Steven

“A Christian education cannot be content to produce thinkers; it should aim to produce agents. Such formation not only offers content for minds; it also impinges on the nexus of habits and desires that functions as the activity center of the human person. The driving center of human action and behavior is a nexus of loves, longings, and habits that hums along under the hood, so to speak, without needing to be thought about.[31] These loves, longings, and habits orient and propel our being-in-the-world. The focus on formation is holistic because its end is Christian action: what’s at stake here is not just how we think about the world but how we inhabit the world—how we act. We are what we love precisely because we do what we love.”
― James K.A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): How Worship Works

“Over the years, Midtown has remained present in the neighborhood, learned how to serve its neighbors, and exists for the neighborhood. However, with the demographic pressures facing many congregations, urban and otherwise, this does not seem to be enough. Shrinking budgets and aging members beg another question: Can Midtown learn presence with the neighborhood? This remains a critical question, not only for Midtown, but also for the broader field of missiology. When congregations remain within the neighborhood they seek to serve, they will find themselves shaped by the neighborhood in a variety of ways. Learning to live “in” and “for” an urban neighborhood necessitates presence with. Mission precipitates a crisis for congregations, where they learn to bear witness to the gospel not only by serving the neighborhood, but also by suffering in solidarity with it.”
― Scott Hagley, Eat What Is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context

“As Jürgen Moltmann puts it, In the movements of the Trinitarian history of God’s dealings with the world the church finds and discovers itself, in all the relationships which comprehend its life. It finds itself on the path traced by this history of God’s dealings with the world, and it discovers itself as one element in the movements of the divine sending, gathering together and experience. It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church, creating a church as it goes on its way.”
― Jason E. Vickers, Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal

“We need to put as much time and energy into thinking about why people should come to church as we do into thinking about how to get them to come. In other words, we need to think carefully about what the church actually has to offer people who come to worship or who become members. If we are not clear about why people will be better off for the trouble of getting out of bed on Sunday morning, then we may succeed in boosting attendance for a season, but we will fall short of the long-haul renewal that we so desperately need and desire.”
― Jason E. Vickers, Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal