Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership-either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or a local church.... Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.

The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said.

Disciples are those who have been so ravished with Christ that others want to be like them.

There is no cure for the social battles that we fight in our culture - and there's so much grief around race, gender, and so forth - until you eliminate "withdrawal" and "attack" and replace them with "acceptance" and "help." Once you do that and not just talk about it, these other issues will fall into place quickly. They will not fall into place at all unless it is done this way.

The spirit is the part that is supposed to consciously direct everything in the person, including the soul.

Does Christ commend the famous 'apathy' of the Stoic or the Buddhist elimination of desire? Far from it. The issue is not just feeling or desire, but right feeling or desire, or being controlled by feeling or desire.

A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.