Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered Quotes

“It is essential for us all to realize that admitting to brokenness is not to doubt the healing and restoring grace of God. Rather, the brokenness needs to call us to a dynamic discipleship, which grows through faith beyond the mere acknowledgment that brokenness is all that we can expect from life.”
― James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community

“The Bible contains many stories of dysfunctional heroes because its purpose is to show us our exceptional God, a God of love and grace and power; who works through people who have limitations - just like we do. These stories help us develop a vocabulary to identify and describe the reality of brokenness in our own lives.”
― James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community

“The way of grace is a pathway of change. it is a pathway of change that leads us to depths of character, integrity, joy, and true friendship with God. The truly good news of the gospel is that God wants us to be his friends and invites us to live in relationship with him. When we really see the outstretched hand of God, our whole view of the spiritual life changes. Instead of being just something else to do for a God who is distant, we see for what it really is: an offer for us to spend time with the Savior, who draws near every day and in every moment. Receiving is more than avoiding the harmful; it is cultivating openness to the spiritually helpful.”
― James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community

“we cannot cure our own brokenness nor can we manage it. Unfortunately, the longer we spend around the church the more we tend to ourselves less as sinners and more as people who are "getting it together" avoiding the deep transformation that Christ can only do in us!”
― James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community

“Christian spiritual formation requires that we actively and continually receive from God. We need to be extraordinary consumers of grace; we need to receive his words of love and correction, his forgiveness, his affirmation, his life, and the list goes on. Without receiving from God, there is no true formation.”
― James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community