WHY STEP BACK?
"Temporary success in a city has caused many a Christian worker to begin right there to build an empire. Instead he should have built the church of Jesus Christ. Many a Christian worker has raised up a work that perhaps was worthy to be called "church life" or "body life." Once built, problems developed. He fought tooth, tongue, and nail to preserve his work. Why? I wonder. Why fight to preserve it? It will stand if it is Christ. If part of it stands, and that part is really Christ, then having nothing but that little part surviving is far better than a large work that has to be held together by reason, logic, theology, fear, accusation, doctrine, or whatever. In my judgment, the worker might seriously consider stepping back, even out--dying to his work, letting the fire fall on that work, and seeing just how much of it can survive."

Gene Edwards, The Inward Journey, p. 69.