Powerful Quotes

I remember the day I was told "With your talents and abilities, you could be a six-figure preacher some day." At the time I was planning on designing top secret airplanes for the military, so I thanked the man who told me that and continued planning my top secret career. And even though I may have dismissed that quote at the time, it lingered in my mind. Twenty-something years later, I'm not a big fan of flying...but I've been preaching for almost ten years now. (And somewhere along the way, I realized that the six-figures included the two figures after the decimal point.)

That quote was a powerful quote in my life. It started me thinking about the future in a different way. It helped me re-imagine my life differently. It led me to the path that I would follow in life.

Recently I had another encounter with a powerful quote. This time it was from my, then, six year old son. It was early on a Sunday morning. I was spending time in quiet trying to be attentive to God. Austin was awake early because he was sick and couldn't sleep. Out of the dark quietness of the family room came this quote: "You know, dad, church is exactly like school - except you have to wear a button-up shirt." My world started spinning. Instantly I knew that what he said was beyond his ability to comprehend. Immediately my mind became focused on the exact words that he had said. And over the past few months, this quote has been etched into my brain is I try to understand the implications of that early morning revelation.

This single statement has been a powerful quote in my life. It has started me thinking about the church in a different way. It is helping me re-imagine church differently. Here's the reason - if what he said is true, then either the church is messed up or the school is messed up. Church and school are supposed to serve two different functions (although aspects of each are shown in the other). Austin's statement was, in essence, "the church has missed what it means to be church and has settled on merely educating people." There is a word for that - it is religion. It's what the Pharisees practiced. It was the modus operandi of the Sadducees. It was what Jesus railed against.

Life as I know it is lived best in a fully functioning church community. Life is intended to be an outpouring of God's teachings. Christianity is intended to be lived not discussed. Jesus is more than an interesting character in a book. But in order to really understand what he calls us to we have to stop merely studying and start doing what he says.