"... we must never see poverty or justice as 'issues' that need solutions; rather we must see the human beings at the heart of those issues as people who need and deserve our love and respect."(p.163)"... the Church in America must confront the uncomfortable challenge of being endowed with an abundance of blessings in an extremely poor world." (p.172)"If church leaders do not have an outward vision to become salt and light in our world, to promote social and spiritual transformation, pursue justice, and proclaim the whole gospel, then the Church will fail to realize its potential as an agent of change. It will become inwardly focused on meeting the needs of its members, to the exclusion of its nonmembers. It will be a spiritual cocoon, where Christians can retreat from a hostile world, rather than a 'transformation station' whose primary objective is to change the world." (p.179)"If your income is $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world's population! ...Our difficulty is that we see our American lifestyles as normative, when in fact they are grossly distorted compared to the rest of the world. We don't believe we are wealthy, so we don't see it as our responsibility to help the poor. We are deceived."(p.215-216)"... not all parts of the American Dream are consistent with Christian values.... Can we rightfully delight in our own personal happiness and material comfort when we know that they are out of reach for billions of people in our world?" (p.204)
"When historians look back in one hundred years, what will they write about this nations of 340,000 churches? ...Will schoolchildren read in disgust about a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics?" (p.238-239)
The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns
Quotes from Part 4: A Hole in the Church
