David Kitani

“And he cares for me! To be assured of this becomes the answer to the threat of violence-yea, to violence itself. To the degree to which a man knows this, he is unconquerable from within and without.” - Howard Thurman (Jesus and the Disinherited)

"Why do pastors so often treat congregations with the impatience and violence of developers building a shopping mall instead of the patient devotion of a farmer cultivating a field?" - Eugene Peterson

"There are a thousand ways of being religious without submitting to Christ’s lordship, and people are practiced in most of them." - Eugene Peterson

Prayer, intensity of spirit at attention before God, is at the heart of both writing and pastoring. - Eugene Peterson

“How, with my existing abilities and opportunities, can I be of greatest service to other people, knowing what I do of God’s will and of human need?” - Tim Keller

“a fish…is free only if it is restricted to water…Freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones…So the commandments of God…are a means of liberation…through them God calls us to be what he built us to be.” - T.Keller

“But these quests were always a little suspect: was it really more of God they were after, or were they avoiding the God who was revealing himself to them?” - Eugene Peterson

“…I will most certainly continue to flee the presence of the Lord, for that is the one place where I am sure to be exposed as a pretender.” - Eugene Peterson in Under the Unpredictable Plant

“Confession and forgiveness are the concrete forms in which we sinful people love one another. Often I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in Christian community.” - Henry Nouwen (In the Name of Jesus)

“Therefore true ministry must be mutual. When the members of a community of faith cannot truly know and love their shepherd, shepherding quickly becomes a subtle way of exercising power over others and begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits.” - Henry Nouwen

“This unconditional & unlimited love is what the Evangelist John calls God’s first love…The love that often leaves us doubtful, frustrated, angry, and resentful is the second love, that is to say, the affection, sympathy, encouragement, and support we receive from [others].” HN

“Seeking a call that evades suffering is a decision neither to follow Jesus nor to live in the real world.” - Mark Labberton

“Few things make us need the gospel more than the experience of the church.” - Mark Labberton in Called: the Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today

“Jesus called people to follow him, but to do it together. It is important to call people to belong to each other not only to Jesus.” - Kevin Blue

“When I feed the hungry, I am called a saint; when I ask why they are hungry, I am called a radical, a communist!” - Dom Helder Camara

"By giving God his proper place, I free my relationships from unreasonable expectations. And I free myself from fear - because I know that somebody out there has got me back." - Joan Morgan

"So while we go ahead and kill each other over one tiny-a** slice of the American Pie, the white boys walk away with the lion's share." - Joan Morgan

"According to Kweli, the don'ts of religion, the Ten Commandments, the thou-shalt-nots, are not what is needed. What is needed are the do's." - Ralph Watkins

"The prophetic message that had once been in the hands of the black church had been abandoned, and now the hip-hop prophets had to pick up where the institutional church had left off." - Ralph Watkins (Hip-Hop Redemption)