Mike Breen > Quotes

“If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“No amount of money or ideas can replace the value of being physically present, giving time and attention to people or projects.”
― Mike Breen, Oikonomics

“We don’t want people to understand forgiveness or prayer or mission or justice only intellectually. We want people who can forgive, who can hear and respond to God, who actually know Him. We want people who have hearts that break for our world and the people in it and do something about it. We want the kind of people in our communities who resemble the people we see in Scripture.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“Leaders must always be looking to give away their jobs to people who can do it as well or better than they. This calls for a level of intimacy between the leader and disciple that does not last. The leader begins to disengage; the disciple now becomes a leader. The closeness remains and is no longer defined by the amount of time spent together but by the openness with one another.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“We are creating a culture, even if it’s unintentional. The question is, do we like the culture we are creating?”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“Prayer was as fundamental an element in the life of Jesus as breathing. He inhaled his Father’s presence so he could exhale his Father’s will.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“Our commission is to compassionately reach out to those around us, invite them to join us in community, share the story of the gospel, make disciples, and gather them into families to follow Jesus together.”
― Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities

“life is richer when it is shared even with those who annoy us from time to time.”
― Mike Breen, Family On Mission

“We may wonder if there is any purpose in the “broken” times of our life, times when we have suffered failure, loss or disappointment. The life of Moses tells us that these hurts are like instruments that God can use to shape our lives. Difficulty rather than ease fashions our character and gives us “depth.” Moses embraced the conditions of his life and “went to the far side of the desert.”10 He may have thought he was escaping only his difficult circumstances, but in fact, Moses gave God the opportunity to shape him into the man that he would become. We must do the same if we are to achieve all that God has for us.”
― Mike Breen, Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible

“Here’s what I’ve noticed in these times of erosion: Our natural inclination toward self-preservation makes us want to get out of the pit as soon as possible. Of course, that’s a natural, instinctive, human reaction. But I’d suggest we can take a different posture. You see, as more and more of us is stripped away, what is lying at the bottom of the pit are gold bars that will shape the rest of our lives. They are often the most important things that God is looking to teach us. So instead of a posture that says, “God, get me out of here as quickly as possible,” we step fully into the process and say, “God, don’t let me leave this place until I’ve learned what it is you have to teach.”
― Mike Breen, Leading Kingdom Movements

“We want people who have hearts that break for our world and the people in it and do something about it.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“We often use the following questions (a “Passion Audit”) to help MC leaders determine where God is calling them. What are your heart’s desires? What are you passionate about? What excites you (kids, environment, people, family, healing, etc.)? What is your holy discontent? What grieves or saddens you? What do you see that makes you think “that’s not fair!” (kids on street corners, litter, abuse, families breaking up, etc.)? What are the opportunities? Where are there places of grace, influence, and invitation? What are the needs of the community? Where could you be a blessing and/or good news to the local community? What have you heard from God? What has God said in the past, through Scripture and other people, about the present or the future? As you begin to pray through those questions,”
― Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities

“JESUS CREATED A HIGHLY SUPPORTIVE BUT HIGHLY CHALLENGING CULTURE.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“No one Accidentally creates Disciples. Discipleship is an intentional Pursuit..”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“And in the Kingdom, you receive when you give. You live only when you die. You become free when you submit. You advance when you fully surrender.”
― Mike Breen, Leading Kingdom Movements

“Here’s the thing that can be difficult to wrap our minds around: If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“Faith always comes to the surface and always produces action. It cannot be contained. Thoughts and intents that are held within and not acted upon are not faith, no matter what we like to say. (“My faith is personal” is a favorite. But that is a self-contradicting statement. Faith is always acted out, never kept bottled up within.)”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“Many faith communities have become little more than gatherings of isolated individuals, while the number of online communities continues to grow.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“His disciples weren’t just his roadies or work associates — they are his family. For Jesus, making disciples is about building a family. In one sentence, he completely redefines what family is, how it works, and what it’s for.”
― Mike Breen, Family On Mission

“aim for “low control, high accountability”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“IF WE KNOW WHO GOD HAS MADE US TO BE, WE CAN STOP TRYING TO BE SOMEONE WE ARE NOT AND LET GO OF THE STRESS THAT COMES WITH LIVING THAT KIND OF LIFE.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“If you are being discipled by a rabbi, you certainly want to know what the rabbi knows. But the actual goal of being a disciple is to become who the rabbi is. Not just to know what he knows, but to become like him.”
― Mike Breen, Family On Mission

“we are to work from our rest, not rest from our work.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“A Missional Community is a group of approximately 20 to 40 people who are seeking to reach a particular neighborhood or network of relationships with the good news of Jesus. The group functions as a flexible, local expression of the church and has the expressed intention of seeing those they are in relationship with become followers of Jesus with them. They exist to see God’s Kingdom come to their friends and neighbors.”
― Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities

“The leader of an MC needs to be a disciple-maker, not merely an event-organizer.”
― Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities

“Discipleship isn’t a random assortment of facts and propositions and behaviors, discipleship is something that is you to the core and is completely incarnated in you.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“MCs center their rhythms on growing in relationship with God (UP), with one another (IN), and with those they are reaching out to (OUT). This is community life centered on the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul and strength” (UP). “Love your neighbor as yourself” (IN). “Go and make disciples of all people groups” (OUT).”
― Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities

“We don’t have A “missional” problem. We Have A discipleship Problem.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“From our experience, if you want to make disciples, if you want to build a discipling culture in your community, you are going to need three things: 1.  A discipleship vehicle (I call it a Huddle) 2.  People need access to your life (the texture of Family on Mission) 3.  A discipling language (the discipling language I use is called LifeShapes)”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture

“The destiny of the Church is directly tied to how passionate she remains to her mission.”
― Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture