Monday, September 18, 2006

What the heck...

So what do you make of this? In Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution (p.98), he tells of a time the late Rich Mullins spoke at a Wheaton College chapel service (that's the only good thing I can say about WC). Rich said:
"You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too... (and he paused in the awkward silence)... But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."
Hmf. Any thoughts?

6 comments:

Tammie said...

This is like having an internet book club! When I read that, I could hardly imagine the silence in the room. Sometimes it seems we need a brutally honest assessment of where we are as individuals and as a church and in this moment, Mullins delivered both.

I'm not so sure so much has changed and it's been, what, more than 10 years since Mullins gave that talk.

Ryan said...

Some times maybe we need to hear things like that. It puts doctrines into focus and makes us feel like we don't have the answer to everything. I like the quote, even if it does sound a bit like an attack.

dan said...

Tammie & Ryan,
I agree with you both. I LOVE this quote, as hard as it is to swallow. And the thing I miss about Rich is his ability to say stuff like this and not have it come off like an attack. Not too many people can do that. (I wish I could). :)
peace,
dh

Anonymous said...

That's interesting. Thanks for posting it.

Milton Stanley said...

Jesus also told the rest of us to sell our possessions and give to the poor (Luke 12:33).

Robin said...

Dan, I'm finally reading through all the IR posts.

Wow.......:/

And on this one, O U C H.

Continuing on (and this book has just gone to the top of my list).