...the Holy Spirit formed [the church] to bea colony of heaven in the country of death.
Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection
So, how are we doing? As long as we simply are, that is enough. So says Georges Bernanos in Diary of a Country Priest: "[T]he church is not an ideal to be striven for; she exists and they're within her." We're doing just fine, then, no? In an age of almost desperate ecclesiastical strategic planning and marketing, let's just be who we are--to be sure, not perfect; then again:
Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection
So, how are we doing? As long as we simply are, that is enough. So says Georges Bernanos in Diary of a Country Priest: "[T]he church is not an ideal to be striven for; she exists and they're within her." We're doing just fine, then, no? In an age of almost desperate ecclesiastical strategic planning and marketing, let's just be who we are--to be sure, not perfect; then again:
If you should find the perfect church without one fault or smear,
for goodness sake don’t join that church; you’ll spoil the atmosphere!
for goodness sake don’t join that church; you’ll spoil the atmosphere!
If you should find the perfect church where all anxieties cease,
then pass it by, lest joining it you’ll mar the masterpiece!
If you should find the perfect church, then don’t you ever dare
to tread upon such holy ground; you’d be a misfit there!
But since no perfect church exists, made of imperfect men,
let’s quit looking for that church and love the one we’re in.
Yes, let’s keep working in our church until the resurrection,
and then we each will join that church without an imperfection.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN, ADAPTED
