The Tangible Kingdom Quotes

“If Christianity was only about finding a group of people to live life with who shared openly their search for God and allowed anyone regardless of behavior to seek too and who collectively lived by faith to make the world a little more like Heaven would you be interested ’ ‘Hell yes ’ was his reply. He continued ‘Are there churches like that”
― Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Do you ever wonder why a battered wife stays with her husband? Why people continue to spend money they don’t have even though they know they are deeply in debt? Why some keep jamming food in their mouths when they’re already overweight? Why do people stay in bad relationships? Why are some people still racist? Why do people still drink and drive? You’d think the response to all these things would be obvious and cause them to scream, “Duh, of course I need to change this.” Why do we keep doing church the same way even when we know it’s in critical decline? Why do paid church leaders spend so much time preparing for a 90-minute service for Christians who have heard it all before? Why do we still call our message the good news when it clearly seems to be bad news or no news to Sojourners? Why do we think Pharisees are only found in the Bible? Why is returning to a simpler form of ancient church so hard to grasp?”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“A documentary about Ernest Shackleton’s early twentieth-century exposition to the South Pole shows the classified ad Shackleton put in a London newspaper:   “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” Ernest Shackleton.2 Men responded to Shackleton’s advertisement in droves. Why? Because the mission was clear. The cost and potential loss both drew the right men and made sure the wrong men didn’t sign up. God’s mission, similarly, is not for the faint of heart. Even becoming a Christian, according to Jesus, should be weighed heavily. Luke says, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish”’ (Luke 14:28-30).”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The second essential incarnational habit we hope to cultivate is simply listening. Listening is watching and sensitively responding to the unspoken and spoken needs of Sojourners in ways that demonstrate sincere interest.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The convictions we need to rally around should be about life giving, community transformation, holistic personal growth, sacrifice, beauty, blessing, and world renewal. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a people committed to something that brings personal meaning and makes the world a better place?”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Christianity has lost its place at the center of American life. Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society. We must learn to build relational bridges that win a hearing.”7”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The more we do “together,” the less individualistic we’ll be. The more we become “one” with Christ, the less consumer oriented we’ll be. The more we do for “others,” the less materialistic we’ll be.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“We may not always feel it when building a deck for someone, shoveling snow, helping out financially, watching a neighbor’s kids, opening our home, or giving gifts, but these habits and activities do create a well that people will eventually gravitate toward.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Did you know that we’re all created with a built-in desire to love the world, to bless people? It’s the main job description of a Christian. Way back when the term emerging church meant that the church was really emerging, God set up a deal with humanity.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Whimsy is the ability to laugh, make light of, or downplay the words, behaviors, and worldview of Sojourners that might offend.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Have you ever stopped to ponder how Jesus lived his first thirty years without drawing any attention to his divine nature? I don’t know about you, but if I knew I was going to change the course of history, I’m sure it would have slipped out on occasion. I doubt I could have just lived a normal life. But Jesus did. He lived among people for three decades, developing the relational respect and trust of people in his community.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“our “gathering”—or what people used to call “church”—is an aspect of what we do, but not the only thing. The gathering is where we . . . gather. That’s it. It’s a place that anyone can come to and not feel any pressure at any level.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“If Christians simply focused on doing the most basic aspects of Christianity, like “loving” each other, it would say more to the watching world than all the systematic theology we could throw at them.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“I just want you to know that we’re not a church, we’re a mission to Denver. I don’t feel any compulsion to feed you spiritually, but I will look after your spiritual formation. I believe you won’t grow unless you live like Jesus lived and try to do what he did with people. This mission probably has nothing to offer you. However, I’m interested in finding out if God brought you to us, and what your part in serving this city might be.” I go on to suggest that they won’t fit with us unless they are willing to open up their homes and lives to Sojourners and participate in a missional community within the city.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“I believe you won’t grow unless you live like Jesus lived and try to do what he did with people.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Influence doesn’t happen by extracting ourselves from the world for the sake of our values, but by bringing our values into the culture.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“We have to remember that the ancient faith communities that set a course to change the history of the world did so without church programs, without paid staff, without Web sites, and without brochures, blogs, or buildings. They were lean! The point of going without all the stuff is simple but profound. When you don’t have all the “stuff,” you’re left with a lot of time to spend with people.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“But the essence of all these rhythms is participating in what God calls 'pure' religion in James 1:27. It's taking care of orphans, widows, and the practical needs of a hurting world.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The goal of our missional life is not to grow churches. The goal of church is to grow missionaries.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Church can be a huge consumer trap. We provide large, comfortable worship centers, encourage pastoral staff to give us everything we need spiritually, and, at the end of the day, we don't have any money or time left to extend blessing and resources toward mission.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Obviously, there are restraints on who can 'lead' your community in worship, teaching, and so on, but we see Jesus sending out the Twelve, two by two, into the city to do ministry, even before they had come to full faith i the entire gospel message.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Hebrews 10:24 - 'And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds' - is not just a call from the pulpit for consumer Christians to make sure to tithe and have their daily devotions.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Because I want myself and our people to have time to be incarnational in the world, we don't take up their time working on the church service.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The incarnational way culminates in this primary difference: Belonging enables believing.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“We need to be honest about our lame, half-baked message and our even lamer attempts to dress it up and make it look sexier than it is. My sense is that we'd do better to admit we haven't fully discovered the depths of this story and simply invite people to start digging for it with us again.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“What causes exclusive community is fear. What creates inclusive community is love.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“When posture is wrong, you'll always be perceived to be an enemy or judge. When your posture is correct, you'll be perceived to be an advocate, a person who supports and speaks in favor of or pleads for another.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“...we specifically ask people not to try to be "evangelistic." We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message.”
― Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

“The call of community isn't about finding people just like us, or at the exclusion of any people. Community in the biblical sense is clearly about unlike people finding Christ at the center of their inclusive life together. Thus, issues of community reflect powerful dynamics of how God brings very diverse people together for his glory and his witness in the world.”
― Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community