Being deeply contented with God in my everyday life is a focused attitude. It is always available. It means practicing letting go of my obsession with how I'm doing. It means training myself to learn to actually be present with people, and seeking to love them.

The most important criterion is this: hire someone whose character and humility and attitude you would like to have reproduced in your church and in yourself.

Art is built on the deepest themes of human meaning: good and evil, beauty and ugliness, life and death, love and hate. No other story has incarnated those themes more than the story of Jesus.

Churches need to figure out how they will address the spiritual lives of their staffs and leadership teams.

Learning something new is a fabulous way to be refreshed. When work can grind you down, something about learning a new activity thrills the soul. It reminds you that the world is bigger than your desk and your to-do list.

Women are the first witnesses to the resurrection and pillars of the early church.

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

With an apple I will astonish Paris.

I don't understand it. Jack will spend any amount of money to buy votes but he balks at investing a thousand dollars in a beautiful painting.

I will preach with my brush.

Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.

In art, there is no need for color; I see only light and shade. Give me a crayon, and I will paint your portrait.