More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jen Hatmaker
Read between
March 22, 2019 - February 23, 2020
maintain His favor.
fists. You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
They were the branch chosen to represent the one True God for all the world to see. Not only did they reject Him, they defiled His reputation and delayed His fame.
Does our duplicitous representation of Jesus not only assault Him but also offend the rest of the world? Is this partly why the church is declining in America?
Unbelievers may not understand the nuances of our theology, but they know acting holy while injuring and offending others is repulsive.
The “come to us” system is no longer an appropriate response to the paradigms that exist in our world.
Because of this distrust of political, family, and church leaders, “personal preference,” philosophical freedom, and relativism took center stage.[1]
The postmodern worldview questions whether facts are completely knowable and whether logic is really the best tool with which to navigate life.
They say the personal pursuit of happiness should no longer be supreme; rather, the betterment of the community is a dominant value.
Since most postmoderns do not believe in absolute truth, judging is preposterous.
Answers to life’s questions are never simple or simply reduced. Postmoderns believe life is messy,
Church, what if we really loved our neighbors and offered a safe place for community in our homes, showing them church rather than just inviting them to one?
What if we pursued political objectivity, resisting partisan identification that has plagued Western Christianity?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? (58:6)
an abstinence from selfishness, greed, and egotism.
an organized church is simply a loose structure
to hold us together; people are truly the church.
“There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of.”[1]
Is [the true fast] not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:7)
Mercy to the hungry, poor, homeless, and orphaned has the threefold advantage of administering relief to the most distressed, identifying with Jesus on the deepest level, and drawing the skeptic through an action he is already compelled by.
This is more vital than ever because although the postmodern
values community and service, that doesn’t mean he lives out those values.
Isaiah 58, Matthew 25, Luke 22, John 21.
These made up the permanent address of light, healing, protection, communion, righteousness, answered prayers.
Believer, your life is too essential to waste on pettiness or word wars, greed or ladder climbing, anger or bitterness, fear or anxiety, regret or disappointment. Life is too short.
It’s about creating a place to belong before people are expected to behave or even believe.
An influential church is nothing more than a bunch of believers who get in the game and live on mission. This principle holds at fifteen and fifteen thousand people alike.
Jesus would become supreme—not our church, not us, not a method, not a band, not programs. We dreamed of a body allegiant far more to Christ than to ANC. ANC would become a disciple factory, rejecting the language and structures that create spiritually immature consumers. Christ followers would learn to take ownership in their
own spiritual development, not expecting their church to do all the heavy lifting. We would raise awareness of human suffering and present tangible opportunities to alleviate it. Believers, seekers, and skeptics alike could discover a shift away from the old progression (Believe and Behave then Belong) to something more inviting: Belong to Believe then Become.[1] Weekly community groups would be the life force of ANC, not weekend attendance. We still have a great
Sunday service. It’s simple in presentation and powerful in worship, but it’s a gathering, not the beginning and end of our faith community. ANC would create not only di...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Missional at its core means “sent.” It is the opposite of “come to us.” So many believers have selected their pet concept of the Great Commission—they read, “Make disciples of all nations,” but neglect the prerequisite instruction: “Go.” Going is the noble history of the Trinity.
Among, beside, within—this is the way of the Trinity.
People came to Him only after an encounter, after a revelation, after belief. He is the initiator, meeting humans on their turf
in the middle of their chaos. God understood that we were too broken and confused to find Him in His divine dwelling places. Once we belong to Him, we know where to look for ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
But why would cynics join a weekend celebration of a God they don’t know, especially One who has been so poorly represented by His people?
The church is one of the few organizations in the world that does not exist for the benefit of its members. The church exists because God, in his infinite wisdom and infinite mercy, chose the church as his instrument to make known his manifold wisdom in the world.[2]
It’s not that Christian influence is bad (well, it’s not all bad), but if followed exclusively, it distorts our perception of real life and our role in it. We turn a blind eye to the customs, cultures, communities, and contexts where people live their lives with different preferences and worldviews right next door to us.
segregation is that God asked us to be on mission with Him, sent us to some group of people somewhere, and wants us to minister to them in a way that meets their needs by speaking their language. This is a sticking point
believers. I worry the Christian community has accepted an insidious shift from laboring for others t...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
We’ve perpetuated a group identity as misunderstood and persecuted, defending our positions and preferring to...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
We’ve bought the lie that connecting with people on their terms is somehow compromising, that our refusal to proclaim our moral grou...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
How lovely is a faith community that goes forth as loving sisters and brothers rather than
Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we’re about.
Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ.[1]
work? We’ve relied on the church to represent Jesus for so long; taking on that job ourselves leaves something of a vacuum.
When the final goal is church, some unhealthy expectations are attached. The pastor becomes central, and too much hinges on his personality, his teaching, his life. Facing pressure without and within, pastors learn to exhibit an ideal caricature of their real self and forfeit authenticity for image. This has a trickle-down effect on the congregation, and honest community struggles to emerge.
And don’t get me started on how much pressure is then put
on the s...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
How many sermons have actually altered your life? One thirty-minute message a week is rarely the catalyst for transformation.
