We cannot be too careful about the words we use; we start out using them and they end up using us.

Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity. But church is difficult. Sooner or later, though, if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with church. I say sooner.

If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much, you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.

Waiting means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions.

I get asked, 'What do you miss most about being a pastor?' I think it's the intimacy, the incredible gift of intimacy. You go through death with somebody, with their families, and there's an intimacy that comes through that that is just incomparable.

The poor are not a problem to be solved but a people to join.

My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives.