The moment the organic unity of belief and behaviour is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created.

One way to define spiritual life is getting so tired and fed up with yourself you go on to something better, which is following Jesus.

The religious leader is the most untrustworthy of leaders; in no other station do we have so many opportunities for pride, covetousness and lust, and with so many excellent disguises to keep such ignobility from being found out and called to account.

That's the whole spiritual life. It's learning how to die. And as you learn how to die, you start losing all your illusions, and you start being capable now of true intimacy and love.

Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.

The role of the pastor is to embody the gospel. And of course to get it embodied, which you can only do with individuals, not in the abstract.

Stories are verbal acts of hospitality.