The Great Evangelical Recession Quotes

Christ’s incarnation was less a reaction or response than it was a proactive demonstration of love:

evangelicals overestimate our size and influence as a movement.

With each younger generation, evangelicals account for less of their generation.

Billy Graham’s crusades likely marked the peak of mass evangelism.

Not just convincing converts, but making disciples? Not just filling the seats in auditoriums, but training the souls of transformed individuals? Are we valuing the quality of our discipleship more than the quantity of our attendance? Jesus’ words and life reveal that evangel-followers can know whether they are succeeding or failing by this: whether new growing disciples are being made or not.

The American church has traded shepherding—the highest call of a pastor—for management. In the worst cases, we have traded it for showmanship and social engineering.

It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages, while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run, and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of

Growing up on the Atlantic Coast, I spent long hours working on intricate sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath my hands. One year, for several days in a row, I was accosted by bullies who smashed my creations. Finally I tried an experiment: I placed cinder blocks, rocks, and chunks of concrete in the base of my castles. Then I built the sand kingdoms on top of the rocks. When the local toughs appeared (and I disappeared), their bare feet suddenly met their match. Many people see the church in grave peril from a variety of dangers: secularism, politics, heresies, or plain old sin. They forget that the church is built upon a Rock, over which the gates of hell itself shall not prevail.[9]