Steven

“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

“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

“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

“The reign of God that the church proclaims is indeed present in the life of the church, but it is not the church’s possession. It goes before us, summoning us to follow. The practical implications of this will be discussed in a later chapter. Here it is enough to say that the picture given us in the Acts is one that is constantly being reproduced in the missionary experience of the church. It is the Holy Spirit who leads the way, opening a door here that the church must then obediently enter, kindling a flame there that the church must lovingly tend.”
― Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission