Stories Are Verbal Acts Of Hospitality.

The Spirit Works Through Community. Somebody Will Have A Stupid, Screwy Idea. That's Okay. The Point Of Having Creeds And Confessions And Traditions Is To Keep Us In Touch With The Obvious Errors.

If People Don't Know Their Pastor, It's Easy To Put The Pastor On A Pedestal And Depersonalize Him Or Her. It's Also Easy For Pastors, Who Don't Know Their Congregations, Simply To Classify Congregants As Saved Or Unsaved, Involved Or Not Involved, Tithers Or Non-tithers.

That's Why I Tell Stories: To Create Readiness, To Nudge The People Toward Receptive Insight. In Their Present State They Can Stare Till Doomsday And Not See It, Listen Till They're Blue In The Face And Not Get It.

The Task Of The Prophet Is Not To Smooth Things Over But To Make Things Right.

You Don't Make Your Words True By Embellishing Them With Religious Lace. In Making Your Speech Sound More Religious, It Becomes Less True.