The cause of Christ has been hurt more by Sunday-morning benchwarmers who pretend to love Christ, who call Him Lord but do not His commands, than by all the publicans and sinners. They say they are evangelical but not evangelistic. They glory in being… disciples of the Lowest Common Denominator. They traffic in unfelt truth and refuse to get excited over religion. Their ideal service is “a mild-mannered man standing before a group of mild-mannered people, exhorting everybody to be more mild-mannered”… How many nice, comfortable, lovely people rest smilingly in church pews, their conscience drugged, their wills paralyzed, in self-satisfied stupor, utterly unconscious of their danger while the Lord of the Lampstands warns them, “I am about to spit you out of My mouth.
— Vance Havner (1901–1986), Prediger
Topics: Church & Congregation, Discipleship
Occasions: For Reflection
Vance Havner
Vance Havner (1901–1986) war ein US-amerikanischer baptistischer Pastor, Buchautor und überregional tätiger Erweckungsprediger. Er wurde durch seinen bildhaften, aphoristischen Sprachstil bekannt und forderte in seinen Predigten kompromisslos persönliche Umkehr und geistliche Erneuerung, während er theologische Aufweichungen scharf kritisierte. Heutigen Bibellesern bieten seine prägnanten Zitate und Andachten pointierte Denkanstöße für eine entschiedene christliche Nachfolge.
All quotes by Vance Havner (40)
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Tim Keller
The Church is not a cultural club, but the family of Jesus.
Pope Francis
The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.
John Charles Ryle
In essential unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all this charity.
Rupertus Meldenius
Henry Ward Beecher
Philip Yancey
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
In a congregation, every person must be able to be as their heart truly is.
Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf