The Church--A Hospital for Sinners (The Ragamuffin Gospel)
"The Ragamuffin Gospel was written with a specific reading audience in mind. This book is not for the super-spiritual...It is not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules rather than run the risk of living in union with Jesus...The Ragamuffin Gospel was written for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out...It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don’t have it altogether and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace… It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents...It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grace disappointment to God...it is for anyone who has grown weary and discouraged along the way."
However, the one quote that radically revolutionized my understanding of Christianity was this one: Morton Kelsey wrote: "The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners."
(From a sermon by Chris Jordan, God’s Amazing Grace, 12/5/2009)