“One of my daughters described the youth ministries of many churches as ‘potato salad at room temperature.’ Sleepovers! Lock-ins! Back rubs! Jesus!”
Concise and to the Point, p. 58
A Basic Distinction
“To object to an ambulance chaser is not to display a calloused disregard for the pain of the people in the ambulances. To object to hypochondriacs is not the same thing as being insensitive to those who are really sick.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 57
Getting the Victim Right
“You are not ‘blaming the victim’ if you are honestly involved in finding out who the victim is. A young girl abused by her stepfather is the victim. A stepfather falsely accused by his stepdaughter is the victim. If you approach is ‘ready, fire, aim,’ it does not matter if you say that your intent was to side with the victim. That really must be your first priority, but getting the identity of the victim right is part of it.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 56
And Discretion is not an Absolute
“A minister should never promise not to tell. He can and should promise to be discreet with what he learns. He can promise not to put it on the prayer chain, but he should never commit himself not to tell others on his ministry team or, as necessary, someone in law enforcement.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 52
Not One More Minute
“No conscientious pastor can be willingly complicit in a child having to spend one more minute under the control of his abuser, and no pastor can willingly turn over an innocent person to a system that will simply presume him to be guilty and quite possibly make a hash out of the rest of his life. That really is a true pastoral dilemma.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 51
A Lot Less
“Because of the rampant confusion of spiritual and inspired (which are not the same thing at all), we need to do more theological spadework in the garden of our studies, and less beating our brethren over the head with the spade.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 47
Not That He Asked Me To, Which Is the Problem
“I am not bound to accept a prophetic utterance from a charismatic friend the same way I am bound to believe the book of Romans.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 45
And There You Have It
“There is no way to maintain that the revelatory gifts are ongoing without jeopardizing the integrity of the canon of Scripture. If the word given is a Word from God, and if we believe that it is, then we must treat it as though it is.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 44
Nature Can Be Spooky
“We are often tempted to say that some things are supernatural simply because we do not know how far nature actually goes.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 43
No Ambiguity
“What holy word does God speak into a sinful religious world? He says not to bow down before an image in religious devotion.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 40