The mission of the church is not only to bring people to God but to take God to those who are wounded by the experiences of life, to touch those who are broken, to bring healing to those with damaged emotions.
Zacharias, Ravi (2010-06-22). Has Christianity Failed You? (Kindle Locations 1284-1286). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
“It seems odd to have to say so, but too much religion is a bad thing. We can’t get too much of God, can’t get to much faith and obedience, can’t get too much love and worship. But religion—the well-intentioned efforts we make to 'get it all together' for God—can very well get in the way of what *God is doing* for us. The main and central action is everywhere and always what God has done, is doing, and will do for us. Jesus is the revelation of that action. Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.
"But more often than not we become impatiently self-important along the way and decide to improve matters with our own two cents’ worth. We add on, we supplement, we embellish. But instead of improving on the purity and simplicity of Jesus, we dilute the purity, clutter the simplicity. We become fussily religious, or anxiously religious. We get in the way."
—Eugene Peterson, The Message (Introduction to Hebrews)
"The love for equals is a human thing—of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing—the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing—to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich... The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world." —Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." — G.K. Chesterton