Theology Stories

Sara Maitland has defined theology as … “(1) the art of telling stories about the divine and “(2) the art of listening to those stories.”

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

The Scripture Manger

God has given spiritual navigators a compass: the Scriptures. The Scriptures point us to Christ. They enable us to locate the North Star. They are not Christ. They are not what we worship. But the compass points us to our life work—following Christ. 

"The Scriptures are the manger in which Christ is laid." —Martin Luther

Salty Baptism

"Salt was such an important symbol in the early church that when someone was baptized, a pinch of salt was placed on the new believer’s tongue. Purified in Christ, we are called to be a purifying agent in the world."

- Leonard Sweet. AQUACHURCH 2.0

"Search blessed salt"

Doomed At Age Seven

"I was doomed to go to hell by the time I was 7. I had been told that if you smoke cigarettes and drink beer, you’re going to hell. And by 7, I was gone."

Former Methodist Willie Nelson

Make Holes In The Darkness

"Robert Louis Stevenson, who was very ill as a child, recorded a childhood incident in his diary. He was seated by a window at nightfall, watching a lamplighter light the street lights below. His nurse came into the room and asked him what he was doing. “I’m watching a man make holes in the darkness,” 

- Leonard Sweet

The Bee Fertilizes The Flower It Robs

Charles A. Beard. He was once asked by one of his students whether he might be able to put the lessons he had garnered over a lifetime of historical study into a few brief maxims. Beard compiled and offered these four brief sentences: 

a. Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power. 

b. The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly fine. 

c. The bee fertilizes the flower it robs. 

d. When it is dark enough you can see the stars.20

"Sometimes I feel like the most liberal person among conservatives, and sometimes like the most conservative among liberals. How can I fit together my religious past with my spiritual present?"

- Philip Yancey. Soul Survivor.

Mango Tree Missionary

"Jeff insists that more good conversations, more transactions, and more organized system. His point is that ministry in Africa happens more effectively at the mango tree level than in any sort of organized “church planting” or “discipleship” or “evangelism” model."

- Marla..... who lived with and observes the movements of  Heidi Frazee Jeff Frazee in some often forgotten place in French West Africa.

Best Definition of Leadership

"A leader reminds people of their first love. A leader helps people remember the first time they heard the music."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

No Myth Pulsates Life - Einstein

“You accept the historical existence of Jesus?” 

“Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

- Albert Einstein (Interview with Albert Einstein in The Saturday Evening Post 1929)

Jesus In All Cultures

"Sighting Jesus in Every Culture First, Jesus the Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. But our experiences of Christ depend on our personal and cultural coordinates. Jesus is not an alien force, a nonnative source, or an import that comes into a culture. Jesus is an indigenous illumination of what is already there.

Some years ago, the distinguished southern churchman and theologian Albert Mollegen was lecturing to a group of laypeople in Virginia on the topic of “Revelation.” It was loaded with technical distinctions and sophisticated analysis. At the end, the professor entertained questions from the audience, and a bewildered and slightly defeated woman arose and said, “Dr. Mollegen, how does God speak to you?” The great man thought about that for a moment, and then abandoned his professorial demeanor. “In English, ma’am. With a Tidewater accent.”

Jesus transcends every known culture. God comes to the Chinese in a Chinese accent. Jesus appears to the African in a Swahili cadence. Jesus appears to the American Indian in a Shoshone beat. Jesus appears to a West Virginian in an Appalachian accent. All cultures share in the pre-Incarnation mystery. Even the culture of first-century Palestine couldn’t contain but one look at Jesus—there is not a single story of Jesus, but four basic stories, with multiple stories within those stories. When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended, he became the exalted Christ, a universalized presence and power. He did not take his Jewishness with him into heaven. In the garden with Mary, Jesus says “touch me not” or “do not hold on to me” (John 20:17). In other words, Mary, I’m not what I used to be. Things are different now."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0