Todd Hiestand
Missional Living in Suburban America
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Archive of "Great Quotes" Category
Individual Salvation and Restoration of all Things
Quote of the day from The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World in the chapter by Tim Keller,
“In General I don’t think we’ve done a good job at developing ways of communicating the gospel that include both salvation from wrath by propitiation and restoration of all things.”
Yeah, I can get behind that! I tried to emphesize this concept in my sermon at the funeral last week.
Posted in General, Great Quotes, Missional |
4 Comments »Congregations Aren’t Stupid
Eugene Peterson writes in his book Under the Predictable Plant,
“The congregation is not the enemy. Pastoral work is not adversarial. These people in the pews are not aliens to be conquered - defeated and then rehabilitated to the satisfaction of the pastoral ego. Thomas Merton wrote, “it is both dangerous and easy to hate man as he is because he is not ‘what he ought to be.’ if we do not first respect what he is we will never suffer him to become what he ought to be: in our impatience we will do away with him altogether… and the congregation is not stupid and lumpish, waiting for pastoral enlightenment. Condescension is pastors is even worse than hostility.”
This are some great thoughts from one of my impersonal spiritual mentors. Those of us who are pastors know how easy it would be (and sometimes is) to wish your congregation was something else or acted different ways. Really, when it comes down to thinking this way, we just want them to be what we have for them rather than what God has for them. Or, at least, we’re pretty sure we know what God has for them and we’re pretty sure they don’t. There is a fine line between shepherding a community and assuming to always know what is best for them.
I think when you are shepherding a community, its a very relational process. Learning together what God has for the community. When as pastor is assuming what is best its not a cooperative effort anymore. It becomes the pastor telling everyone else what to do. In this approach, it doesn’t seem like there is that much listening involved.
Alan Roxburgh says that the spirit of God is among the people of God. If that’s the case, as pastors we’d better be taking the humble approach of cooperation rather than the arrogant approach of assuming to know what is best.
Remember that old saying, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”… Sometimes I think pastors take the approach, “Your Pastor loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Too bad pastor’s aren’t quite as accurate with those plans as the Holy Spirit is.
Our congregations aren’t stupid. At least, not any more than the pastor is!
Remember, the Spirit of God is among the people of God.
Posted in General, Great Quotes, The Church |
8 Comments »The Gospel and The Cycle of Grace in Embracing Grace
I am leading a Bible study on Wednesday nights at our church on the book by Scot McKnight called, “Embracing Grace.” In it, he defines “the gospel” as,
“The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community for the good of others and the world.”
I love this definition because its a very holistic definition (though i am sure not perfect). It deals with personal salvation of human beings and the restoration of their relationship with God, it deals with the work of God in restoring man to each other, it deals with the importance of community (or the Church) in this and finally it deals with that fact that the gospel has implications not only on the individual but on the entire created order. Also, the gospel does not only effect our response to God, but effects how we live in light of who God is and what he cares about.
Scot goes on to share the “flow of grace:”
God embraces you and me and
God embraces others and
God embraces the whole created order.Then:
You and I embrace God back and
We embrace others and
We embrace the entire created order.That my friends, is a high calling…
Posted in Book Reviews, General, Great Quotes, The Church |
3 Comments »Barth on Discipleship
For your reading pleasure…
“Yet there were others and it is here that the word acquires its pregnant meaning-who are called by Jesus and follow Him in the sense that they accompany Him wholeheartedly and constantly, sharing His life and destiny at the expense of all other engagements and commitments, attaching themselves to Him, placing themselves in His service, and thus showing that they are qualified to be His disciples…”
Karl Barth Church Dogmatics, vol 4.2
Posted in General, Great Quotes |
No Comments »David Bosch on Mission
I learned recently that my dad spent a three day weekend retreat with David Bosch two years before he died. I told my dad, while I would have not been old enough to appreciate it (and i would have likely spent the time playing with my matchbox cars) I am officially mad at him for not taking me along. I am not sure I can ever forgive him.
In honor of my dad’s deep lack of concern for me and my formation for the future, here is a quote from Bosch’s book “Transforming Mission” (page 390)
“Mission [is] understood primarily as being derived from the very nature of God. It was thus put in the context of the doctrine of the trinity. The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [expands] to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world, mission is not primarily an activity of the church, it is an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God into the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is a mission, not visa versa.
Another note, my dad had a short encounter with Lesslie Newbigin too. I never realized how cool my dad was.
Posted in General, Great Quotes |
3 Comments »Missional Food for Thought
I’m writing a paper on Newbigin’s book The Open Secret and quoted this in my paper. I thought it was a helpful quote for thinking about mission…
“The Bible, then, is covered with God’s purpose of blessing for all the nations. It is concerned with the completion of God’s purpose in the creation of the world and of man within the world. It is not – to put it crudely – concerned with offering a way of escape for the redeemed soul out of history, but with the action of God to bring history to its true end.” (p. 34)
and this one too to go along with it…
“The forgiveness of sins is what makes possible the gift of God’s peace. The simplest and most comprehensive way of stating the content of the commission given to the church is therefore to be found in Jesus’ initial word: “Peace be with you.” Peace, shalom, the all-embracing blessing of the God if Israel - this is what the presence of the kingdom is. the church is a movement launched into the life of the world to bear in its own life God’s gift of peace for the life of the world. It is sent, therefore, not only to proclaim the kingdom but to bear in its own life the presence of the kingdom.”
and one more for good measure…
“The concern for those who see mission primarily in terms of action for God’s justice is embodied mainly in programs carried on at a supra-congregational level by boards and committees, whether denominational or ecumenical. The concern for those who see mission primarily in terms of personal salvation is expressed mainly at the level of congregational life. The effect of this is that each is robbed of its character by its separation from the other. Christian programs for justice and compassion are severed from their proper roots…and so lose their character as signs of the presence of Christ and risk becoming mere crusades fueled by a moralism that can become self-righteous. And the life of a worshiping congregation, severed from its proper expression in compassionate service to the secular community around it, risks becoming a self-centered existence serving only the needs and desires of its members. Thus, both sides of the dichotomy find good reasons for caricaturing each other, and mutual distrust deepens.”
Posted in General, Great Quotes, The Church |
No Comments »Letting the Scripture “Get You”
Reading William Willimon’s book, “Pastor” and came across this thought,
“A friend of mine says that there are at least two ways of knowing. One is that of the mathematics and similar endeavors, such as when you are working with a tough mathematical problem, struggling, and then at last you say, ‘I got it!’ That is one way of thinking.
Another way is, say, when you have been to see a great movie, one that makes you a different person in the seeing. You emerge from the theater. You do not say, ‘I got it.’ No. What you say is, if you are able to say anything at all, “It got me.”
…[of the text] we ask, ‘What does this text mean to me?’ or more precisely, ‘What can I do with this text?’ before simply sitting quietly and letting the text have its way with us.” (p. 136)
I think so many of us were brought up to “get things out of the text” (i.e. information, facts, etc) that we miss what it means to be taken in by the narrative of scripture and allow it to “get us.” Allow the story (because that is what it is, not a mathematical book of laws) to capture our hearts and imagination and change the way we live and not just the facts we think.
Posted in General, Great Quotes, Life |
4 Comments »NT Wright on Healing…
The last two weeks we have been talking about healing at The Well from John chapter 5. It’s been a fun two weeks as I looked at the more personal side of the healing passage and Gary looked at the theological side of the topic. You can listen to our two messages off of our church podcast (automatically subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here and view the message archives here)
I am reading NT Wright’s new book, “Simply Christian” and came across this quote that captured a lot of what Gary was saying on Sunday,
“Jesus didn’t see healings as some kind of premodern traveling hospital. He wasn’t healing the sick just for the sake of it, important though the healing itself was. Nor was it just a way of attracting people to listen to his message. Rather, the healing was a dramatic sign of the message itself. God, the world’s creator, was at work through him, to do what he had promised, to open blind eyes and deat ears, to rescue people, to turn everything right side up.”
On a side note, this is a great book and i would recommend it to anyone who has been a Christian for quite some time as well as someone who is just seeking Jesus and looking into his claims and his story. Go, buy the book now. It’s worth it.
Posted in General, Great Quotes |
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