Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2008 Spring Issue -- Church Quotes

Current Campus CrossWalk theme: “The Emerging Challenge!” (Connecting the Lost with Christ’s love--and His Church). The following quotations relate to the church, pro and con.

“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 16:17-18).
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” ~ The Apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:9-10).
"God builds his church in the most unlikely ways and places, stirring the convictions of the heart, bringing men and women to the knowledge of sin, to repentance, to the Savior Himself--and knitting them together in His body." ~ Charles Colson, The Body (page 83).
"The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing assembly. The church is you who pray, not where you pray." ~ John Havlik, People-Centered Evangelism
“When we say, ‘I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,’ we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the church. This challenge is especially great because the church rarely asks for forgiveness.” ~ Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with the teachings of Jesus, but I am suspicious of organized religion.” ~ Madonna
“The neer to the church, the further from God.” ~ John Heywood, Proverbes, Chap. ix. 1565.
“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” ~ Lenny Bruce, The Essential Lenny Bruce
“Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.” ~ Emile Zola (1840 – 1902).
“It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.” ~ Dorothy Sayers.
“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions my be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945), Life Together, p. 27.
“Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945), Life Together, p. 30.
“‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” ~ The Apostle Paul (Ephesians 5:31-32).