Lisa Johnson

“Legitimate peripheral participation means that adolescents make real contributions to our shared life in God, even while they are still figuring out how to be part of the community of faith. As teenagers become more proficient in the church’s language and practices, they become more central to the life of the congregation, and contribute more fully to Christ’s mission—until they suddenly discover that they are in a position to help lead in that mission, to bring newcomers on board, and to create the community anew.”
― Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian : What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church

“As part of our interpretive task, then, we must distinguish between kingdom values and cultural values within the biblical text. With every change in our culture we have to reevaluate our interpretation of Scripture to determine what our perspective should be. At”
― William J. Webb, Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis

“Identity always precedes behavior. What you need is someone to come alongside you and help you remember who you are and to whom you belong.”
― Dave Ferguson, Finding Your Way Back to God: Five Awakenings to Your New Life

“It's odd that in our culture we assume that everyone can (and should) learn basic language skills although only a small percentage will become authors. We also assume that everyone can learn math while only a few will become mathematicians. However, we assume that drawing requires some special talent possessed by only a few and the rest need not try.”
― Carl Purcell, Your Artist's Brain: Use the right side of your brain to draw and paint what you see - not what you think you see