I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.

The Spirit works through community. Somebody will have a stupid, screwy idea. That's okay. The point of having creeds and confessions and traditions is to keep us in touch with the obvious errors.

A true friend encourages us, comforts us, supports us like a big easy chair, offering us a safe refuge from the world.

As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.

Before a game, you know, I can take off my helmet, run over there and spend a few moments with someone who is dealing with so much more than I've ever had to deal with and to love on them and care about them and in front of thousands and thousands of people, you know, let them know that they're more important than all of this.

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

Community is like peace in that it is a result instead of an action. Peace results from acts of justice and behaviors of love. Community also emerges out of loving behaviors—like compassion and an embrace and forgiveness — and out of acts of justice.

A person is a person through other persons.

At the judgment Jesus will not ask us about our gifts. He will ask if our cheeks have touched the cheeks of those who suffer, if our hands have held the hands of those who endure pain, and if our gifts are directed at those who most need them.

God's idea of redemption is community-shaped.

The church is the place to get the kind of help you need" and to "love you to wholeness.