Powerful Quotes About Pain

I am LOVING what I am experiencing, along with 30 amazing youth workers, in our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate weeklong intensives here in Pasadena this week.  There’s a lot of great discussion in our Theology and Philosophy of Urban Youth Ministry class taught by Lina Thompson.  Kris Rocke, whose statements are quoted below, is a guest lecturer.

Here are some quotes that have got me thinking about pain, and its importance in our growth and our ministries:

Kathleen O’Connor:  The first condition of healing is to give voice to pain.

Kris Rocke:  Your authority is tied to your wounds…

Helmut Thielicke:  The greatest problem with the church is our inability to suffer.

Richard Rohr:  if you don’t transform your experience of pain, you’re going to transmit it.

Kris Rocke:  Almost on a daily basis, I use my distortions of the faith to hide from reality.  And so do you.

©2010 Fuller Youth Institute