Russell A. Cardwell Online

Nothing is really ours until we share it.

—C. S. Lewis

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The sinner, apart from grace, is unable to be willing, and unwilling to be able.
—W. E. Best

• Winning Souls, not Beating Them

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
—St. Augustine

• Friedensspruch: Unity, Liberty, Charity
• One Hundred Pianos
• Gratitude Works

Neuroscientists are learning that morality and altruism are hard-coded into the human brain: If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural - washingtonpost.com.

There is nothing new under the sun:

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

—Romans 2:14-15

• God’s Palms
• Our Restless Hearts
• God’s Word and God’s Works
• And Still, and Still
• Used for God’s Love

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

—Corrie ten Boom

• Half Full or Half Empty?
• Empty Hands
• Outside In
• Work With Love
• Ask, Knock

Again referring to the introduction of Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel, (see this previous post) McLaren and Ocampo ask:

Are we creating a self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centered subculture? . . . This book is our attempt . . . to get us thinking about the possibility of unintentional betrayal of the gospel by those entrusted with it.

This is exactly what the church needs to be doing on a routine basis: reaching into the culture to find out what questions the unchurched are asking and reassessing the adequacy of our theology to ensure that we can correlate our theological answers to the new questions the culture proposes.

Why is the church simply not working for so many people? Why do so many pass through untouched? Why do so many leave unfulfilled? Why, after years or a lifetime in the church, is there no discernable difference in the lives of so many active Christians?

I think it was G. K. Chesterton who said that “the best argument against Christianity is Christians themselves.” How can the church regain its integrity and its relevance?

• Winning Souls, not Beating Them
• Anselm or Finney?
• More Messy Meditation
• Reading List 2007