Michael W. Goheen > Quotes

“This is the mission of God: to restore the creation and the life of humanity from the ravages of sin.[45] The church’s function in this story is to participate in God’s mission; we are to be caught up in God’s own work of restoration and healing. This defines the identity and role of the church.”
― Michael W. Goheen, A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story

“Richard Tarnas (quien de hecho no profesa la fe en Cristo), en su explicación de la cosmovisión occidental, observa que la iglesia limitó su comprensión de la fe cristiana y la adaptó a la cosmovisión humanista. A partir del siglo XVIII, la fe cristiana «se concentró exclusivamente en los asuntos espirituales internos del individuo»: «La antigua creencia cristiana de que la Caída y la Redención conciernen no solo al hombre sino al cosmos entero —doctrina que ya empezó a debilitarse después de la Reforma— ahora desaparecía por completo: el proceso de la salvación, si en efecto tenía algo de sentido, concernía únicamente a la relación personal entre Dios y el hombre».31 En consecuencia, la esfera de alcance del evangelio se restringió hasta abarcar solamente una relación personal entre Dios y el individuo humano.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Una Luz a las Naciones: La iglesia misional y el relato bíblcio (Colección Ministerio y Teología Misional nº 1)

“The biblical story is not to be understood simply as a local tale about a certain ethnic group or religion. It begins with the creation of all things and ends with the renewal of all things.”
― Michael W. Goheen, A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story

“No state can be completely secular in the sense that those who exercise power have no beliefs about what is true and no commitments to what they believe to be right. It is the duty of the church to ask what those beliefs and commitments are and to expose them to the light of the gospel.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview

“Being different, resisting the idolatry of the dominant story, will mean suffering for Christians as they pursue their callings in culture.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History and Issues

“The building up of massive stockpiles of weapons capable of destroying the world is the direct result of modern technological development. And it consumes huge amounts of time, money, and materials. If one year’s worth of global spending on arms were spent on food instead, it could feed the world’s hungry for years.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview

“It is now estimated that if the whole world were to consume natural resources at the same rate as do North Americans, those resources would last for only about ten or twenty years more.72 Surely, a worldview that would destroy creation if it were lived by all cannot be one that an ethical person should embrace.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview

“mission is not primarily about going. Nor is mission primarily about doing anything. Mission is about being.”
― Michael W. Goheen, A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story

“palabra «misional» se entiende de una manera distinta cuando describe la naturaleza de la iglesia. En el mejor de los casos, no describe una actividad específica, sino la misma esencia e identidad de la iglesia cuando, en el contexto de su cultura, asume el rol que le corresponde en el relato de Dios y participa en la misión de Dios en el mundo.”
― Michael W. Goheen, Una Luz a las Naciones: La iglesia misional y el relato bíblcio (Colección Ministerio y Teología Misional nº 1)

“This farmer knows the creaturely nature of the seeds and the land that he deals with, and knows also the best methods of sowing those seeds, of harvesting, and of threshing. But the farmer knows all this by virtue of his experience with God’s orderly creation. God instructs the farmer, says Isaiah, but he does not use Scripture to do so directly; instead, wisdom—God’s instruction—comes as the farmer discerns and conforms”
― Michael W. Goheen, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview