STAY WHIMSICAL.

community quotes

I often found myself prefering the company of people outside my congregation, men and women who did not follow Jesus. Or worse, preferring the company of my sovereign self. But soon I found that my preferences were honored by neither Scripture nor Jesus. I didn't come to the conviction easily, but finally there was no getting around it: there can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus, no wholeness in the Christian life apart from immersion and embrace of community. I am not myself by myself. Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play. – Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

Our need for identity is so powerful that we will choose a clearly defined destructive community rather than live without community at all. – Erwin Raphael McManus, Soul Carvings

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. – Martin Luther King Jr.

One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. • Chinese Proverb

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. – George Bernard Shaw

The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession. – Mark Twain

The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today. – Lyndon B. Johnson

There may be no greater proof of God than the power of community. – Erwin Raphael McManus, Soul Carvings

Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures. – Mother Teresa

There is no virtue in being out of step with others for the sole purpose of walking alone. – Erwin Raphael McManus, The Artisan Soul