Fathering As Revival

"I want the fast burn of revival but what will change history is the slow burn of fathering"

~ Lou Engle

Love Affair Religion

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair."

~ G.K. Chesterton

Where Is Missions Focus

"One of the key influences on my thinking has been that of the missiologist Bishop Lesslie Newbigin. He reminded us that the key focus of the church’s mission is not the church but the world."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

What Is A Christian

"Christians are people who live at the speed of light—the light of Jesus:"

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Does It Smell Like Jesus

"A biblical spirituality is relationship driven. It begins and ends with Jesus: does it sound like Jesus? see like Jesus? taste like Jesus? touch like Jesus? smell like Jesus?

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Wish We Would Seek Jesus

"Would that more churches had etched on their pulpits the words that admonish everyone who steps into the crow’s nest of one West Virginia church: “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

My Doggy and Kitty Jesus Relationship

"Christianity is a relationship religion. The core relationship is a relationship with Christ. Everything depends on the administration and management of that relationship. However, some of us are more careful about maintaining and managing relationships with our pets than our relationships with Jesus, God-made flesh."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Travelling Without A Book?

"What! 

No star, and you are going out to sea? 

Marching, and you have no music? 

Traveling, and you have no book? 

What! 

No love, and you are going out to live?"

—Ancient French Proverb

Titanium Rule Of Christians

"The church is filled with too many Golden Rule Christians whose motto is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and not enough Platinum Rule Christians: “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.” What is most lacking, however, is “Titanium Rule” Christians, practicing the most powerful command of all: “Do unto to others as Christ has done unto you.”

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

How A Church Stays Relevant

"A lot of people look at what will change in the future,” he said. “I look at what’s not going to change. People will still have marriage problems, they’re still going to be lonely, they’re still going to want to know the purpose of life, they still have problems with depression, fear, bitterness, jealousy. They’re human problems. If you’re dealing with personal lives of people you’re always relevant.”

- Rick Warren 

Flexible Containers Versus Fundamentalist Containers

"I am a virtual fundamentalist about content. I am a virtual libertarian about containers. Only in Jesus the Christ did container and content become one. Jesus’ comments about new wine in old wineskins reminds us that we cannot make an idolatry of any form or container. We must not elevate an ecclesial form to the level of authority or primacy that belongs only to the content. Unfortunately, much of the church is as fundamentalist about containers as I am about content, and as libertarian about content as I am about containers. Too many churches will only pour the living water into something they like or would pick up. A lot of churches are languishing because they won’t trust the gospel to fit and fill containers with handles they don’t like."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Wildly Good Things Running Wild

"The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

- G.K  Chesterton

The Narrow Way Opens

"The way is narrow, Jesus taught, but that narrow pass opens out into a glorious mountain valley, lush and green, and teeming with game. We do not embrace that which is pinched and narrow for the sake of narrowness; narrowness is not an end in itself. Narrow is the way, Jesus said, that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). He did not say that the narrow way led to being locked up in a divine broom closet. The narrow way opens out into the wide expanse of life."

Wilson, Douglas . Mere Fundamentalism: The Apostles' Creed and the Romance of Orthodoxy . Canon Press. Kindle Edition.

Are Doubts Permissible?

“People don’t abandon faith because they have doubts. People abandon faith because they think they’re not allowed to have doubts.”

Austin Fischer 

When Good People Take Risk

"Thucydides tells us that during the plague at Athens those that most displayed their virtue perished with their friends that were ill, for they neglected their own lives in going to visit them."
- Plutarch's Morals. 1st Century Greek Philosopher. 

Be Water - Not A Stone

"A liquid, no matter how yielding and transient it appears, can erode stone. Soft water wins out over hard rock every time....

Over time, there is nothing stronger than water. Water wears down even rock to make a new world. No matter how hardened and stony the human heart, softness defeats hardness … over time every time; gentleness beats rigidness … over time every time; fluidity overcomes flintiness … over time every time. The waters of abounding grace are even more powerful than death."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Ministry In The Moment

"Ministry can’t get-to-the-point without it first being willing to get-to-the-moment."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Fishermen Remember The Apostle

"...... and if there be one fishing, he will remember the Apostle, and the children drawn out of the water."

—Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215)

The Instructor (3:11) in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed., Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 2:285–86.

When People Don't Comply!

"Dreams of what should be, of what will be: 'This is what I will do,' he says. But to fulfill those dreams, he must have the people's cooperation. Ah, this is the point often overlooked. Such dreams rest totally on the premise that the people ..... will follow the new leader, and all will see as he sees...

Possibly the people will follow, but possibly they will not. 

"Generally, people do what they please. They can be stopped to do someone else's pleasure for a time, but not for long."

What will "..." do when people stop following him willingly? Ah, now there is a question.

....if so.......has but one recourse: dictatorship. Either that, or he will see few, if any, of his grand dreams accomplished.....Rebels who ascend to the throne by rebellion have no patience with other rebels and their rebellions....he will become a tyrant."

- Gene Edwards. A Tale Of Three 

A Rebels Impatience

"Rebels who ascended to the throne by Rebellion have no patience with other Rebels and their rebellions."

- Gene Edwards. A Tale Of Three Kings 

Righting The Wrongs Often Goes Wrong

"He is both sincere and ambitious. A contradiction, perhaps, but true, nonetheless. He probably means some of what he says. But his ambition will continue long after he discovers his inability to do the things he promises. Righting the wrongs always become secondary to ascend to power."

- Gene Edwards. A Tale Of Three Kings 

Rules Were Invented by Elders so They Could Get to Bed Early!

That last line was interesting....

"He taught me not the quick cure of rules and laws, but the art of patience. That is what changed my life. Legalism is nothing but a Leader's way of avoiding suffering. 
Rules were invented by Elders so they could get to bed early!"
-Gene Edwards. A Tale Of Three Kings

Troublemakers in Paradise?

"They would have been troublemakers in Paradise, if ever they could have gotten in."

- Gene Edwards. Tale of Three Kings

"I shall not practice the ways that cause Kings to go mad."

- Gene Edwards. A Tale Of Three Kings 

He Sang Differently

"The truth was that when they did see him, they didn't recognize him. 

He had changed.....
He talked less.
He loved God more.
He sang differently.
They had never heard those songs before.
Some were lovely beyond words......"

- Gene Edwards. A Tale Tale of Three Kings 

Study War No More

Down By The Riverside

I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside

I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
I'm gonna study, study, war no more

I ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more

I ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more

The Angels Changed My Name

Negro Spiritual 

I have been tempted, O yes,
An’ I have been tried, O yes,
I have been to the river an’ been baptize,
An’ I want to go to heaven in the morning.

Won’t you ride on Jesus?
Ride on Jesus, ride on crowning King,
For I want to go to heaven in the morning.

If you see my mother, O yes,
Please tell her for me, O yes,
That the angels in heaven done change my name,
An’ I want to go

God Don't Talk Like The Natural Man

Line from A Negro Spiritual 

God don’t talk like a natural man,
Don’t you see?
God don’t talk like a natural man,
He talk so sinners can understan’,
Don’t you see?

Happy to Pray?

Negro Spiritual 

"I went down in de valley to pray,
My soul got happy an’ I stayed all day."

A Church Shout is Mission

Negro Spiritual 

"I real’y do b’lieve widout a doubt,
Dat de church hab a mighty right to shout."

Easter Corner Stone hope

Negro Spiritual

"Mary wept and Martha mourned,
Jesus Christ laid de corner stone."

No More Water Sign

Line from A Negro Spiritual

"Well God show Noah de rainbow sign,
No more water but fire nex’ time."

Hell is Deep And Hell is Wide???

Old Negro Spiritual

O hell is deep an’ hell is wide,
O hell ain’t got no bottom or side.

I’d rather pray myself away,
Than live in hell an’ burn one day.

O when I git to hebben, I’ll be able to tell,
How I shunned dat dismal hell.

Ev’y since my Lord done set me free,
Dis ole worl’ bin a hell to me.
When I come to find out I’s on de road to hell, I fleed to Jesus.

Satan Was There When I Went To Pray

A Negro Spiritual (What is the proper term now?)

------------------

I went down de hillside to make a one prayer,

An’ when I get dere ole satan wus dere,

O what you think he said to me?

Said, “Off frum here you better be.”

Old satan tole me to my face,

“I’ll git you when a you leave this place;”

O brother dat scere me to my heart,

I was ’feared to walk a when it wus dark.

I started home but I did pray,

An’ I met ole satan on de way;

Ole satan made a one grab at me,

But he missed my soul an’ I went free.

I tell you brother you better not laugh,

Ole satan’ll run you down his path,

If he runs you lak he run me,

You’ll be glad to fall upon yo’ knee.

Not Models - Follow The Modeler

"When you change the question, you change everything. When you change the question, you change the playing field, you change the mission field. AquaChurch 2.0 changes the question from “Where is my map?” to “Where is God calling me to navigate my life and my ministry?” The top challenge of leadership is this: How do you get people to ask new questions, to think in different ways? To navigate your church in the rapids of a fluid culture, forget the maps other people have drawn."

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Culture has Changed For Christendom

"The civilization characteristic of Christendom has not yet disappeared, yet another civilization had begun to take its place."

— Harvard’s George Santayana in 1913

Flat Church

"One of my favorite Picasso stories tells how he was accosted by a stranger in a railway station one day. “Why don’t you paint things as they really are?” the stranger asked. Picasso feigned not to understand what the gentleman meant. Whereupon the stranger pulled out of his wallet a photograph of his wife. “I mean,” he said, “like that. That’s how she is.” Picasso coughed softly and said, “She is rather small, isn’t she? And somewhat flat?”

- Leonard Sweet. AquaChurch 2.0

Looking For The Church Map

No map is current. Especially for these times.

"In the first six months of 1992, so many rapid changes occurred that the National Geographic Society had to revise its world map six times."

- Leonard Sweet. - Aquachurch 2.0

Let Strange People In

"Let all kinds of people into your life to see what loving them might do.Those who criticize how you live your life may not be against the Jesus we love and seek to follow. Don’t exalt yourself because God has given you more to see; instead, use it as a way to serve others so that they will have a chance to see it, too."

Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays

Unity Is Not Sourced From Institutions

"Always keep in mind that it is Jesus’ desire to reconcile all things to himself, and thus all of us to each other. This is the unity he prayed for with such passion. That we would all be one, as he and the Father are one. We have too long looked for that to come from our institutions or our agreed-upon doctrines, but that approach has failed us spectacularly. The unity Jesus prayed for can only come through transformed lives as we let God’s kind of love permeate our own hearts and free us to live with increasing selflessness and generosity in a world that knows too little of either."

- Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays 

How Denominations Were Created

"The truth be told, we are all part of the saints scattered, even those who regularly attend a local congregation. The saints have been scattered for a long time, divided by institutions, doctrines, leaders, and programs, each believing their way is the best. For those of us who have moved beyond Sunday gatherings as the focus of our faith, we need to take care that we guard our hearts to explore the wonder of the whole body of Christ as she is in the world. Almost every group that has splintered off of Christian institutions in the past has gone on to create their own, looking down on those who didn’t live it the same way they did."

- Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays 

Christians Want Something Better Than This

1973 - J. I. Packer - Knowing God

"Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit: . . . great thoughts of man . . . small thoughts of God. . . Set God at a distance . . . Christians, preoccupied with maintaining religious practices in an irreligious world, have themselves allowed God to become remote. Clear-sighted persons, seeing this, are tempered to withdraw from the churches in something like disgust to pursue a quest of God on their own. Nor can one wholly blame them, for churchmen who look at God, so to speak, through the wrong end of the telescope, so reducing him to pigmy proportions, cannot hope to end up as more than pigmy Christians, and clear-sighted people naturally want something better than this"

Pushy "Friends"

"There will be no end of well-meaning people who will want to push their preferences and expectations on you."

- Wayne Jacobsen -

Suspicious Of Human Effort?

"Walking by the Spirit comes with a suspicious eye toward our own human effort, but an intentional eye on the Father and flowing with his activity in the world."

- Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays. 

Church Misuse

"Unfortunately, many centuries ago we started using the term “church” to describe institutions and denominations, ...."

- Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays. 

No Deal If I Live?

DEAL IS OFF 

Jack and the two Clarkin boys fought all through their lives. Everywhere they went – weddings, funerals, picnics, hockey games, you name it – they fought.

Then a time came when Jack became very sick and the priest decided he should make his peace with the Clarkins before he died. He instructed them to go over to see Jack, where they all shook hands and made-up. 

It was a beautiful thing to see as the priest declared the feud officially over and called down God’s blessing on the three of them.

But wait, the story is not over.

As the Clarkin boys were making their way to the door Jack got up on one elbow, and in a voice shaking with emotion declared, “You realize of course if I get better this is all off.”

The Revival The Church Doesn't See

"That turned out to be true for me. In my days of waiting for something incredible that would infuse our congregation with a fresh dose of passion and power, I only grew increasingly frustrated. Our endless prayer meetings seemed to make no difference. I begged him and he seemed silent. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered he hadn’t been silent after all. He’d been nudging me down a road I couldn’t see because I was so focused on him doing what I thought best. But I only discovered that after I found myself excluded from the congregation I had helped to plant, due to a contest of power I didn’t have the heart to engage. Though I was offered numerous pastoral jobs elsewhere, I was not interested. I figured I would find my way back into another congregation at some point, but I wasn’t in a hurry to do so. I wanted to decompress. During that time, my wife and I began to discover that the renewal we had hoped for was already happening beyond the walls of our traditional congregation. We saw God at work in people around us, and began to taste of the worldwide phenomenon of people who were all spontaneously and simultaneously moving beyond the traditional congregational to learn to live in the Father’s affection and freely share it with others. It captured our hearts and allowed us to embrace a depth of community with others that wasn’t distracted by structures and programs. It’s made me wonder that we don’t see it encased in a building or a conference anywhere because the moment it is, it begins to wither under human control. Honestly, I couldn’t have seen it as long as I was focused on the religious system we had built and prayed so hard for God to revitalize. I know that’s threatening to those who think the only place God can move is in a sanctioned institution, but that is only because they haven’t looked elsewhere. I was shocked by the people I met outside those structures who were passionate about following Jesus, loving others, and sharing his life with the world around them. I often tell people who are so condemning of people outside that they have no idea what they would see of God’s reality if they set aside all their institutional engagements for two years. It takes some time for the fog to clear, but many discover that God was at work in many ways they just couldn’t see when they were focused on the endless activities, political wrangling, and corporate needs of an institution. Even people leaving may be part of the very revival those who condemn them are praying for. Some have tagged them the “Dones,” but what many of them are craving is a simpler, more authentic faith that becomes part of the fabric of their daily lives. It’s the routine and obligations of an institution that lull many to spiritual slumber. The reason I no longer pray for revival is because I’m already living in the reality I hoped it would bring. The reason I don’t seek a new church model is because I discovered that it wasn’t important. God moves among people, not systems, and while he can move in and around any system we devise, it is not his priority to revive systems, but to renew people."

- Wayne Jacobsen. Beyond Sundays 

No Need To Introduce A Lion!

Introduction of a speaker given by a Liberian in Liberia, West Africa in 2015.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you do not need to introduce a Lion. Just open the cage."

And the gentleman giving the introduction sat down. 

- Dr. Yaw Perbi