J.R. Woodward > J.R.'s Quotes

“More than a strategy, vision or plan, the unseen culture of a church powerfully shapes her ability to grow, mature and live missionally.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“The world is now an urban place. The resources and concerns of the church need to acknowledge this.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“Creating a missional culture is more than just adding some outward programs to the church structure. Creating a missional culture goes to the heart and identity of God, to who we are and who we are becoming.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“The doctrine of the Trinity means that relationship, that fellowship, that togetherness and sharing, that self-giving and other-centeredness are not afterthoughts with God, but the deepest truth about the being of God. The Father is not consumed with Himself; He loves the Son and the Spirit. And the Son is not riddled with narcissism; he loves his Father and the Spirit. And the Spirit is not preoccupied with himself and his own glory; the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. Giving, not taking; other-centeredness, not self-centeredness; sharing, not hoarding are what fire the rockets of God and lie at the very center of God’s existence as Father, Son and Spirit.”
― C. Baxter Kruger, Jesus and the Undoing of Adam

“If the mystery of the Trinity is the template of all reality, what we have in the Trinitarian God is the perfect balance between union and differentiation, autonomy and mutuality, identity and community.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“many of our current practices seem to be the wrong way around ... we seem to make church complex and discipleship too easy.”
― Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church

“Leaders need community to pursue wholeness.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“Culture is like gravity. We never talk about it, except in physics classes. We don’t include gravity in our weekly planning processes. No one gets up thinking about how gravity will affect their day. However, gravity impacts us in everything we do, every day. Like gravity, the culture of a congregation can either pull people down to their base instincts or lift people up to their sacred potential. We create culture, and culture re-creates us.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“The prescription for spiritual transformation has often been too individualistically oriented. We are encouraged to engage in spiritual disciplines so that we might have the power to do what we can’t do by will power alone. But what happens when people don’t have the “will power” to engage spiritual disciples on a consistent basis? Our character is left untended. “In a wild world like ours, your character, left untended, will become a stale room, an obnoxious child, a vacant lot filled with thorns, weeds, broken bottles, raggedy grocery bags, and dog droppings. Your deepest channels will silt in, and you will feel yourself shallowing. You’ll become a presence neither you nor others will enjoy, and you and they will spend more and more time and energy trying to be anywhere else.”[1] So what are we to do?”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

“Henri Nouwen wonderfully describes the practices of silence, solitude and fasting. Within a world of words, silence allows us to hear the voice of God and ultimately gives us a liberating word for others. Solitude, as Nouwen says, is “the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter.”[5] Solitude is the place where we stand alone, naked before a holy God, and learn to accept his grace and love, which set us free. Finally, fasting allows us to enter into the sufferings of Christ and walk closer with God. As Eddie Gibbs says, “The Church in the West has got to learn to suffer. We love Easter, but we don’t like Good Friday.”[6] Fasting gives a needed break to our digestive organs and sharpens our spiritual senses. As we engage in the three practices of silence, solitude and fasting, we can overcome a noisy, overwhelming, frenzied life and connect with the heart of God. Here we find love and liberation for all, responding to the suffering and captivity in the world.”
― J.R. Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World