“Words matter to Christians not primarily because they spread our ideas or accomplish our goals, but because they proclaim our love. For both God and humans, love is a self-communicating impulse. Love goes out from itself toward the beloved; love… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, say Smith and Denton, seems to be “colonizing many historical religious traditions and, almost without anyone noticing, converting believers in the… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“The essential mark of maturity in Christians—as in peach trees—is generativity. Mature faith bears fruit. Mature Christians are branches on which God’s love is… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“Foolish faith comes from the security of knowing that we live in God’s embrace, and with that knowledge comes a peculiar kind of courage.… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“As young people contribute to the faith community, their competence as members of that community grows; it is in doing the work of ministry… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“If teenagers lack an articulate faith, maybe it is because the faith we show them is too spineless to merit much in the way… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“What we can say with some certainty is that American young people have enormous trouble putting faith into words. It was unclear whether the… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“Part of our skittishness about Christian perfection is linguistic confusion. The English word "perfect" has absorbed the Greek notion of "teleos". When the Greeks… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“When we downshift Christian education from the paradigm of expertise to a paradigm of love, we do not dilute the importance of rigorous theological… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“divine grace is a gift, but not one we get to keep. Christ sends us into the world as he was sent: to embody… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“We may question what we believe, but most of us are pretty clear about who we love, and who loves us. It is such… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“Faith does not mean mimicking Jesus, but participating in his self-giving love—not because we have somehow chosen to be like him, but because, incredibly,… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
“With God's breath in the church we are called to exhale, but not because it's a morally good thing to do but because we… — Kenda Creasy Dean Copy Share Image
