"Pathetic Pietistic Backwater"

In his blog, The Oversight of Souls, Ray Van Neste quotes the Scottish preacher and theologian James Stewart who wrote:

“no church is anything more than a pathetic pietistic backwater unless it is first and fundamentally and all the time a world missionary church.”

It might be overstated. It might be too harsh. But at least in part, it's probably true. And it stings.