David Bosch: The inverse of the thesis ‘the church is essentially missionary’ is ‘mission is essentially ecclesial’.
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission - 1993
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 17:38
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And sometimes I barely miss it when I walk into the room
The curtains are still swaying and I feel the air move
And it whispers in my ear and it shivers up my spine
It's the gratitude I feel for all that's right
It's a mystery appeal that's been granted me tonight
This peace
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 17:03
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Wisdom for Ministry - Christianity Today Magazine
THE CHURCH must be prophetic or it will be pathetic.
The Rev. Cecil Murray, quoted in the Chicago Tribune.
THE CHURCH'S lack of clarity about its mission results in lack of clarity related to the role of its clergy. Lack of clarity about expectations means that no matter what they do, pastors come under attack for not doing something quite different.
Howard Rice, The Pastor as Spiritual Guide
WHAT MUST DIE in every pastor is the subconscious desire to please people. What must not die is the will to love. There's the risk.
David Hansen, The Art of Pastoring
ONE OF THE THINGS I have tried to be clear about in ministry is distinguishing between "good news" and "good advice." We really are to be about the proclamation of "good news—the gospel."
John Esau, "Ten Things to Know about Pastoral Ministry Before You Start"
I HAD COME INTO the parish seeing its great potential as a learning center, a kind of mini-university in which I was the resident professor. And then one day, in a kind of shock of recognition, I saw that it was in fact a worship center… . Out of that recognition a conviction grew: that my primary educational task as pastor was to teach people to pray.
Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor
PERHAPS the most central characteristic of authentic leadership is the relinquishing of the impulse to dominate others.
David Cooper, Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry
WHILE ALL CHRISTIANS need nurture and sustenance, the active Christian leader who encounters spiritual and emotional stress daily has special, urgent needs. If the shepherd is not fed along with the sheep, that inner hunger and fatigue, those unhealed hurts, can cause the shepherd to do great, unconscious harm to those within his or her care.
Flora Slosson Wuellner, Feed My Shepherds: Spiritual Healing and Renewal for Those in Christian Leadership
NO IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. Believe me, we do not need hassled, bitter ministers. We don't want you to talk the talk about this being the day the Lord hath made and that we should rejoice and savor its beauty and poignancy when secretly you're tearing around like a white rabbit; we need you to walk the walk. And we need you to walk a little more slowly.
Anne Lamott to a graduating seminary class, quoted in Context
THE IDEAL MINISTER must love and understand people, but must know and love still more the will and word of God.
P. T. Forsyth, "The Ideal Ministry"
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 16:44
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Reflections: Discipleship - Christianity Today Magazine
The form that discipleship takes is conditioned by the historic times in which one lives, as well as by the context of an individual's life, but the underlying principle remains the same: each of us is called by love to love; called out of our narrow individualism and our small private world, to allow ourselves to be "turned around" by the allurement of God, and to live for him, as Jesus did.
Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words
To become a disciple means a decisive and irrevocable turning to both God and neighbor. What follows from there is a journey which … never ends in this life, a journey of continually discovering new dimensions of loving God and neighbor.
David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission
The first and last word for a disciple of Jesus is "Obey!" I mean to say that today the word "believe" is not as important as, "You who believe, obey him whom you believe!" Of what use is believing if you cannot obey?
Johann Christoph Blumhardt in Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader, Vernard Eller, ed.
All true knowledge of God is born out of obedience.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
It's hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe, but rather to make us disciples, citizens of God's new age, a kingdom of surprise. Stanley Hauerwas, quoted at PreachingToday.com what does it profit you to give God one thing if he asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it. You will as a result better satisfy your heart than with that toward which you yourself are inclined.
St. John of the Cross, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
It is not our responsibility "to make people 'Christians'" and get them baptized into a particular denomination, but rather to help people decide to follow Jesus and his radical message. Maybe this is why the New Testament writers only use "Christian" three times but "disciple" on 269 occasions!
Tom Getman, World Vision International, personal correspondence
Evangelism is not selling Jesus, but showing Jesus; evangelism is not mere telling about Christ, but about being Christ.
Lee C. Camp, Mere Discipleship
It has become popular to preach a painless Christianity and automatic saintliness. It has become part of our "instant" culture. "Just pour a little water on it, stir mildly, pick up a gospel tract, and you are on your Christian way."
A. W. Tozer, Jesus, Author of Our Faith
Suffering is the true badge of discipleship. The disciple is not above his master.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 16:41
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Thinklings Weblog: "'His death was not simply the messy bit that enables our sins to be forgiven but that can then be forgotten. The cross is the surest, truest and deepest window on the very heart and character of the living and loving God; the more we learn about the cross in all its historical and theological dimensions, the more we discover about the One in whose image we are made and hence about our own vocation to be the cross-bearing people, the people in whose lives and service the living God is made known.'
N.T. Wright - THE CHALLENGE OF JESUS"
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 16:30
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Ik heb een plank vol boeken, geschreven door christenen.
Tot mijn spijt moet ik zeggen dat de meeste daarvan weinig te zeggen hebben tot iemand die niet het geloof aanhangt dat in die boeken wordt omarmt.
Gelovigen struikelen overal over God: in de natuur, in de bijbel, in dagelijkse daden van voorzienigheid. God lijkt in ruime mate vanzelfsprekend te zijn.
Maar de seculiere wereld ziet dat bewijs niet en vraagt zich af hoe het in hemelsnaam mogelijk is in het web van concurrerende bewegingen God te vinden.
Tenzij we dit gezichtspunt werkelijk begrijpen en we bewoordingen gebruiken die een ongelovig iemand kan begrijpen, zullen onze woorden de vreemde en nutteloze klank van een buitenlandse taal hebben
Hfdst: Fluisteringen vanuit de coulissen / pg 338
Philip Yancey over Frederick Buechner in Hoe mijn geloof de kerk overleefde
posted by Peter Wierenga @ 23:58
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