Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived. Shane Claiborne More Quotes by Shane Claiborne More Quotes From Shane Claiborne Dance until they kill you, and then we'll dance some more. Shane Claiborne I have this certain reluctance when it comes to this idea that we are spiritual but not religious and we want Jesus but not the church. Why can't we have both? Shane Claiborne religious spiritual jesus This is the company we keep when it comes to the death penalty: China, the number one executing country; Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, those are the top 4, and number 5 is the US. And those are not countries that are known as champions for human rights, you know. Shane Claiborne iran rights country Rather than finding the devil "out there," we battle the devil within us. The revolution starts inside each of us. Shane Claiborne devil revolution battle As my friend said that when people say the church is full of hypocrites, he says we always have room for more. Shane Claiborne church hypocrite people Jesus is challenging that when addressing "who is your neighbor" and he has a lot of hard things to say about family, "unless you hate your own family you are not going to be a disciple." He is challenging the limits of our compassion and our love as if someone's kid suffers it should be as devastating to us as if it were our own kid. That is what the early church said. Shane Claiborne hate kids jesus We have to use our discontentment to engage rather than disengage - our hope has to be more powerful than our cynicism. Shane Claiborne cynicism powerful use We're remembering both the good and the bad in our history together in this world. This isn't an attempt to make people feel bad every morning and to force them to go stick their fingers in a wall socket. We chose these things we included as a way to point people toward the possibility of transformation even while remembering the great pain we have experienced as humanity. Shane Claiborne wall pain morning We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage. Jesus and the early Christians had a marvelous political imagination. They turned all the presumptions and ideas of power and blessing upside down. Shane Claiborne blessing christian jesus I always tell our community that we should attract the people Jesus attracted and frustrate the people Jesus frustrated. It's certainly never our goal to frustrate, but it is worth noting that the people who were constantly agitated were the self-righteous, religious elite, the rich, and the powerful. But the people who were fascinated by him, by his love and grace, were folks who were already wounded and ostracized — folks who didn't have much to lose, who already knew full well that they were broken and needed a Savior. Shane Claiborne powerful religious jesus The question becomes not just how to accumulate more, but how to covet less. Shane Claiborne I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor...I truly believe that when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end. Shane Claiborne tragedy christian believe One thing that's clear in the Scriptures is that the nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead the nations to peace. Shane Claiborne scripture clear people Tony Campolo and I both speak a lot, and we began to notice that there were some crowds of old folks that desperately needed some youthful energy, and there were other crowds of young folks that desperately needed some aged wisdom. Shane Claiborne crowds energy speak The best critique of what is wrong is the practice of something better. So let's stop complaining about the church we've experienced and work on becoming the church we dream of. Shane Claiborne church practice dream Faith is believing in the impossible because we have a God who is master of impossible. Shane Claiborne masters impossible believe Certainly the institutional church is ill. It's hemorrhaging young people at an astronomical rate. Shane Claiborne church young people The church is like Noah's ark. It stinks, but if you get out of it, you'll drown. Shane Claiborne ark stink church That is part of our critique of some of the charity and service work is that we can still keep relationships at a distance by creating programs that offer services but we don't really create a reconciled community. Shane Claiborne creating distance community In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion - I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, 'I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you.' If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is. Shane Claiborne christian doors believe
