Sublime

society itself becomes “a collection of strangers, each pursuing his or her own interests under minimal constraints.”

your church’s relationships — with its community, with its recent and deeper past, and with other churches and ministries.

As Rawls put it, “Lacking a sense of longterm security and the opportunity for meaningful work and occupation is not only destructive of citizens’ self-respect but of their sense that they are members of society and not simply caught in it.”

When we have too many slots to fill, we tend to view people as potential slot-fillers. When people serve not because of God’s call but because they have been drafted, the quality of ministry suffers.

when we describe the things that drive our lives in terms of idolatry, postmodern people do not put up much resistance.

Not only have we lost the public square, but the supposed high ground of our churches is no safe place either.