Craig Van Gelder > Quotes

“The church is missionary by nature because God through the Spirit calls, creates, and commissions the church to communicate to the world that the redemptive reign of God has broken into human history.”
― Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit

“Mission (if it is biblically informed and validated) means our committed participation as God's people, at God's invitation and command, in God's own mission within the history of God's world for the redemption of God's creation."4”
― Craig Van Gelder, The Missional Church and Leadership Formation: Helping Congregations Develop Leadership Capacity

“Practices must be understood not simply as things we do to grow spiritually but rather as concrete ways in which our participation in God’s mission is embodied in relation to our neighbor.”
― Craig Van Gelder, The Missional Church in Perspective (The Missional Network): Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation

“It focuses on the sending character of God: God is a missionary God who sent Jesus into the world, and through the sending of the Spirit by the Father and the Son, the church is sent into the world to participate in God's mission.”
― Craig Van Gelder, The Missional Church and Leadership Formation: Helping Congregations Develop Leadership Capacity