Jeff Christopherson > Quotes

“However we dress it up, the impulse of competition in the sacred space does not originate in the heavenlies, and is in fact, an affront to the Kingdom of God.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“we will never add one spiritual brick in the Kingdom of God when it is our interests that we seek first.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“When Christ mended the ear that Peter had severed, knowing the soldier he healed would be His captor, He was expressing agape-love.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“The course of history has been dramatically impacted because some simple Christ-followers were simply not sophisticated enough to rationalize into oblivion teachings like this as some obscure metaphor with little instructive value to the contemporary local church. Instead, orphanages opened, schools started, homeless were sheltered, prisoners were discipled, the hungry were fed, the sick were treated, slavery was abolished, and human beings all over the world were loved because Kingdom expanding Christ-followers throughout history believed that Jesus meant business.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“If we are ever to see God’s hand in our places of ministry, we have no other option but to cooperate with God’s ways. Spiritual communities that are designed to advance the name of Christ over and above the notoriety of a well-coiffed brand will be always light the path of faith for Kingdom Seekers to find their home. There is nothing self-seeking in Jesus.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“What made the first-century church so potent was its absolute disinterest in itself.”
― Jeff Christopherson, Kingdom First

“Neither the old lifeless legalism of ‘believe and behave,’ nor the cool, funky, hipper versions of a more open-minded conformation can produce the inner change that advances the Kingdom of God an inch.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Prayer is a channel, not a source. I don’t believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of our omnipotent God who spoke our universe into existence. I believe in a God who delights to listen and speak to His children. Prayer is a channel whereby God communicates to us and we to Him. Prayer doesn’t change things; God changes things. Prayer doesn’t work; God works. There is no power in prayer, but all power and authority in heaven and earth had been given to Jesus Christ, so we pray.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“When churches are planted for evangelism, they often find themselves culturally mismatched and fail to gain an indigenous foothold. When churches are started from evangelism, they seem instinctively to know how to move forward, with great credibility, in a sea of networks and relationships.”
― Jeff Christopherson, Kingdom First

“Ego is a fickle and destructive master.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“It is possible to participate in church expansion and unintentionally be an agent for shrinking the Kingdom of God.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“When the words that I speak are true, no matter how difficult they may be, the Kingdom of God is forcefully advanced”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“To consider ourselves as claimants to God’s Kingdom because of our theological statements proves that we are close cousins to Jesus’ hometown neighbors and that we totally missed His point.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“God’s plan for His Kingdom is not individualistic autonomy. Isolation is inspired from a far darker realm. It is the genius of the Body working interdependently that propels unstoppably the great purposes of the Kingdom.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Our efforts of consolidation have reduced us from a counterculture movement of Little Christs to a religion preoccupied with how many we sit in our bleachers.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“If local churches do not advance the Kingdom of God, they reduce it.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“How many have we kept off the Kingdom playing field in order to fill our stands and stroke our collective egos?”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Jesus is not against our sacred institutions. Jesus is against whatever we will not leave behind to follow Him.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Have you every wondered why those who we slate in the category of secular seem to have a more vigorous Kingdom pulse than many who have lived their entire lives under the banner of sacred?”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Local churches are temporary; they have a life cycle, a shelf life. No doubt many have long exceeded that shelf life and still operate under the designation of church, but have long ceased to operate within the constraints of God’s Kingdom.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“If the destination is the Kingdom of God, then the wings of the church must be balanced with good works and Good News.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“When spiritual community is deprived of the life-giving oxygen of self-disclosure, darkness has found a sacred home.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“God, as a rule, doesn’t choose sides. Instead, God reveals Himself and then allows those who care to choose Him.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Essential to the disciples’ transformation process is authentic, honest, and intimate community.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“Examples abound in our culture of the sacred smelling a bit funky, and the secular looking a lot like Jesus.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“In Christ’s Kingdom grace extends well beyond the graced.”
― Jeff Christopherson, Kingdom First

“the Kingdom of God flourishes when generous helpings of light are dished out in great big dollops and are lavishly applied to every area of life.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“The result of focusing a church inward is a congregation of flabby spiritual consumers.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God

“If the church were the goal, then sustaining that church would logically be the priority of the highest order. But if the Kingdom of God was the goal, then the Kingdom-building instrument would gladly self-sacrifice for the eternal prize.”
― Jeff Christopherson, Kingdom First

“The King is not recruiting warriors to help Him tip the balance in His jihad against darkness, but rather is seeking men and women who will find their completion in His presence.”
― Jeff Christopherson, The Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God