"I felt, and feel, without any shadow of doubt that close contact with the text of the Gospels builds up in the heart and mind a character of awe-inspiring stature and quality. I have read, in Greek and Latin, scores of myths but I did not find the slightest flavor of myth here. There is no hysteria, no careful working for effect and no attempt at collusion. These are not embroidered tales: the material is cut to the bone. One sensed again and again that understatement which we have been taught to think is more “British” than Oriental. There is an almost child-like candor and simplicity, and the total effect is tremendous. No man could ever have invented such a character as Jesus. No man could have set down such artless and vulnerable accounts as these unless some real Event lay behind them."

J.B Philips, The Ring of Truth

"What if we loved the world through verbal proclamation and self-sacrificial giving, not by seeking product placement for the Trinity?"

Russel Moore, on Misguided Christian Outrage

(via The Resurgence)

"Far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca. 285-337) cause the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax."

Rodney Stark; For the Glory of God

"It seems that when the Church engages at the fringes, it almost always brings life to the center. This says a whole lot about God and gospel, and the church will do well to heed it."

Alan Hirsch, in The Forgotton Ways

I’m a firm believer in unity among believers. However, there are some things that I think are serious enough to warrant debate. In Pagan Christianity, George Barna makes a case against the “institutional church” and subsequently makes a case for the “organic church”. He claims that the “institution” has neither biblical nor a historical right to function as it does” and that the “organics” are “living, breathing, dynamic, mutually participatory, every-member functioning, [and] Christ-centered”. Driscoll, on the other hand thinks that this kind of thinking could be big trouble for the church, and that it’s historically and theologically inaccurate.

This is one of those issues that’s worth debating - civilly of course. To that point, Driscoll very clearly points out that ”This critique is intended to in no way serve as a critique of the men who wrote Pagan Christianity. By all accounts they are brothers in Christ whom I love but with whom I disagree.”

That said, here is Driscoll’s critique of Barna’s book Pagan Christianity.

Click here if you’d rather just download the PDF.

- Nate.

"Knowledge makes a secure man humble and an insecure man arrogant."

@donmilleris (via nthnryn)

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

CS Lewis