10 Comments You’re Least Likely to Hear at Church

1. Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front pew.

2. I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes overtime.

3. Personally I find witnessing more enjoyable than golf.

4. I decided to give our church the $500 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.

5. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the junior high Sunday School class.

6. Forget the denominational minimum salary; let’s pay our pastor so [s]he can live like we do.

7. I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!

8. Since we’re all here, let’s start the service early.

9. Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.

10. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign! [From: Preaching Now Newsletter].



Thought-provoking Bonhoeffer Quote

While doing my devotions this morning I came upon this thought-provoking Bonhoeffer quotation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his Letters & Papers From Prison, pp. 382-383, shared a vision of the church, which he had hoped to put forth in another book. This vision, in my humble opinion, is still as fresh and pertinent for us today as it was back in the 1940s when Bonhoeffer spent his last days in prison prior to his martyrdom.

“The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell people of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others. It must not under-estimate the importance of human example (which has its origins in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching); it is not abstract argument, but example, that gives its word emphasis and power.”