quotations about church
This church is the pillar and stable foundation of truth, because in it soundeth the voice of the Son of God.
JOHN PHILPOT
The Examinations and Writings of John Philpot
When a church is faithless to its duties, the real church is outside its walls, in the community.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
A church can wither as surely under the ministry of soulless Bible exposition as it can where no Bible is given. To be effective the preacher's message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God's present voice to a particular people. Then, and not till then, is it the prophetic word and the man himself a prophet.
A. W. TOZER
The Life of A. W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God
People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy
Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.
EMILE ZOLA
attributed, What Great Men Think of Religion
Let us pray for the Catholic Church;
for the Churches throughout
the whole world;
that is, for their truth, unity, and stability;
that in all charity may flourish,
and truth may live.
For our own Church,
that what is lacking in it may be supplied;
what is unsound, corrected;
that all Heresies, Schisms, Scandals,
as well public as private,
may be removed.
Correct the wandering,
convert the unbelieving,
increase the faith of the Church,
destroy Heresies,
discover the crafty enemies,
crush the violent.
LANCELOT ANDREWES
The Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes
You left my heart as empty
As a Monday morning church
It used to be so full of faith and now it only hurts
And I can hear the devil whisper
"Things are only getting worse"
You left my heart as empty
As a Mondy morning church
ALAN JACKSON
"Monday Morning Church"
Gimme dat, church mother in they church hat, clap
Man that Shug Avery Color Purple coming back, clap uhh
When that whole week beat you up and stress ya
But you hear that organ playing it remind ya of ya blessings
And on another note, she just hit another note
Chills down my spine, got me crying, make me over Lord
You don't know about us though, old school church hymms
Deacons get to humming now the drummer finna burst in
(Lordy, Lordy, Lord!) Can you hear me now
Church clothes sweaty, you don't care you just get it now
Testify, how we made martyrs outta these fathers
And rose up all of his daughters to glorify Him with honor
Man I swear I saw Miss Jones with her hair did
Now its flying everywhere she don't care what her head did
She an heir, yea
Caught up in the air, yea
Probably why she clapping like Jesus just hear her prayer, yeah
KB
"Church Clap"
The church is God's vineyard.
H. BULLINGER
attributed, Day's Collacon
When a man unites with the church, he should not come saying, "I am so holy that I think I must go in among the saints," but, "O brethren, I find I am so weak and wicked that I cannot stand alone; so, if you can help me, open the door and let me enter."
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
I'm more spiritual than I am religious. I don't go to church; I go to the beach.
PAULA DEEN
Good Housekeeping, Nov. 2009
The Church had the words reason and liberty on her lips when the inalienable rights of the human race were threatened with shipwreck.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE
Letters to Young Men
The more rabidly mad the church the more pews will be filled. So fundy evangelists have the biggest, and most profitable, congregations. More moderate churches with some respect for humans as intelligent human beings are losing numbers. I think a big revival would happen in the churches if child sacrifice was reintroduced. The old symbolic body and blood just doesn't cut it anymore.
PETER KELLY
attributed, The Quotable Atheist
The Church must be intelligible to the simple as well as to the shrewd.
ROBERT HUGH BENSON
A City Set on a Hill
The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR
letter to "A.", Aug. 9, 1955
Damn the Church. Damn it for imposing impossible celibacy on its people. Damn it for hypocrisy--Christendom was littered with priests wallowing in varieties of sin. How many of them were condemned? And damn it for its hatred of women--an abuse of half the world's inhabitants, so that those who refused to be penned into its sheepfold were condemned as harlots and heretics and witches.
ARIANA FRANKLIN
The Serpent's Tale
Yeah, what I need
Is a neon church with a jukebox choir
Full of honky tonk angels
With their wings on fire
Straight pourin' out that Johnnie Walker healin'
I got a feelin'
I need a neon church
TIM MCGRAW
"Neon Church"
The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
attributed, The Quotable Atheist
That which is destroying the Church is not the outward groping of those within it nor the inward groping of those without, but the professionals who control it and who have removed the bells from its steeples.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Light in August
Nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as breach of unity.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays