Lord, what would you have me do?

I finished the Hole in Our Gospel yesterday and I am still chewing on the book, wondering, “Am I doing what I can? Am if fulfilling my Christ-desired responsibility?” My gut feels like I can do more than eat rice and beans next week… If you know me, you realize that I need to think and stew and ponder… I am not a person who generally acts quickly.

To give my mind space to deliberate and to reinforce some of the key points of the book, I decided to collect one-liners and short quotes from the second half of Stern’s book.

We’ve drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium -Paul Harvey

Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand -Leo Durocher

Our greatest power to change the world is released when we come together in collective action to organize and focus the resources of the whole body of Christ.

A church that lives within its four walls is not church at all -Morgan Chilulu

If you look at the “power lines” that flow through our society and our world, money is the current that flows through them. So, to better understand the spiritual priorities of our churches -and ourselves- we have to do what any detective would do: “follow the money.”

Our checkbooks speak more honestly of our priorities than our church membership -R. Scott Rodin

Obedience to the Great Commission has more consistently been poisoned by affluence than by anything else. -Ralph Winter

Actions springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. -Detrich Bonhoffer

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. -Billy Sunday

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

We have, in fact, reduced the gospel to a mere transaction involving the right beliefs rather than seeing in it the power to change the world.



The difference between pre- and postresurrection disciples was astonishing. Fear became courage; timidity became boldness; uncertainty became confidence as their lives were given over to the revolution that the gospel… envisioned.

God has created each of us with a unique contribution to make to our world and our times. No other person has our same abilities, motivations, network of friends and relationships, perspective, ideas, or experiences. When we, like misplaced puzzle pieces, fail to show up, the overall picture is diminished.

God never asked us to give what we do not have… But he cannot use what we will not give.

Be the change that you want to see in the world. -Mahandas Gandhi

My faith demands -this is not optional- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. -Jimmy Carter

That bread which you keep belongs to the hungry; that coat which you preserve in your wardrobe, to the naked; those shoes which are rotting in your possession to the shoeless; that gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy. Wherefore, as often as you are able to help others, and refuse, so often did you do them wrong. -Augustine

“God can’t steer a parked car” (Earl Palmer). If we sit in the parking lot with our engines turned off, just waiting for a voice form the sky, we’ll never get anywhere in our quest to solve the world’s problems. We need to at least “start our engines.”

Make your life a mission -not an intermission -Arnold Glasgow

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? -Robert Kennedy

We can do no great things, only small things with great love -Mother Teresa

Lord, what would you have me do? What would you have us do???