See Part 1 and Part 2 in our series of quotes from Total Church:

“So being gospel-centered means being word-centered and being mission-centered. The church exists both through the gospel, and for the gospel….The problem is the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our practice. The continual challenge for us is to apply this principle to church life and ministry without compromise.

…We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church-planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world:

• What criteria would you use to decide where you live?
• How would you approach secular employment?
• What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
• What would you spend your time doing?
• What opportunities would you be looking for?
• What would your prayers be like?
• What would you be trying to do with your friends?
• What kind of team would you want around you?
• How would you conduct your meetings together?”

We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world. Mission is central to us wherever we are. These are the kinds of questions we should be asking wherever we are.”

Early this year I read Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel & Community (Chester & Timmis).  This book has furthered my growth in understanding what a gospel-centered church should look like and be about: PEOPLE, not a place; COMMUNITY, not a corporation; MISSION, not maintenance.

I could go on, but I simply want to share a few excerpts from this book to encourage and challenge us as Grace & Truth continues moving towards what God has created the church to be.

“Over time churches seem to acquire committees, meetings, programs, and traditions, none of which may be wrong in themselves, but which cumulatively move the church from mission to maintenance mode. Time and energy are spent making the institutions function.  The legacy of many churches is thus absorbed in maintaining the legacy of a program of activities and church buildings.  Roles exist that have to be filled. The life of the church is geared around maintaining its structures and programs. We need to shift into “mission mode.” People are beginning to say we need “missionary theology” rather than a “theology of  mission.” Mission can no longer be looked at as one branch of theology. All theology must be missionary in its orientation.  We need the same reorientation in churches.  We are in a missionary situation, and all that we do must be missionary.” (page 86)

Look for more powerful quotes from this book in upcoming days. Perhaps they will inspire you to give this challenging book a read as well.

Mike

Recently, while searching for a particular quote by J.I. Packer, I came across a very convicting, challenging, and encouraging article on revival by Sam Storms.

Here are a few excerpts:

Be forewarned: prayer for revival can be costly. It may cost you your comfort and convenience. Our tendency is to pray for revival, because we think that is the pious thing to do, only later to say, after revival has come: “Oh my! This isn’t at all what I had in mind!”

We say we want revival . . . but on our terms. Sadly, we pray:

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if you promise in advance to do things the way we have always done them in our church.”

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if I have some sort of prior guarantee that when you show up you won’t embarrass me.”

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if your work of revival is one that I can still control, one that preserves intact the traditions with which I am comfortable.”

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if your work of revival is neat and tidy and dignified and understandable and above all else socially acceptable.”

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if you plan to change others; only if you make them to be like me; only if you convict their hearts so they will live and dress and talk like I do.”

“Come Holy Spirit . . . but only if you let us preserve our distinctives and retain our differences from others whom we find offensive.“

We would do well to remember the wise words of J. I. Packer:

“Renewal in all its aspects is not a theme for dilettante debate, but for humble, penitent, prayerful, faith-full exploration before the Lord, with a willingness to change and be changed, and if necessary to be the first to be changed, if that is what the truth proves to require. To absorb ideas about renewal ordinarily costs nothing, but to enter into renewal could cost us everything we have, and we shall be very guilty if, having come to understand renewal, we then decline it. We need to be clear about that. John Calvin once declared that it would be better for a preacher to break his neck while mounting the pulpit if he did not himself intend to be the first to follow God.”

“The Holy Spirit is not a sentimentalist as too many of us are; he is a change agent, and he comes to change human structures as well as human hearts. Change for its own sake is mere fidgeting, but change that gets rid of obstacles to God’s fullest blessing is both a necessity and a mercy.”

For the rest of Storm’s “Reflections on Revival” go to Enjoying God Ministries.

Mike