Michael Chen

“That is, when I have not spent much time thinking about the fallen condition and redemptive solution of the passage—which is hard, spiritual, honest soul-searching work!—I find that my message and teaching tend toward mere information. It may be good, literarily astute, and doctrinally orthodox information, but it ultimately falls short of the faith-eliciting and virtue-forming goal of the Gospels.”
― Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction

“I soon discovered that the great Christian doctrines connected more pictorially and “asiatically” when I used the classical biblical stories than when I used contemporary (and mainly Western) systematic theologies. Matthew, the most systematic of the Gospels, proved to be the ideal vehicle for teaching the major, Orthodox, Catholic, and Reformation convictions. . . . I found the earthy Gospels to be much closer to my Asian students than the profound yet more abstract Paul.”
― Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction

“An informed mind is not the same thing as an enflamed heart.”
― Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith