In differing ways, both the 16th Century Reformation and the 19th Century Oxford Movement represented a systematic attempt to return to the vision of the NT or apostolic church… the church of today needs to be constantly challenged and nourished by returning to its roots in the apostolic era. This is no historical romanticism, based on the belief that things were better in the past then they are now.
Rather, it is the realization that the church needs to be reminded of its reason for being there in the first place, if it is ever to regain its sense of mission and purpose in the world… At first glance, this respect for roots might seem to be a recipe for a reactionary mind-set, encouraging unoriginality and the stifling of creativity… [but] commitment to a tradition is not equivalent to an encrusted dogmatism, a denial of the freedom to think, or of the importance of creativity. To take Scripture seriously is to allow the past to speak to us. Alister McGrath (Reclaiming the Bible for the Church 1995)
The only part of the Bible you and I believe is the part we obey. We need to return to the actual practice of the New Testament church — not cultural, but practice.
Gretchen Gaebelein Hull ("Empowered to Serve" 1995)
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