If the aim of the church is to grow, the way to do it is to make people feel good. And when people discover that there are other ways to feel good, they leave the church they no longer need. The relevant church is sowing the seeds of its own irrelevance, and losing its identity to boot. The big question today has become how to get the baby boomers back, what techniques and methods will do the trick. Polls are taken on what baby boomers want and churches are competing to make sure they get it.
— Carl Braaten (1929–2023), Theologe & Professor für Systematische Theologie
Topics: Church & Congregation, Meaning & Identity
Occasions: For Reflection
All quotes by Carl Braaten (1)
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