upon the strength of our purpose; and if we would make much progress we must use much diligence...
...always let us have something definite after which we are aiming; and let our resolves turn upon those things which we feel most hinder us.

Chapter 19

Big and small

I'm not against mega-churches (I think the tide is turning against them and an awful lot of posturing and self-righteous criticism is on the way), but I do have a problem with the idea that we should all aspire to be one. I think mega-churches can do things through size and resources that smaller churches cannot. It's a little like the difference between the multi-national corporation and the corner-shop: the biggie can set up systems and get places the little one can't; on the other hand the corner shop knows its community, the local people, and its own customers in a way a huge organisation cannot. It can do things a multi-national cannot. The pressure to be big is often wrong. On that basis, i found this quotation interesting:

I had a chance on a recent trip to attend one of the most successful churches in America. It packs in more than 20,000 people at its weekend services. Its pastor is the author of bestselling books and is a world figure. The church is inspiring, effective, and relevant.

Fortunately, it became impossible to attend there, and instead I was blessed to end up at an irrelevant church. Our family arrived promptly at 10:00 A.M., and we were greeted by a woman who was getting up from pulling a few weeds in front of the church sign. She welcomed us warmly and escorted us into the nearly empty sanctuary. After we were greeted by two other people, as well as the pastor, a handful of people straggled in and worship began.

We were led in music by the weed-puller, who now had a guitar strapped on. She was accompanied by two singers and an overweight man on percussion. They were earnest musicians who, frankly, were sometimes flat or a little stiff, as if they were still trying to learn the music. The service, which included maybe 45 people, bumbled along—that is, by contemporary, professional, "seeker-sensitive" standards. The dress of the congregants suggested that there were some people of substance there, as well as some people on welfare. Some blacks, mostly whites. In front of me sat a woman wearing way too much makeup (at least according to my suburb's refined standards), pouffy hair, and an all-black outfit.

Communion was introduced without the words of institution—a bit of a scandal to my Anglican sensibilities. The pastor took prayer requests, and petitions were made for illnesses, depression, and a safe journey for my family.

It was during the announcements that I began to suspect I was in the midst of the people of God. The pastor sought more donations for the food closet, at which time he noted a new milestone: The church had served 22,000 people with groceries in ten years. Everyone applauded, then settled in to hear a clear and truthful sermon about God's love for us despite our sin.

Afterwards, my family was warmly greeted by another five or six people, one of whom invited us to lunch. It was evident that they really didn't care that we were not coming back. They just wanted to make sure we felt welcomed.

Nothing slick. No studied attempts to be authentic or relevant or cool. Just a small bunch of sinners, of all classes and races, looking to God for guidance and reaching out to the community in love.

This little church will never make the list of the top ten churches in America. It will never be featured in Time or Newsweek or even Christianity Today. Its musicians will not go on to record a cd; its pastor will not be invited to national preaching conferences. The church will not likely grow into the thousands.

I'm sure that had I attended the megachurch, I would have been inspired by the music, moved by the message, impressed with the professionalism and efficiency of the service, and made to feel comfortable sitting next to people who dressed like me, an upper-middle class suburbanite.

But it was a more godly experience to go to that little fellowship, because I believe that for all the good megachurches do, this little fellowship manifested the presence of Jesus in a way that is unique and absolutely necessary in our age.

from Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God by Mark Galli

a Kempis 3

Whenever a man inordinately desires anything, he instantly loses inward peace. The proud and covetous are never at rest, whilst the poor and lowly in spirit pass their life in continual peace.
Chapter 6

a Kempis 2

We are all liable to fall, yet you should be convinced that there is no one more liable to do so than yourself.
Chapter 2

Worship

"We leave our places of worship, and no deep and inexpressible wonder sits upon our faces. We can sing these lilting melodies, and when we go out into the street our faces are one with the faces of those who have left the theater and the music halls. There is nothing about us to suggest that we have been looking at anything stupendous and overwhelming. Far back in my boyhood I remember an old saint telling me that after some services he liked to make his way home alone, by quiet by-ways, so that the hush of the Almighty might remain on his awed and prostrate soul. That is the element we are losing, and its loss is one of the measure of our poverty, and the primary secret of inefficient life and service."
From the biography of John Henry Jowett

Scholarship for scholarship's sake...

But trained men's minds are spread so thin,
They let all sorts of darkness in;
Whatever light man finds, they doubt it;
They love not light, just talk about it.

John Masefield (The Everlasting Mercy)

a Kempis1

Currently slowly reading Imitation, and finding a lot of helpful thoughts and correctives, and some surprisingly contemporary sounding critiques. This one is from chapter 18:
On the Holy Fathers:

They were given for an example to all who are religious, and ought to have more power to provoke us to advance, than many who are lukewarm have to influence us to relax...
[lamenting the gap between their great efforts and ours] Now he is reckoned great who just escapes open sin or bears patiently his lot in life.