Amanda Hunsberger

“Leadership over God's people, which functions as God's household, does not require business savvy but moral probity and relationship skill. An elder, or overseer, must be hospitable and gentle, traits most would traditionally consider as feminine qualities. He must not cede parenting responsibility to his wife but rather must be directly involved in the rearing of his children, "keeping his children submissive" (v. 4). Interesting, it is his domestic abilities, in addition to his moral qualities, which are his qualifying grounds for ministry.”
― Jen Pollock Michel, Keeping Place: Reflections on the Meaning of Home

“The biblical narrative begins and ends at home. From the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem we are hardwired for place and for permanence, for rest and refuge, for presence and protection. We long for home because welcome was our first gift of grace and it will be our last. The settings of our first home and our last home will testify to the nature of the embodied story God is writing in human history. Because God's story begins in a garden and ends in a city, place isn't incidental to Christian hope, just as our bodies aren't incidental to salvation. God will resurrect our bodies, and he will -- finally -- bring us home.”
― Jen Pollock Michel, Keeping Place: Reflections on the Meaning of Home

“Today, Marxism and fascism have been replaced by only slightly subtler but no less spiritually seductive ideologies such as materialism, hedonism, and narcissism. This latter triumvirate mobilizes the spirit of most moderns, but in the end betrays them by failing to connect them to what is healing or innately satisfying. Without a “vertical” sense of participation in divinity, humankind is condemned to a sterile, “horizontal” existence, circling its own absurdity and ending in its own annihilation.”
― James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up

“To feast on the one body and blood given for the sustenance of the world and then forget the world's hungry is anathema to the gospel.”
― Jen Pollock Michel, Keeping Place: Reflections on the Meaning of Home