clayton faulkner

One of the major reasons why the church has fallen prey to a cultural accommodation is that it has become disconnected from its roots in Scripture, in the ancient church and in its heritage through the centuries. . . . If it is true that the road to the future lies in the past, it is also true that when the past has been lost or neglected there is no certain future. . . . When the past is lost, as it now is in our Western world, there is nothing left to focus on except the self.

Robert E. Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 16-17.

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Currently there is a growing awareness that worship is the central ministry of the Church: Worship is the center of the hourglass, the key to forming the inner life of the Church. Everything the Church does moves toward public worship, and all its ministries proceed from worship. Good worship creates community, evangelical warmth, hospitality to outsiders, inclusion of cultural diversity, leadership roles for men and women, intergenerational involvement, personal and community formation, healing, reconciliation, and other aspects of pastoral care. Because worship is itself an act of witness, it is the door to church growth, to missions and evangelism, and to issues of social justice. Worship now stands at the center of the Church’s life and mission in the world.

Robert Webber, Planning Blended Worship, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1998, p. 29.

I have always been amazed at what can happen when we simply plant the good seed of God’s Word in the good soil of broken people. We have an expression in our movement: bad people make good soil – there’s a lot of fertilizer in their lives.

Neil Cole, Organic Church, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2005, p. 72.

Faith is the building that depends upon both the foundation of Scripture and the columns of the sacraments. Both are the word of God.

Leanne Van Dyk, A More Profound Alleluia, Eerdman’s, Grand Rapids, MI, 2005, p. 75.

Baptism is a mark of our new identity, based not on the power of tribe or family, education or status, race or gender, but on the power of God’s promises. This is the gift of an identity that bears the marks of God’s saving power. Infant baptism especially conveys this – emphasizing that before we have the power to do anything, God’s power is for us. Similarly, in adult baptism we enter into the death and resurrection of the One who alone has power to triumph over sin and death. God’s power, evident in baptism, is the power both to promise and to be faithful, to create and re-create, to name and rename, to die and to rise.

The Dangerous Act of Worship p. 120