If the church is to be faithful it must be formed andordered from the inside of its experience and confession and not by borrowing from sources extenal to its own life.

We pray because our life comes from God and we yield it back in prayer. Prayer is a great antidote to the illusion that we are self-made.

The deep places in our lives - places of resistance and embrace - are reached only by stories, by images, metaphors and phrases that line out the world differently, apart from our fear and hurt.

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.

The gospel is fiction when judged by the empire, but the empire is fiction when judged by the gospel.

The power of the future lies not in the hands of those who believe in scarcity but of those who trust God's abundance.

The church meets to imagine what our lives can be like if the gospel were true.

The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you, by the grace of God.

Hope does not need to silence the rumblings of crisis to be hope.

On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.

Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms.

The rose has no 'Why?' It flowers because it flowers.

After many years of self-flagellation, I've realised that beating myself up doesn't get me anywhere.

We need emotional outlets in this country, and the more artistic people we develop the better it will be for us as a nation.

A zealous Savior ought to have zealous disciples.

You may repeat the most marvelous poems. And that is not worth a cent if you don't live it.

it is amazin, she thinks, how simple appearances can be created - a rush, a smile, a new coat of paint, a slow, calm voice, a hug, a new dress - a resolve to keep out questions and cling to secrets

In a normal movie, you'd never see one guy talk for an entire page, whether good or bad.

I don't believe that I'm better than anybody, but I do believe that I'll try harder than most and I hope that people just join me for a little bit of a ride.

A few strong instincts and a few plain rules.