Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter Quotes

#1. I believe that hospitality is central to the heart and ministry of Jesus and that to the extent we fail to extend this hospitality to gay people, the church will fail to walk in the way of Jesus.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#2. It can be unhelpful to wax eloquent about the inerrancy of Scripture without an accompanying acknowledgment that, while Scripture may be inerrant, there are no inerrant interpreters of Scripture.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#3. The question to ask is: do we view Scripture as stories to imaginatively live into or do we view Scripture as prescriptions for how to live?

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#4. We are pastorally-focused, not politically driven. We are relationally-focused, not program driven. We are discipleship-focused, not change driven. We are partnership-focused, not empire driven.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#5. The world I live in is composing a magnum opus to the heart-stopping, outrageously unbelievable unconditional love and acceptance of God that crushes and demolishes the vestiges of self-righteous "us and them." It's

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#6. Those on the verge of leaving the church do not want to be told the answers. They want to be invited into the conversation of seeking what is life-giving, truthful, and consistent with the person and ministry of Jesus.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#7. Might it be that the voice of truth can come from the suffering soul who has wrestled with God over mysteries and paradoxes? Might the voice of truth be the one that in wisdom and humility says, "I don't know"?

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#8. There is an irony in how Christians talk about and understand sexuality. Christians often lament the world's reductionism of sex to genital interaction and raw physical pleasures, but then they typically reduce a gay person's sexuality to just that.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#9. The Christian witness never benefits when Christian organizations are known more for what they are against than what they are for.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#10. If a young person experiences same-sex attraction, nothing you can say will change that experience. However, what you say can impact whether or not that student feels safe with you and whether or not they will be willing to share their story with you.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter

#11. My ministry is focused less on trying to teach the scriptural formula for what faithful discipleship for gay people is, and more about living with my gay friends in the pursuit of faithful discipleship.

Wendy Vanderwal-Gritter