Total Church Quotes

“Before they are preachers, leaders or church planters, the disciples are to be lovers! This is the test of whether or not they have known Jesus. This remains the case today: this cross-love is the primary, dynamic test of whether or not we have understood the gospel word and experienced its power...It is our cross-love for each other that proclaims the truth of the gospel to a watching and skeptical world. Our love for one another, to the extent that it imitates and conforms to the cross-love of Jesus for us, is evangelistic.

pp. 56-7”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should be asking what kind of me God wants for his mission.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The main thing that prevents us from understanding the Bible aright is not a lack of hermeneutical skills but our sin.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“Evitar la apostasía exige no solo una vigilancia individual, sino también un mutuo cuidado constante entre los miembros de la comunidad’.”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“es legítimo hablar del discipulado entre cristianos, siempre y cuando, claro está, se reconozca que se trata de un proceso mediante el cual los discípulos de Jesús como Rey se ayudan mutuamente para ser aún mejores discípulos de Jesús Rey.”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“En la actualidad, hay quien insiste en seguir métodos coercitivos en la presentación del Evangelio.”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“Una de las expresiones clave dentro de la eclesiología del Nuevo Testamento es “los unos a los”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“La historia del cristianismo en su totalidad, y la historia del mundo como un todo, habrían seguido un curso muy distinto de no haberse transmutado de forma continua la teología de la cruz en teología de gloria, pasando así a ser la iglesia de la cruz una iglesia de gloria’.”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“Al igual que la iglesia deja de ser iglesia si no es misionera, la teología deja de ser teología si pierde su carácter misionero.”
― Tim Chester, Iglesia radical: Evangelio y comunidad

“But when we study God’s word we should pray that the Spirit of God will not only inform our heads but also inspire our hearts.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“Studying the text with other people reduces the impact of sin on our thinking.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“Our sin warps our understanding because we all tend toward self-justification. Studying”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The main thing that prevents us from understanding the Bible aright is not a lack of hermeneutical skills but our sin. Our”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“Professionalism is always the enemy of authentic gospel leadership. Leaders”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“When we think “mission” we must think “church.” And the best way to link church and mission is through church planting.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The challenge for us is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between “full-timers,” “part-timers,” and people with secular employment in our team and leadership structures. We need non-full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel-centered, missional living. It means thinking of our workplaces, homes, and neighborhoods as the location of mission. We need to plan and pray for gospel relationships. This means creating church cultures in which we see normal, celebrating day-to-day gospel living in the secular world and discussions of how we can use our daily routines for the gospel.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The gospel is good news—a message to be proclaimed, a truth to be taught, a word to be spoken, and a story to be told.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“The growth of God’s kingdom is synonymous with the spread of God’s word. The kingdom grows through the word as it elicits faith.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“Christianity is word-centered because God rules through his gospel word.”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

“and domestic aspects of life. That would be to forsake the universal claim of the kingdom of God. Newbigin looks to the pattern of Jesus who exercised the sovereignty of God’s kingdom through servanthood. How is it possible for the church truly to represent the reign of God in the world the way Jesus did? The answer, he believes, lies in the local congregation. I have come to feel that the primary reality of which we have to take account in seeking for a Christian impact on public life is the Christian congregation. How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a”
― Tim Chester, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community