Quotes and Musings

Everyone wants forgiveness or peace with God without cost or commitment. That want peace as a commodity(earned) or property (controlled) but not as a gift that one must respond to and have relational responsibility toward.- Chris Gilliam


Counteracting Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:

"Imagine for a moment an area of a city that is of historical interest. There are two very different ways of getting to know that area. The first is the sort of knowledge that a new tour guide possesses, which he passes on to other outsiders. He gathers this information from maps, books, and other external sources, which gave him important functional information that enables him to navigate the area. He may also pick up another level of detail that goes beyond purely functional information, such as interesting history, famous residents, and notorious events. Yet as vast as the guide’s knowledge may become, there is still a yawning gap in the amount of information as well as the depth of knowledge he acquires compared with someone who grew up in that area. Rather than the flat, functional knowledge of the tour guide, the ‘local’ possesses a deep and complex intuitive understanding …

"Some Christian leaders and pastors are tempted to become spiritual ‘tour guides.’ At one level, this is a satisfying role. Our knowledge is clean, clear-cut, and well presented. Our responsibilities are clearly defined and fit within scheduled time frames - our Sunday tours! Yet, at the more fundamental level, tour guides create tourists rather than residents - consumers of knowledge rather than participants in actual communities. We may introduce people to the basic contours and city limits of the gospel - ‘map knowledge’ - but how do we fundamentally reorient them within the new neighborhood of the gospel? Given the significant influence of the modern social imaginary, discipleship must be embedded within a Christian social imaginary in order to be an effective journey of counterformation. This will require a new vision of life, a new story to live within, a new community to be part of, and new practices to live by.” ~ Jonathan Grant