Wandering Priest » Quotes

The Next Letter — ‘I’

Doug — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:13:21 +0000

The number two letter in my alphabetized subject quotes is the letter ‘I’. (See my earlier post using the letter ‘T’).

Identity: Have you heard about the man who said he not only had an identity crisis, but also an energy crisis. He didn’t know who he was, and he was just too tired to find out.

Injustice: Injustice is not being there for others when we are there for ourselves.

Insecurity: Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

Involvement: Martin Luther King Jr. made this observation about the Good Samaritan — “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”

Some Select Quotes

Doug — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:11:32 +0000

In 1990 we went to Singapore where we stayed for the next five years. My work permit was obtained by the church that invited me to serve as part time missions pastor. The job also included some preaching, so I began taking down short quotes that I thought I would use in sermons. My quotes were taken on 3 x 5 cards and arranged alphabetically by topic.

Here it is, twenty- five years later, and I still have those cards. I have never used them (well maybe once or twice). I still read and highlight, but I am not so disciplined in copying quotes. I suppose if I preached on other than missions topics, I might have occasion to use some of the quotes.

So I thought it would be interesting if I just went to a letter (T, in this case) and pulled out the cards I have and share some quotes with you. At least then I will feel like I have used them!

Teams: Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, can sometimes do dumb things collectively.

Technology: The sound of the second industrial revolution is clicking keyboards.

Temper: You certainly are an even-tempered person. You are always mad.

Theology: The task of theology is to maintain the integrity of the faith.

Truth: If there is no truth, then there are no lies.

Please comment and tell me if you want me to do this again; there are 25 more letters. I promise to only pick out the shortest and most interesting quotes.

May I Rant a Bit, Part II

Doug — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:45:04 +0000

Not long ago I posted an entry under the title of May I Rant a Bit in which I raised some questions about the ‘unreached people groups’ paradigm in missions. Today I came across an article, “Metrics of Missions: Measuring Faithfulness and Fruitfulness” by Justin Long (The Mission Exchange 2010:3:4-5). The following quotes are related to how we set our priorities in mission, and come under the heading “Measuring Obedience” in the article.

“Yes, the whole church is to bring the whole gospel to the whole world, as effectively as possible. Yet no organization can do this on its own, and we shouldn’t expect them to. Every organization has some level of specialization: a specific task or calling. I call this an organization’s “plausible promise,” and no statistic, no piece of research, no factoid will tell you what it should be.

What makes orphans any more worthy of ministry than seniors? or atheists in Europe any less deserving than Muslims in North Africa? I argue people in Europe have more opportunity to hear, but that shouldn’t determine the plausible promise of a specific ministry. It can only be determined by listening for God’s voice and obeying it.”

For more on this subject, see the last issue of Mission Frontiers. The entire issue focuses on the current validty of the ’unreached people groups’ concept, partly in reaction to some questions raised by the late Paul Hiebert. (As an aside, I was fortunate to have Dr. Hiebert on my doctoral dissertation committee more than twenty years ago).

A Polish Nun?

Doug — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:00:28 +0000

Here is a really good article from the New York Times. I loved his line about wanting to be a Polish nun when he grew up!

Making People Uncomfortable

Patrick Gerber — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:18:56 +0000

The last few years I have been reading, writing and speaking about social issues like HIV/AIDS, poverty, the environment, justice, and sometimes people get uncomfortable with me. So this quote from John Perkins just has to be shared: “My concern for the poor and for social justice made many evangelicals suspect I was theologically liberal. I never did understand those folks. I never questioned that the Bible was totally true. In fact, I really believed such passages as Matthew 25:31-46 and I John 3:17-18.” (Taken from When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, 2009, Moody Press, pg. 11).