Top 10 Emergent/Missional/Post-Evangelical Sound Bites From the Last Few Weeks
...to be reformed by the gospel but always ready for fresh reformations by that same gospel: to recognise that God has more light to break out of his holy word, and that this may lead us to do things in new ways, sometimes setting us free from tired structures and sometimes creating new structures for new gospel purposes.
I hate it when...I expend a lot of effort in targeting, detailing, describing, and analyzing weaknesses. The patient is in the emergency room, and we need to move from diagnosis to triage fast, in my opinion. It’s way easier to talk than to actually do, and the people I respect the most spend less and less time critiquing and more and more time serving, loving, showing hospitality, listening, visiting, solving, caring, worshiping, praying, and so on. We really need to be careful about this – especially those of us who blog, write, speak, broadcast, and so on. Jesus didn’t say, “I was in prison and you wrote a book for me, I was naked and you complained on your blog about the church’s failure to clothe me, I was sick and you raised money for your salaries using a picture of me,” and so on.
I cannot “will” others to change. I can only seek Jesus myself and be a healthy presence for people. My challenge will be to stay above the mess, yet to love the people. I am constantly hit by the fact that this calling is more than I can do.
It'll be a long time before we fight a war over used veggie oil.
I’ve learned in my life that when Christians speak of Jesus you must ask some basic questions.
Are they speaking of Jesus as he really was, or as they imagine him to be? Does this Jesus bless and approve of a privileged status for one group, color, denomination or nation? Does this Jesus call us to discipleship or simply preside over a way of life we’ve come to call the “Christian lifestyle?” Does this Jesus cross barriers, or does he send us back to hang with our own kind? Does this Jesus have a mission, or just a moral agenda? Does this Jesus show us where the Kingdom of God calls us, or does he spiritualize the Kingdom so that we never have to really think about it unless we’re about to die?
One day I talked about the parable of when they asked Christ whether they should pay taxes and he held up a coin and said, “Render unto Caesar, etc.” My point was and still is that when we were flying in combat, we weren’t doing God’s work. We were doing Caesar’s work. So for us to go to prison and then ask God to get us out was not fair to God, to our religion, to our beliefs and to ourselves. It wasn’t a miracle that sent a SAM [surface-to-air missile] to hit my airplane. It was a guy, a technician at a SAM site.
Now that Khalid knew he had my attention, he decided to walk me through the finer points of his worldview as a maestro would with an inquisitive pupil.
“Islam is not religion, you probably think Islam is a religion. It’s not. It’s a pure divine belief. Comprehensive. We had a divine social system, economic system, political system, private system, and a system of what to do when somebody invades your land, what to do when somebody invades your home. We’re onto the concept which a lot of people are talking about today, the issue of fighting or jihad in Islam. Jihad in Islam is one of the things that protects the Muslims around the world.”
Khalid had presented an authentic challenge to my faith and I knew that if there was to be any victory at all, like the victory that was prophesied, then I would have to get to the bottom of the issue. Khalid’s charge was simple. Jesus didn’t leave the world with a comprehensive social system, economic system, political system, or any other kind of system to regulate society. At least Muhammed attempted to solve the world’s problems.
Tell me, preacher man. How would you implement the Bible from a governmental point of view?
I poured over the Scriptures for months with this question in mind. Did Jesus really leave us with nothing in terms of how to implement the Scriptures from a governmental point of view? Certainly he left us with something. Or did He?
After months of pouring over this simple question, I realized that my entire world had been turned upside down. But the twist in the story is my life was turned upside down not because I discovered that Khalid was wrong, but because I discovered that he was right. I realized that not only did Jesus not leave a comprehensive system in place to regulate society; He flat out refused every single form of earthly power that people tried to impose on Him. Not only was He not interested in establishing an earthly throne as Israel’s rightful King; He wasn’t even interested in taking on the role of a judge (Luke 12:14).
It’s not that I didn’t know this before. It’s just that suddenly the thought of the Son of God coming to earth to live, die, and be raised from the dead—without suggesting some type of economic, judicial, or political system to give humanity a helping hand—took on a new and profound significance. If Jesus didn’t attempt to solve the world’s problems through seizing the reigns of political power, then He must have found a better way. That better way, I’ve at last discovered, is the cross. At the cross, Jesus taught humanity that it’s better to suffer injustice than to be the cause of it, it’s better to relinquish power than to pursue power, and, perhaps most importantly, it’s better to die than to kill.
“You don’t even know, like really know, a poor person, do you?"
Jesus left the comfort of church...err...heaven, and went to where people were at....
I tend to preach to the choir. That is usually a colossal waste of time.
Grace and Peace,
-N.T. Wright, After GAFCON (June 30, 2008)
I hate it when...I expend a lot of effort in targeting, detailing, describing, and analyzing weaknesses. The patient is in the emergency room, and we need to move from diagnosis to triage fast, in my opinion. It’s way easier to talk than to actually do, and the people I respect the most spend less and less time critiquing and more and more time serving, loving, showing hospitality, listening, visiting, solving, caring, worshiping, praying, and so on. We really need to be careful about this – especially those of us who blog, write, speak, broadcast, and so on. Jesus didn’t say, “I was in prison and you wrote a book for me, I was naked and you complained on your blog about the church’s failure to clothe me, I was sick and you raised money for your salaries using a picture of me,” and so on.
-Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Ancient (June 30, 2008)
I cannot “will” others to change. I can only seek Jesus myself and be a healthy presence for people. My challenge will be to stay above the mess, yet to love the people. I am constantly hit by the fact that this calling is more than I can do.
-The Mofast, A "Pastor's" Perspective (June 30, 2008)
It'll be a long time before we fight a war over used veggie oil.
-Shane Claiborne, Evangelical Movement Touts
I’ve learned in my life that when Christians speak of Jesus you must ask some basic questions.
Are they speaking of Jesus as he really was, or as they imagine him to be? Does this Jesus bless and approve of a privileged status for one group, color, denomination or nation? Does this Jesus call us to discipleship or simply preside over a way of life we’ve come to call the “Christian lifestyle?” Does this Jesus cross barriers, or does he send us back to hang with our own kind? Does this Jesus have a mission, or just a moral agenda? Does this Jesus show us where the Kingdom of God calls us, or does he spiritualize the Kingdom so that we never have to really think about it unless we’re about to die?
-Michael Spencer, Jesus Says Cross the Line (June 26, 2008)
One day I talked about the parable of when they asked Christ whether they should pay taxes and he held up a coin and said, “Render unto Caesar, etc.” My point was and still is that when we were flying in combat, we weren’t doing God’s work. We were doing Caesar’s work. So for us to go to prison and then ask God to get us out was not fair to God, to our religion, to our beliefs and to ourselves. It wasn’t a miracle that sent a SAM [surface-to-air missile] to hit my airplane. It was a guy, a technician at a SAM site.
-John McCain (reported by Scot McKnight),
Now that Khalid knew he had my attention, he decided to walk me through the finer points of his worldview as a maestro would with an inquisitive pupil.
“Islam is not religion, you probably think Islam is a religion. It’s not. It’s a pure divine belief. Comprehensive. We had a divine social system, economic system, political system, private system, and a system of what to do when somebody invades your land, what to do when somebody invades your home. We’re onto the concept which a lot of people are talking about today, the issue of fighting or jihad in Islam. Jihad in Islam is one of the things that protects the Muslims around the world.”
Khalid had presented an authentic challenge to my faith and I knew that if there was to be any victory at all, like the victory that was prophesied, then I would have to get to the bottom of the issue. Khalid’s charge was simple. Jesus didn’t leave the world with a comprehensive social system, economic system, political system, or any other kind of system to regulate society. At least Muhammed attempted to solve the world’s problems.
Tell me, preacher man. How would you implement the Bible from a governmental point of view?
I poured over the Scriptures for months with this question in mind. Did Jesus really leave us with nothing in terms of how to implement the Scriptures from a governmental point of view? Certainly he left us with something. Or did He?
After months of pouring over this simple question, I realized that my entire world had been turned upside down. But the twist in the story is my life was turned upside down not because I discovered that Khalid was wrong, but because I discovered that he was right. I realized that not only did Jesus not leave a comprehensive system in place to regulate society; He flat out refused every single form of earthly power that people tried to impose on Him. Not only was He not interested in establishing an earthly throne as Israel’s rightful King; He wasn’t even interested in taking on the role of a judge (Luke 12:14).
It’s not that I didn’t know this before. It’s just that suddenly the thought of the Son of God coming to earth to live, die, and be raised from the dead—without suggesting some type of economic, judicial, or political system to give humanity a helping hand—took on a new and profound significance. If Jesus didn’t attempt to solve the world’s problems through seizing the reigns of political power, then He must have found a better way. That better way, I’ve at last discovered, is the cross. At the cross, Jesus taught humanity that it’s better to suffer injustice than to be the cause of it, it’s better to relinquish power than to pursue power, and, perhaps most importantly, it’s better to die than to kill.
-Aaron Taylor, How a Radical Jihadist Led Me to Jesus (July 2, 2008)
“You don’t even know, like really know, a poor person, do you?"
-Kathy Escobar, Upside Down, Inside Out & Against
Jesus left the comfort of church...err...heaven, and went to where people were at....
-David Best, Missional Definition in
I tend to preach to the choir. That is usually a colossal waste of time.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi Shahinian
thanks for finding me, raffi - those soundbites are excellent!
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I will add your site to my missional blog roll. Please consider linking to me as well http://realmealministries.org/WordPress
I am a colleague of Ben Witherington's at Asbury Theological Semiminary.
Also, your new book sounds great. Let me know when it becomes available and I will feature it in a blog post.