Sublime

Christians today like to play it safe. We want to put ourselves in situations where we are safe “even if there is no God.” But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way. We have to do things that cost us during our life on earth but will be more than worth it in eternity.

Rather than a fearful huddle of believers worried about what Herod, the Romans, or those pesky liberal Sadducees might do, the early Christians appeared to actually believe Jesus when he said the gates of hell, nevermind the IRS, would not prevail against his church (Matthew 16:18).

Carey argued, Christians must expect great things — and not only must we expect them; we must attempt them. No matter how small the beginning, no matter how complicated the task, in the power of the Spirit, under the authority of the risen Christ, we can have absolute confidence in the success of our mission. In commissioning his church, Jesus had

American Protestantism, whether in megachurch or mainline form, has done the same. This is not an insignificant choice. Choosing speed and growth over personhood10 allows our relationships to be instrumentalized. Relationships are used as instruments to attain something other than relationship.

one of those secretly incredible guys who doesn’t measure his value by what he has but by what he’d be willing to give up.

Theologically and politically they couldn’t have been more different, but where they were similar (and therefore worth pitting against each other) was in their equal rejection of the pastor as polite.