I love being alone. I learned that from my father, I think, who loved his own company.
Barbara Brown TaylorIf churches saw their mission in the same way, there is no telling what might happen. What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? What if the churchโs job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?
Barbara Brown TaylorIf God is about putting God ahead of myself then I've just quit being religious, because that's what got me into such deep trouble.
Barbara Brown TaylorHaving been brought up with a definition of faith as adherence to a set of beliefs, I have more and more begun to turn instead toward a definition of faith as openness to truth, whatever truth may turn out to be.
Barbara Brown TaylorI went to the little church in the country after ten years in the city. And part of my dream was to sit on people's front porches with glasses of iced tea, and all that happened. I was able to send birthday cards to everyone in the parish and able to know everyone who was there on Sunday by name. And that was what I'd been looking for.
Barbara Brown Taylor