City Notes 20: Books in 30 minutes or less
City
Notes are more than a book review. They are meant to provide you with
direct quotes from some books I've read in the last year, so you can get
a taste of the overall theme of the book and then begin to chew on what
your life might look like if you applied what you read.
Here are links to the previous City Notes books:
2014 | AND; Life Together; A Meal with Jesus; Deep Church; Gospel-Centered Discipleship; The Art of Neighboring; Speaking of Jesus; A Praying Life; Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church; Family on Mission; Leading Missional Communities; Launching Missional Communities; Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times; You Can Change; The Hole in Our Holiness; Encounters with Jesus; One Thousand Gifts
Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker Review of Quotes | City Notes 20: Part 2 of 3
Spring 2007 | Here Pretending to Be There
“A frustrating trait about God is how He expects us to act on conviction fairly quickly. Pretty much the second He convinces us to move, to change, to shift, we’re supposed to. Despite how much we ponder it or talk about it, until we are obedient in word and deed, we’re just here pretending to be there. As God shifted our story, we faced a quick progression: He first captured our minds – convincing us of apathy and opening our eyes to human suffering. Then He seized our hearts – instilling desire for life and service at the bottom. And quickly thereafter was the call to our hands: Get moving. Because, as James basically said, if all we do is talk theology and pat the forsaken on the head with a hearty ‘Best of luck with that need!’ what good is it? (See James 2:16.) Mind – heart – hands. Lord, help us.” – pg. 77
Spring 2007 | Don't Know If We're Coming or Going
“34 percent of the U.S. adult population has not attended any type of church service or activity (other than weddings or funerals) during the past 6 months, about 73 million adults. Roughly 62 percent of all unchurched adults were formerly churched. Let that sink in. Not only can we not draw new people, we can’t keep the ones we have. Approximately half of all American churches did not add 1 new person through conversion growth last year. More than 80 percent of the current growth registered by Protestant churches is biological or transfer growth, meaning new children are born into the church or believers are church hopping. We’re not adding to the kingdom; we’re simply reshuffling the deck. In America, it takes the combined effort of 85 Christians working over an entire year to produce one convert. In a nationwide survey, 94 percent of churches either were not growing or were losing ground in the communities they serve … The trend is clearly downward, and at this pace, reimagining church is not just the task of mavericks; it’s for the survival of the whole bride.” – pgs. 79-80
“The world is increasingly uninterested in our Christian story. Its current presentation is just not compelling. Most believers who represent it battle boredom and apathy; they are spiritually immature and demonstrate religiosity without transformation. Our faith communities run the gamut from judgmental high church to feel-good talent shows, and people aren’t buying anymore. Remarkably, most outsiders are not anti-church (our gospel isn’t provocative enough to incite backlash anymore); they simply dismiss the church as irrelevant to their real lives since it seems mostly irrelevant to the people who go there. ... (From Tom Clegg and Warren Bird in Lost in America) ‘Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society. We must learn to build relational bridges that win a hearing.’ Our Christian rhetoric has become white noise, I’m afraid. It gets hopelessly stuck in our minds (read: mouths) and struggles to transition to our hearts and then hands. Our only hope is to follow the example of Jesus and get back out there, winning people over with ridiculous love and a lifestyle that causes them to finally sit up and take notice. Listen, no church can ever do this for me. This is my high calling to live on mission as an adopted daughter of Jesus. If people around me aren’t moved by my Christ or my church, then I must be doing a miserable job of representing them both.” – pg. 80
Spring 2007 | Justice for Jesus
“I’d kind of forgotten how compelling the Spirit is. He is the fresh wind everyone is looking for. He reminds me I am a member of a grand assembly that inspires and stirs and empowers. On bad days, when I secretly whisper, ‘Is this all there is?’ the Spirit urges me to join Him at the bottom, where the best grassroots movements have always begun. He is the new I was craving when I realized my heart was dry. Paul explained that ‘we serve in the new way of the Spirit’ (Romans 7:6), and I deeply considered that for the first time.” – pg. 82
Spring 2007 | Last But Not Least
“Hungry.
Thirsty. Lonely. Naked. Sick. Imprisoned. The messy reality of suffering
mentioned not once, not twice, but four times throughout this (see Matthew
25:32-40) short parable. It’s worth repeating, because although we’ve heard
these words so often that they seem ordinary, they are actually some of the
most revolutionary claims ever made. Immediately before the narrative of Jesus’
passion and death, He presented the scene of the Last Judgment as a strategic
metaphor wherein the least is identified with the Lord of History. This parable
is an indictment on humanity’s violent resistance to God’s revelation of the
dignity of every human life.” – pg. 87
“ … there
is … the explanation posed by many scholars that these brothers and sisters of Jesus
refer mainly to suffering believers and perhaps secondarily to all humanity, if
at all. This reading is largely based on the habit Jesus made of calling
believers ‘brothers’ in the gospel of Matthew. If this is your position, let me
say that if you want to start with the poor, sick, hungry, imprisoned believers
of the world, then you’ll have plenty to do, so go right ahead. Indeed, we have
millions of impoverished brothers and sisters in Christ both at home and
abroad, so that will certainly keep you busy. It is both a noble and necessary
task. As for me, I’m going to gamble on the fact that Jesus didn’t have much
patience with believers who attempted to limit the scope of ‘who my neighbor
is’ to the fewest possible people (see Luke 10:25-37). Jesus always fell left
of center here, extending grace and healing to those well outside His party
lines. He often healed people first; they believed second. If I’m wrong, the
worst thing that can happen is that some desperate people are cared for, and
I’m guessing Jesus will look the other way. He favors unmerited grace. To me,
this is a wheat and weeds issue, and since that’s not my call to make, I’ll
just err on the side of mercy and let Jesus sort it out at the harvest.” –
pg. 88
“Jesus’
identification with the least is the cornerstone of this parable (Luke
10:25-37). He tells of the day when the righteous will stand before Him,
surprised at the credit they’re receiving for caring. A popular interpretation
exists wherein people who didn’t know Jesus and certainly were not motivated by
His kingdom will be welcomed as righteous simply for their attention to the
least. While my soft side loves that concept, I don’t buy it. Many will stand
before Jesus one day clutching good works in their hands, but they will leave
His presence because they never loved Him. If we’ve learned anything from the
rebellious nation of Israel, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the meager
offerings of the poor in Scripture, it is this: God is supremely concerned with
our motives, and our works count only when they match our intentions. There is
no back door into salvation, rerouted around the sacrifice of Christ.
Otherwise, the whole earth could gain heaven by good works, and His day on the
cross would be pointless.” – pgs. 88-89
“Jesus was describing the moment (in Luke 10:25-37) when His followers, His beloved sons and daughters, will stand before Him. Of course we loved the poor, Jesus. You told us to. Of course we opened our homes and invited the lonely in. That was clear in the Word. Of course we clothed naked children and fed starving people. They are human beings made in your image. We took care of the least in obedience to You, Jesus, but we never had the privilege of actually serving You. We did all that for You. But Jesus will say, No, you did that unto Me. That’s the shocker. ... It’s not surprising that we adopt (Jesus’) bias toward the bottom, and He is pleased. It’s startling that He is actually served. We clearly don’t comprehend how personally Jesus takes it when we love justice. He is so utterly identified with the afflicted that there is nothing more obedient, more pleasing, more central than serving Him in the marginalized. I wrote one time about being jealous of the disciples, how they knew the lines in Jesus’ hands and the sound of His voice. There were chosen to experience Jesus in the flesh, a distinction they had no concept of until He was gone. Yet a similar honor awaits us all. We have the privilege of serving Jesus Himself every time we feed a hungry belly, each moment we give dignity to someone who has none left, when we acknowledge the value of a convict because he is a human being, when we share our extreme excess with those who have nothing, when we love the forsaken and remember the forgotten. Jesus is there. It’s a spiritual mystery that leaves us scratching our heads as the righteous did in this story, yet a wisp of recognition rises up as I read Jesus’ words. I’ve met Jesus at the bottom far more than I ever communed with Him at the top.” – pgs. 89-90
Spring 2007 | Poor People
“(From Richard Rohr in Simplicity) We cannot think our way into a new kind of living. We must live our way into a new kind of thinking.” – pg. 91
“We changed the way we celebrated holidays, attempting to filter them through the gospel instead of culture. We latched onto the informed and active, soaking up their knowledge and experience and sponges. Painfully, we overhauled our personal budget, freeing up some excess to share. We began chipping away at the walls we’d constructed between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and discovered common ground instead. … I started noticing not so much their need but their humanity. I realized these were daddies and sisters and lost sons and daughters. They had stories and dreams. Their wallets were full of pictures, and their histories were full of heartache. They were funny and wildly talented. … We looked each other in the eyes, and we were the same. Fragile humans who are patterned after Jesus, which makes us all beautiful. We’re all poor; I just have more stuff. My affection for them became my offering, far more important than the food or clean socks I brought. A hot meal can’t hold a candle to a real friend. Jesus ignited a love for the least in me that burned white hot, a growing inferno out of the tiny spark He’d started earlier. So I was beginning to identify with the least – and Jesus already said He was the least – I was perhaps starting to commune with Christ in earnest for the first time in my life. It was a party at the bottom. Sorry I was so late. I got lost.” – pgs. 92-93
Spring 2007 | Brandon's Take
“The experiences were reshaping my heart, and I could tell I was being transformed. The challenge would surely be to get other Christ followers to experience the same journey, to take the focus off themselves and place it on others, specifically on the least of these. That would be my job. I began to pray about how to apply it. I felt the solution was to take ‘mission’ from the final stage of our spiritual development process and place it under ‘discipleship.’ It had to be a key element. It needed to become an integrated part of our lives, maybe even a discipline like daily Bible study was, not just an event we did once a year.” – pg. 99
Spring 2007 | New
“(In Matthew 25:41-45) Never once did Jesus charge them with something they did wrong. His entire indictment was on what they didn’t do right. It was a sin of neglect, a crime of omission. And it went far beyond ignoring poverty. Jesus explained that when we ignore the least, we ignore Him. No amount of spinning or clever justification can neutralize Jesus’ point. If we claim affinity for Christ but turn a blind eye to those He identified Himself with, there is no honor in that. There is no truth in it. This is how grave the gospel’s challenge is: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:40). It is as simple as it is radical.” – pg. 101
“(Matthew
25:40) These are the words by which we are sent, but wondrously, they are also
the words by which we are saved. They are not simply a revelation of crisis and
the call to active love; they are also an invitation to personal recognition.
Each of us, as it turns out, counts as the least. We all bear the image of
Christ, not matter how devalued we feel. As poet and Jesuit priest Gerard
Manley Hopkins wrote, ‘Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs and
lovely in eyes not his.’ Ultimately, it is not nation or race, church or
citizenship that gives people value. It is not sinlessness or innocence that
makes us precious. It is not that Jesus looks on us as helpless or powerful,
poor or rich, weak or strong. We are loved because we are living images of God,
made in His likeness and created for the heights of His glory and the depths of
communion. Our very God took on our form for the love of humanity, privilege or
poverty aside. In contrast to God’s perfection, we are all the least, each and
every one, identified entirely with a Savior who loves us recklessly. This
parable reveals as much about the character of God as it does about the course
of human affairs.” – pgs. 101-102
“Miraculously, there will come a day when we stand before God Almighty with nothing but this human life standing up on our behalf, full of failure and omissions. And just when all hope is lost, when we have nothing left to hold out, nothing to show God, no more to demonstrate our worthiness with, the Son will step in, in all His glory and righteousness, and say to the Father, ‘Whatever you do to the least of these, these brothers and sisters of mine, you do unto me.’ So this Matthew 25 passage – in its greatest depth – is not merely a moral challenge or judgment on this world. Nor is it just a program for social action or poverty reduction. Rather, it describes the mystery of salvation that grounds all hierarchy, motivates all action, and makes possible the acceptance of our identity as redeemed sinners.” – pg. 102
Summer 2007 | Value: Partnering with Others to Make a Difference in Our Community and World (Isaiah 58)
“Although God’s silence was maddening, I see the important role it played. There is the obvious reason: a faith exercise. God has a history of behaving this way when calling people to a holy task. To Abraham: Go to a place I will show you. I mean I’ll show you later after you leave. To Moses: Go to Pharaoh and liberate my people. Oh? Just tell him ‘I AM’ sent you. To Isaiah: Go stripped and barefooted for three years. Just do it; it will mean something later. I wonder how their stories would have gone had they possessed clear directives at their launch. If they had understood the final picture at the beginning, then every detour, every setback, every unexpected turn could have derailed their mission. Had Abraham known that Canaan was, well, occupied, it might have affected his resolve to get there. Or if Moses had known that forty years of homelessness would commence after their liberation, he might have been softer with Pharaoh. If Isaiah had realized he’d never see Israel’s restoration, his prophesies could have lost their thunder. For us, it was essential that our dream of becoming a barefooted church was primary; how that materialized was a distant second. Otherwise, we would have held too tightly to the method, the details, the strategy. We are Type-As; it is our way. Had we become enmeshed with our specific task, there would have been much cause to doubt it in this early season. We were unprepared for the opposition and angst, and had we possessed a clear vision, we would have defiled with defensiveness something God intended to be pure. As it was, we could only hold loosely to something we didn’t even understand, and that put us in a position of faith and terrible humility. We can wreck the spirit of a mission by prematurely focusing on the strategy. When the ‘how’ eclipses the ‘why’ too soon, we create a positional shift to defend and execute rather than listen and receive. Once clear territory is staked, we turn into guards, protecting our decisions.” – pgs. 110-111
“(From
James Dobson in Life on the Edge) A better question becomes ‘Why does it
matter?’ It is not your responsibility to explain what God is doing with your
life. He has not provided enough information to figure it out. Instead, you are
asked to turn loose and let God be God. Therein lies the secret to the ‘peace
that transcends understanding.” – pg. 112
“Turning
loose is part of preferring the bottom; it’s an unexpected front door to peace.
But it is legitimately hard. It requires conscious decisions to abandon formerly
vital things like reputation, perception, position, control. … It is something
entirely different to adopt the mind of Christ. That’s when we don’t just act
lowly; we are lowly. Our minds are not safely secured up higher, awaiting our
return after we’re done patronizing those at the bottom. The decisions you make
in a low position are completely opposite those made in a high place. The
people you seek counsel from are different. The leaders you expose yourself to
are different. The way you move forward is different. There are top-dwelling
rules irrelevant at the bottom, and you’re free from adhering to them. … This is
probably why it wasn’t until we were lying on the ground that God delivered our
task and vision. I shudder to imagine how we would have destroyed that dream
had we possessed it when we were higher up. Not a single decision would have
had any integrity. We were so unprepared to receive our mission until the
second we did. When we had nothing left to protect, no position left to defend,
no reputation left to guard, and no one else to please, we got our marching
orders.” – pg. 112
Summer 2007 | Isaiah, Alan, and Me
“ … we have no special claims to God’s protection or provision. There was one chosen branch; the rest of us are only wild olive shoots grafted in by faith, not nationality. With the resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of humanity, we are no longer identified by nation, race, gender, or any group dynamic. We don’t get to stand behind the shield of church or denomination or political party. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ anymore. ‘Us’ is the worldwide assembly of the rescued who have been transformed from hopeless humans to adopted sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus. The end. Our group identification has nothing to do with where we were born or who we were born to. As Americans, we cannot act contrary to God’s Word and His will yet expect His blessings. You know what God would say? ‘As if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God’ (Isaiah 58:2).” – pg. 119
Summer 2007 | Ignorance is Not Bliss
“If there was one pitfall we wanted to avoid, it was becoming a church that places programs above people or the desire for the sweet Spirit of Christ. A growing church can quickly become distracted with the necessary business of things and miss the whole point, even annihilate the point, jeopardizing its DNA along the way. It we’re not careful, priorities can shift to chasing growth at all costs. It is our nature to get consumed by ambitious leadership and bottom lines. Church can become a machine, where secular business tactics become necessary to maintain momentum, much less thrive. These all increase our risk of being pulled away from the countercultural manner of Christ. It makes it harder to stay in the wake of God, not easier; this is true corporately as the church and personally as Christ followers. Then if God’s hand is removed – shock, confusion. ... Kind David constantly invited God to search his heart and the hidden motives within as he led the nation of Israel. The only thing worse than ignorance is being ignorant of our own ignorance, when we don’t even know what we don’t know. What we do know is that ‘the heart is deceitful’ and can fool even its owner. Much damage can be inflicted from that place. We are easily distracted, losing perspective and reacting desperately, but no circumstance gives us license to discard the essentials: love, mercy, compassion, justice. The means do not justify the end when it comes to God’s kingdom. The means are everything; the end is secondary.” – pgs. 120-121
“At the conception of our church, some of the first questions we asked were: ‘Why aren’t people compelled by the church anymore?’ ‘Why is the church so easily ignored when we’re supposed to be the arm of Christ?’ The ‘come to us’ system is no longer an appropriate response to the paradigms that exist in our world. Presenting a kingdom alternative to the world is now imperative, but we must acknowledge the paradigm shift that has taken place.” – pg. 122
Summer 2007 | A Modern Mess
“ … modernism, a worldview launched during the Enlightenment in the 1700s…(when) knowledge (became) king, and people believed through scientific discovering and human reasoning…this period was marked by extreme confidence in human ability, respect of authority, clear rights and wrongs, and individual rights. Other modern ideas included: (1) More education creates a moral society. (2) We make decisions if they make logical sense. (3) All knowledge is reachable via the mind. (4) We can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. (5) People can only trust what is proven through observation and experimentation. (6) Modernity deeply values security and protection. (7) Influence is obtained through institutions, through structures and positioning. The higher up in the structure, the more power you have because modern people respect position. (8) The needs of the individual supersede the needs of the community.” – pg. 123
“Naturally, modernism shaped the church. (1) We understand Christianity through factual research, based on an unshakeable foundation of absolute truth. (2) Apologetics (defending the faith) is a primary tool for evangelism. (3) Christianity is about ‘Jesus and me.’ He is my ‘personal Lord and Savior.’ I accept Him while everyone’s head is bowed and I can raise my hand in private. Community involvement is optional because this is a personal decision. (4) Christians make decisions based on how they feel God is speaking to them personally, it has little to do with community. (5) The modern value of security is deeply rooted in minimizing risk, pulling our kids and families completely out of their cultural context, and avoiding a missional lifestyle. (6) Pastors expect people to respect them simply for their position as ‘church leader.’” – pgs. 123-124
“(Modernism was) the worldview I grew up in. My (toxic) evangelistic strategy was (1) prove, (2) defend, and (3) put someone to the question. If she couldn’t follow the logical steps 1 through 8 as outlined in my helpful Christian tract, then her heart was hardened. I could only hope Jesus didn’t come back before she came to her senses. … My understanding of discipleship was linear; there was an obvious path to maturity through progressive steps, not a journey of discovery that involved several factors at once. Ultimately, my faith was about me and my stuff, and the greater good of my community was simply not my problem. From a modern standpoint, people come to church because they respect the institution and the pastor, they share a clear interpretation of right and wrong not up for discussion, it is a safe place to be sequestered, and you can navigate your faith without interference from others. Most churches uphold a modern worldview; indeed, because of their resistance to cultural influence, many still function with modern values in a society that no longer agrees with the tenets of the paradigm.”– pgs. 124-125
“The postmodern worldview questions whether facts are completely knowable and whether logic is really the best tool with which to navigate life. Truth is no longer objective, concrete, observable; it is subjective and dependent on circumstances. For many postmoderns, the prominence of the individual is diminished. They say the personal pursuit of happiness should no longer be supreme; rather, the betterment of the community is a dominant value. Other variances of postmodernity: (1) Rationalism doesn’t make a better society. (2) Deconstruction reigns; there is no absolute truth that undergirds all of life. (3) Everyone’s story is part of a bigger narrative. (4) Postmoderns ask questions and challenge the status quo. (5) Postmoderns have a global outlook in terms of responsibility for the ecology of the earth and its inhabitants. (6) Since most postmoderns do not believe in absolute truth, judging is preposterous. (7) Postmoderns are marked by a deep skepticism, and the twin ideas of power and control are repulsive. Answers to life’s questions are never simple or simply reduced. Postmoderns believe life is messy, not easily dissected or understood.” – pgs. 126-127
“ … reaching an increasingly postmodern society requires much deeper changes:
- Scripture is applied in context of the needs of the community.
- Relationships are of utmost importance. Postmoderns frequently seek God in community rather than alone. Discipleship occurs over years in community.
- Authenticity is everything; the appearance of being slick, packaged, or overproduced is suspect.
- Postmoderns have been burned by positional authorities (government, parents, church leaders), so they are suspicious of establishment and must be won over by integrity not title. They do value genuine moral authority though.
- Evangelism no longer emphasizes the rational linear decision an individual makes at a specific point. It is a process, a journey, a story.
- Postmoderns guard against consumerism and its effect on church.
- How genuinely a church engages relief work and the care of global society is everything to a postmodern.” – pgs. 127-128
Summer 2007 | Mission Possible
“ … we
became convinced that to attract our community to Christ, we had to become
missionaries to do it, immersing ourselves in culture as yeast that might
ultimately affect the whole batch. We are sent people – missionaries in our
neighborhood, our kids’ schools, our community, our gym, our favorite
restaurants. The church is no longer central, and therefore people are not
drawn to it as they used to be. We couldn’t expect anyone to heed us just because
we hung a church sign and donned the pastor label. We accepted that the first
reaction we should anticipate was skepticism, and the only bridge through that
chasm was through sustained, genuine relationships. Care of our fellow man,
locally and globally, was our best hope to attract people to our Jesus, far
more effective than cool music or impersonal mail-outs. As missionaries have
always understood, the key is to study the culture you are passionate about
reaching and submerge into that space with respect and love.” – pg. 129
“ … I
spy some gospel standards evident in the postmodern viewpoint that encourage
me:
- a sense of global community and care for suffering humanity;
- respect for our earth and its resources;
- authenticity valued over appearance;
- a passion for community and honest relationships; and
- responsibility and the rejection of consumerism.
“This is not just about doing church; it’s about being church. … This is not about (insert your name), church planters. This is about the bride of Christ. Church simply provides a nice context for us to live on mission together. It’s not about your church and how it is thrilling or failing you. Rather, what kind of bride are you helping prepare? With the glorious addition of you and your gifts, is she becoming radiant? Shane Claiborne wrote, ‘There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of.'” – pg. 131
Next post: Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity Part 3 of 3
– Sully
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