We Might Be Crazy, But

COMMITMENT: (def.) Something that engages one to do something, a continuing obligation. ~ Webster’s Dictionary

" Church is the place where people ought to breathe most freely and most together. Church is the place where people ought to feel most free to be themselves and most accountable to one another." ~ Leonard Sweet ~ Leonard Sweet

“Since community alone will survive from this world into the next, it is ultimately the only thing God is doing today that has eternal significance.” ~ Dr. Gilbert Bilezikien

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

“We will never transform the world as individuals.” ~ Julie A. Gorman

“People love the idea of community more than the experience of community.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“We are a community not because we like each other or have a common task or project but because we are called together by God.” ~ Henri Nouwen

“The silent churning at the core of our beings is the tormenting need to know and to be known, to understand and to be understood, to possess and to be possessed, to belong unconditionally and forever without fear of loss, betrayal, or rejection.” ~ Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian

“The most conspicuous weakness of evangelical Protestant theology has been its lack of understanding and witness to authentic community as the fulfillment of the believer’s personal relation to God.” ~ C. N. Kraus

“Jesus Christ, by putting us in his body, determined that we would need each other as much as we need him.” ~ Richard Halverson

“ The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“It is through encounter with others that the self exists.” ~ R. S. Anderson

“When the church becomes worldly and replaces oneness with hierarchy and sanctification with stratification, modern pagans find no reason to trade one form of hell for another.” ~ Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian

“Whatever system God touches has the marks of relationship on it whether humankind in general, the nation of Israel, salvation, revelation, or the church. And this relational imprint bears both dimensions of being in relationship with God and in relationship with others.” ~ Julie A. Gorman

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense that he has attained liberation from the self.” ~ Albert Einstein

“To be in the presence of even the meanest, lowest, most repulsive specimen of humanity is still to be closer to God than when looking up into a starry sky or at a beautiful sunset. For we cannot really love a sunset; we can love only a person.” ~ Mike Mason

“For contemporary Christians, to meet regularly in small groups is not an option or a luxury. It is a biblical mandate that they must obey if they want to experience communal life and if their churches are to become biblically functioning communities.” ~ Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian

“Your people will be my people and your God my God.” ~ Ruth to Naomi (Ruth 1:16)

SURVIVOR! (The 70 CE Version) THE SADDUCEES = Pleasing God through Temple sacrifices. THE ESSENES = Pleasing God by rejecting society. THE ZEALOTS = Pleasing God by killing the bad guys. THE PHARISEES = Pleasing God through Torah observance/living. THE MESSIAH-MOVEMENT = Pleasing God by embracing the Messiah.

SURVIVOR! (The 70 CE Version) THE SADDUCEES = Pleasing God through Temple sacrifices. THE ESSENES = Pleasing God by rejecting society. THE ZEALOTS = Pleasing God by killing the bad guys. THE PHARISEES = Pleasing God through Torah observance/living. THE MESSIAH-MOVEMENT = Pleasing God by embracing the Messiah.

SURVIVOR! (The 70 CE Version) THE SADDUCEES = Pleasing God through Temple sacrifices. THE ESSENES = Pleasing God by rejecting society. THE ZEALOTS = Pleasing God by killing the bad guys. THE PHARISEES = Pleasing God through Torah observance/living. THE MESSIAH-MOVEMENT = Pleasing God by embracing the Messiah.

“We are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:16 (TNIV)

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” ~ 1 Peter 2:4-5 (NIV)

“Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don’t ever become slaves of the Law again.” ~ Galatians 5:1 (CEV)

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We Might Be Crazy, But