"And the second Reformation, if it comes, will be distinguished from the first by the fact that it is a time of reticence, of stripping down, of traveling light. The church will go through its baggage and discover how much you can better do without, alike in doctrine and in organization." John Robinson.
“Generally, what I find is that the ordinary people who come to church are basically running their lives on their own, utilizing ‘the arm of the flesh’—their natural abilities—to negotiate their way,” he says. “They believe there is a God and they need to check in with him. But they don’t have any sense that he is an active agent in their lives. As a result, they don’t become disciples of Jesus..” — Dallas Willard in Christianity Today
“What do you think the church is going to look like ten years from now?”
I get asked that question almost everywhere go. People assume that my travels and correspondence give me a wider view of God’s work in the world. And while it may be a bit broader than some, in the grand scheme of things, I interact with a very small slice of Jesus’ followers and even that is a very specific subset drawn by the content of my books and websites.
Nonetheless I find it a fascinating question mostly for what it says about us. Our religious training has put our focus in the wrong place, asking the wrong questions, and leaving people feeling adrift when they have no need to be. No one can answer it with any degree of certainty and the question itself assumes a standardized answer that ignores Jesus’ immense creativity in the world across differing cultures and local realities."
(Wayne Jacobsen "Living loved" Winter 2011 Newsletter, pg 1)
"Business convinces us that there is always something else that needs doing. Business exhausts, embitters, divides and demoralizes the people of God. If we have not exposed this impostor virtue for what it is, the reason is because so many of our congregational practices (programs) depend on it."
Discipleship Magazine.
"Business prevents us from being available."
Brad Cummings!
"Most pastors we work with would love to lead from the front instead of from above, from the streets instead of from the office. But they don’t because so many people still expect them to keep the spiritual vending machine spitting out all the goodies!......
"One couple had been with us for about a month. They had been pastors in Texas, and once they moved to Denver they felt that Adullam had become home. I met with them twice, and it seemed that they really understood the cost and opportunity of being a part of our missional
people.
“Take a few months,” I suggested. “Get to know some folks, but work even harder at getting to know your neighbors so that you can maybe form a new village made up of mostly Sojourners.” A few months went by, and before one of our Sunday gatherings, they came up to me in tears and described how disconnected they felt. As the wife was crying, she said, “This church seems cold and we have had a hard time connecting. We’ve asked you to help us plug into a village, but you won’t help us. In our last church, we had classes where people could connect and you don’t have any classes.”
In my past attractional church life, I would have put my arms around them, prayed for them, and spent some time the next week trying to find friends for them. This time, and sadly for them, my response was different.
“John and Jill,” I said, “this is the wrong place for you. It sounds like you need a church that provides some things for you that we can’t.” I then redirected them to another church nearby. We have a link on our Web site now that helps people find other churches that offer unique programs and services. How did I know John and Jill weren’t a fit with us? The giveaway was that while they were crying about not being connected, we had 150 people standing behind them scarfing down donuts, talking, laughing and . . . connecting. They were the only ones sitting down waiting for the church service to start dispensing worship goodies. They had missed the obvious. We had been having church for 30 minutes!
For the structure to support the ongoing mission, there’s no way around the fact that leaders must call people beyond where they’ve been. They must create new structures that help people move with them and at the same time gently remove consumer-oriented services.
I’ve discovered that in most cases the church environments we’ve created for consumers fosters a “softness” that hinders people’s growth and involvement in God’s mission. This couple had been in paid professional ministry, but they were still expecting someone to “plug them in," start a class for them, or find them some friends."
(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 111 - 112. 2008, Jossey-Bass)
"I usually ask them, “What do you think these dots mean?” Then I make sure they know that to us, the dots represent people who want to call themselves Christ followers without tangibly following him into mission. They’re “pew sitters,” people who know a lot of Bible verses, who like to be plugged in and go to classes. They have bucketloads of ministry ideas and love to lead from the top and share their ideas from the top, but they really don’t want to live the life of a missional person, sacrificing in order to provide an inclusive community for others. In other words, they are people who only want to experience community if it benefits them.
(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 113. 2008, Jossey-Bass)
"As a church planter I spent ninety percent of my time with Christians,.... Now as a shoe salesman, I spend ninety percent of my time with non-Christians."
Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change in society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story, one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and out present into a coherent hole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step... If you want to change the society, then you have to tell an alternative story."
