Dave

“The small group is an ingenious invention, first introduced by Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation. According to legend, the great reformer asked four or five people from his oikos if they’d hang out, drink some beer, and listen to his wild-eyed rants about peasants and the pope and stuff from seven to nine every Friday night. Thus the very first small group was born.”
― The Babylon Bee, How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living

“Pride, anger, naivete, and nostalga are like Stalin's communists waiting to deliver Poland out of the hands of Hitler's Nazis. What looks like a rescue only recovers and repeats the oppression. When God's people walk out of God's house and respond to the folly they find under the sun by becoming foolish themselves, there is little wonder why it can seem that God is nowhere to be found in the news, our neighborhoods, or our daily toil. We become like firefighters who, upon entering a burning building, disdain the water hoses and instead turn confidently to blowtorches and try helplessly to douse what blazes.”
― Zack Eswine, Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes

“Perfect Christians never miss an opportunity to judge other Christians on matters of conscience, and dropping some scathing remarks about their movie collection is a moment God prepared before the creation of the world for you to get a leg up on those spiritual failures.”
― The Babylon Bee, How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living

“Jesus combines a radical realism about who we really are with a profound, covenantal, unparalleled pursuit of us in love. And this leads us toward the identity, demeanor, and behavior of his new community. While we need to be transformed individually, there is always a communal effect.”
― Hans F. Bayer, A Theology of Mark: The Dynamic between Christology and Authentic Discipleship