William Henry Willimon famous quotes

To speak the gospel skillfully without attempting to perform the gospel is a false proclamation of the gospel.
-- William Henry Willimon

#Speak #Attempting #Proclamation

Just when I get my church all sorted out, sheep from the goats, saved from the damned, hopeless from the hopeful, somebody makes a move, get out of focus, cuts loose, and I see why Jesus never wrote systematic theology. So you and I can give thanks that the locus of Christian thinking appears to be shifting from North America and northern Europe where people write rules and obey them, to places like Africa and Latin America where people still know how to dance.
-- William Henry Willimon

#Christian #Jesus #Latin

Preaching that is boring is preaching that talks first about us and then only tangentially about God. Preaching that is faithful is preaching that talks first about God and then only secondarily and derivatively talks about us. The God of Scripture is so much more interestingly than we are.
-- William Henry Willimon

#Faithful #Religion #Scripture

We are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people, but because we are proud, arrogant people. The Christmas story-the one according to Luke, not Dickens-is not about how blessed it is to be givers but about how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers.
-- William Henry Willimon

#Blessed #People #Proud

We did not choose to believe that personal choice is the highest human virtue. Rather, we were taught, formed, forced to believe nothing is important in life other than that which we have personally chosen. The irony is that the belief that nothing is important in life other than that which we have personally chosen is a belief that we have not personally chosen! The supermarket and shopping mall have been our school.
-- William Henry Willimon

#Believe #School #Shopping

The question is not if the candidate's heart is favorable to Christianity, but if he has Christ as his starting point even for politics, and will speak out His name!

Speak the language of the person you want to become.

How do I speak Spanish? Not too well.

Facts speak plainer than words

Only the impossible is worth attempting. In everything else one is sure to fail.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

This is systems security for the Central Intelligence Agency. We would like to know why you are attempting to hack one of our classified databases.

If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near to Him, we may be sure we will get none by keeping away from Him.

Nothing makes you look older than attempting to look young.

. . . unless there comes to the Nation a greater emancipation than Lincoln's Proclamation effected, it is doomed, it is bound to go down.