Army of Priests

The words of Donald Miller in his book Searching for God knows What:

Everybody who met God in the bible was afraid of Him. People were even afraid of the angels, so the angels always had to calm people down just to have a conversation. I would think that would be very annoying if you were an angel, always having to settle people down just to talk. It makes you wonder if the first thousand years in heaven will have us running around screaming like we would during an earthquake, the whole time God saying to us in an enormous, booming voice, ‘Calm down, calm down, will you, it’s just Me.’ If you ask me, the way to tell if a person knows God for real, I mean knows the real God, is that they will fear Him.

The words of Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureate, Anglican archbishop of South Africa, and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation commission) in his book No Future without Forgiveness (pg 54-55):

Retributive Justice’s chief goal is to be punitive, so that the wronged party is really the state, something impersonal, which has little consideration for the real victims and almost none for the perpetrator.

We contend that there is another kind of justice, which was characteristic of traditional African jurisprudence. Here the central concern is not retribution or punishment. In the spirit of ubuntu ["We are human through other humans"], the central concern is the healing of breaches, the releasing of imbalances, the restoration of broken relationships, a seeking to rehabilitate both the victim and the perpetrator, who should be given an opportunity to be reintegrated into the community he has injured by his offence.

The words of C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity (pg 148):

Christians have long disputed wether what leads the Christian hone is good action, or faith in Christ [...] it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary.

The words of the The International Reconciliation Coalition:

The path to reconciliation begins with individual acts of confession. Paradoxically, the greatest wounds in human history, the greatest injustices, have not happened through the acts of some individual perpetrator; rather through the institutions, systems, philosophies, cultures, religions and governments of humankind. Because of this, we, as individuals, are tempted to absolve ourselves of all individual responsibility. However, unless somebody chooses to identify themselves with corporate entities, such as the nation of our citizenship, or the subculture of our ancestors, the act of honest confession will never take place. This leaves us in a world of injury and offense in which no corporate sin is ever acknowledged, reconciliation never begins and old hatreds deepen.

The words of Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureate, Anglican archbishop of South Africa, and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation commission) in his book No Future Without Forgiveness (pg 85):

God does not give up on anyone, for God loved us all eternity, God loves us now and God will always love us, all of us good and bad, forever and ever. His love will not let us go, for God’s love for us, all of us, good and bad, is unchanging, is unchangeable. Someone has said there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, for God loves me perfectly already. And wonderfully, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less. God loves me as I am to help me become all that I have it in me to become, and when I realise the deep love God has for me, I will strive for love’s sake to do what pleases my lover. Those who think this opens the door to moral laxity have obviously never been in love for love is much more demanding than law. An exhausted mother, ready to drop dead into bed, will think nothing of sitting the whole night through by the bed of her sick child.

The words of Hampton Keathley:

We live in an entertainment-centred, spectator-oriented society. Most people spend much time watching TV, movies, sporting events, etc. but little time actually involved in playing the sports they watch. Coach Bud Wilkinson, Oklahoma football coach, once described a football game the following way: Thousands sit in the stands in desperate need of exercise while 22 men are on the football field in desperate need of rest.

I think that we have carried the spectator mentality into the church. Although I don’t think we would get too many people to say it out loud, many people come to church to be entertained and to be ministered to. They have the idea that ministry is what the professionals do. We pay the pastor to minister to us. If we go back to our football analogy, we have a congregation full of people who need to get some exercise and a few professionals who are in desperate need of rest.

One or two pastors can’t possibly meet the needs of 500 or even 100 people with one or two messages per week. To really minister to someone you need to spend time with them and develop a close relationship.

The words of Gandhi, as quoted by Dave Andrews in his book Christi-Anarchy (pg 75):

The gentle figure of Christ, so patient, so kind, so loving, so full of forgiveness that he told his followers not to retaliate when struck, but to turn the other cheek – was a beautiful example, I thought of the perfect person [...]

I refuse to believe that there exists a person who has not made use of his example, even though he or she may have done so without realising it [...]

The lives of all have, by some greater of lesser degree, been changed by his presence.

The words of C. S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters (pg 40). This quote is from a conversation between two demons:

Our cause is never more in danger then when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy’s [God's] will, looks around a universe from which ever trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsakes, and still obeys.

The words of Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureate, Anglican archbishop of South Africa, and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation commission) in his book No Future Without Forgiveness (pg 86):

For us who are Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof positive that love is stronger than hate, that life is stringer than death, that laughter and joy and compassion and gentleness and truth, all these are so much stronger than their ghastly counterparts.

The words of Michael Yaconelli (I recorded the words a long time ago but unfortunately not their source):

The most critical issue facing Christians today is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into ‘nice people.’…

What happened to radical Christianity, the un-nice brand of Christianity that turned the world upside-down? What happened to the category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional gospel that spread through the first century like wildfire and was considered (by those in power) dangerous? What happened to the kind of Christians whose hearts were on fire, who had no fear, who spoke the truth no matter what the consequence, who made the world uncomfortable, who were willing to follow Jesus wherever He went? What happened to the kind of Christians who were filled with passion and gratitude, and who every day were unable to get over the grace of God?

I’m ready for a Christianity that ‘ruins’ my life, that captures my heart, and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and … well … dangerous. Yes, I want to be ‘dangerous’ to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered ‘dangerous’ by our predictable and monotonous culture.