“The church is not supposed to function as a rain barrel, or a collection tank. The church is a place from which the water is supposed to flow everywhere else.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 16
Tools as Wealth
“Technology is therefore a form of wealth. The reason this is important is because the Bible says very little about technology as such, but it gives us a great deal of blunt and pointed teaching on the subject of wealth. If we learn how to deal with wealth scripturally, then we will have learned how to deal with technology. This also makes it obvious that these problems are not new problems at all”
Ploductivity, p. 11
A Larger Book Allowance, Yay!
“Some preachers are always preaching the last book which they have read, and their congregations always find it out. The feeling of superficialness and thinness attaches to all they do . . . If I am right in this idea, then it will follow that the preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 122
Because They Already Bought Another Kind of Insurance
“There are people who go to respectable churches because it seems like a good place to network with people who might want to buy insurance.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 12
Maxwell’s Hammer
“We have a perennial temptation to locate sin as resident in the stuff. Some refuse to see sin in the stuff, and therefore conclude there must not be any sin. Those are the technophiles. Others see clearly that there is sin, and so they conclude that it must be in the stuff, though maybe it is not in the earlier stuff. These are the technophobes . . . Maxwell’s silver hammer did come down upon somebody’s head, but we go astray when we blame the silver hammer. The problem was in Maxwell.”
Ploductivity, p. 10
What the Building Says
“When the saints start to come in for the service, the building should say, ‘Shhh . . . the church is here now.’ The saints should not say, ‘Shhh . . . you’re in church now. The building is not God’s mausoleum”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 9
Chrestomathy Template
“Is it possible to be both relaxed and driven? People who are only relaxed are frequently slackers, and much of the book of Proverbs would appear to apply to them. But people who are driven give a diligent work ethic a bad name. Nobody wants to be like that. We might admire the house they can afford, but nobody wants to be like the people who live in it.”
Ploductivity, p. 7
Take Off, Put On
“If we are to put on the white robe called Jesus, there are certain foul rags that we have to take off in order to do so.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 7
Overgrown Shoeboxes
“A basic truism of modern design is that form follows function. This is self-evidently true, but the reason modern men have found themselves living, working, and worshiping in overgrown shoeboxes is that we have allowed ourselves to drift into a truncated and reductionist view of what our actual function as human beings truly is.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 7
Warning the Wrong People
“What we do need to do is go over the temptations faced by people who live in the proximity of money. Teaching on this is also found in Scripture, but we are not nearly enough on our guard about it. If someone in our congregation received a windfall inheritance of 100 million dollars, the chances are pretty good that this person would receive scores of warnings not to let it go to his head. All the people around that guy will not receive any warnings, and they are the ones who really need it.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 5