The Church as a Sect

I want us to bear in mind that the church is never more true to itself than when it remembers its origin as a sect, as a minority opinion, countercultural and antiestablishment. Questioning the rightness of things as they are has again and again been the spark of the church's renewal and the hallmark of its faithfulness to the gospel.

D. Rensberger, Overcoming the World; Politics and Community in the Gospel of John, London: SPCK, 1988, 136

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