Jason Byassee, an executive director for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School:
It is striking just how popular Jesus still is. It still seems to make sense to love Jesus while hating the church. This view assumes Jesus popped into history fully formed as though from the head of Zeus, with no history, no people, no story. But Jesus is a Jew. And the effort to uproot Jesus from the church makes as much sense as loving someone’s head, but not their body; or admiring Thomas Jefferson and sneering at the Constitution. Jesus is the foundation and cornerstone and head of the church. Without the people Jesus comes from, without the people Jesus births into the world, there is no Jesus. The people Jesus births into the world are called “Christian.”
– “Not a Christian, but a Christ-follower?” (Call & Response)
Related
- Newsweek: Andrew Sullivan, “Forget the Church. Follow Jesus.”
- Christianity Today: Mark Galli, “Andrew Sullivan Says Forget the Church. That’s Like Saying Forget Grace.”
Love this quote. Thanks for sharing. Unrelated to this post but related to a few posts below, Don Sweeting’s tribute to Colson: http://donsweeting.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/chuck-colson-r-i-p-confounding-the-skeptics-with-a-faithful-presence-and-a-prophet-voice-for-christ/