Kim Fabricius has been a genuine theological treat since I discovered his work a couple of years ago via the excellent Ben Myers blog Faith and Theology. Today, via a Tweet by British Baptist Andy Goodliff I discovered that Kim had unexpectedly died over the weekend, aged a mere 69, and despite the current UK heatwave, I went cold with the news!
I cannot begin to tell you the sheer joy a theological realist can give. Kim had a gift that I think was quite unique, one of those people who would definitely be on those Dinner Party Guest Lists that we knock up every know and then. His love for God and the centrality of Christ was totally inspiring. He knew in Whom he believed and it inspired genuine faith in so many others.
For the sake of time, and in honour of Kim’s work, here is a list of his short and alarming sayings he so often wrote, called ‘Doodlings’ over at Faith and Theology. These ones have been copied from Andy Goodliff’s post from 20th July 2015:
If there were cameras at Calvary, Christianity would be a cliché.
Sermons are like basketball games: everything is won or lost in the last five minutes.
Jesus said, “Where two are three are gathered together in my name, there is the C of E in 50 years.”
To all ministers troubled by a sense of failure – and your point is?
What is heaven like? A lot like jail: no rich people.
People often talk of church planting when they mean church cloning.
The best sermon I’ve ever preached is probably the worst sermon they’ve ever heard.
So you’re a minister. Do you have an office? If you do, you’re not a minister. A CEO has an office, a minister has a study.
A woman once asked me why I never preach on taking Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour. “Because, ma’am, I preach on the Bible.”
Any preacher who brandishes a book and declares “God says …!” can only be waving the Qur’an, not the Bible.
Sermons are like apples. They come in sharp and sweet, crisp and soft, dry and juicy, and they ripen at different times of the year. And no one likes the core.
The difference between a Barth and a Piper is that the former glorifies God, the latter deifies Glory.
For some complementarians, it’s wasn’t Adam and Eve, it was Adam and Jeeves.
A Methodist friend of mine asked me if I would help him with a talk he was preparing on Arminianism. I said, “Only if it’s a eulogy.”
For a quintessential oxymoron, “successful church” ranks right up there with “smartphone”.
God invented the church to give atheists a fighting chance.
Contemporary translation of Mark 14:26b: “On the way, Jesus paused to check his Facebook page. It said: ‘You have 0 friends’.”
“Cognitive Therapy”? You mean “preaching”?
Creationists do not disbelieve in science. On the contrary, creationists believe only in science – crap science.
A proposal for the translation of ekklesia: “kindergarten”.
Prosperity Gospel Jesus: “I am the Alpha and the Romeo.”
We pray for Kim’s family, his followers and for his close friend Ben Myers, whose book on the Apostles’ Creed I just bought this very morning! We mourn with you.
RIP Kim Fabricius. The most alarming, realistic, hilarious, hopeful, inspiring pessimist I ever read!
Gralefrit Theology 