Faithful Presence Quotes

“Poverty is not primarily about money. It is about having no idea what to do and/or having no one with whom to do it. The former I called imagination and the latter I called community. To the extent that our neighborhood had imagination and community, we were not poor. But without imagination and community, no money could help us. . . . The role of the local church is to be a community of imagination [for the kingdom].12”
― David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission

“The difference between the church and the world therefore is not spatial, that is, between where God is and where he is not. There is no in here and out there when it comes to the church (see appendix 3). Instead, the church in essence experiences God’s presence visibly now, ahead of the time when God shall visibly reign among the whole world. The difference between the church and the world then is just a matter of timing. The church experiences the kingdom ahead of time. The rest of the world is heading there; they just don’t know it yet (“for he shall reign until all things have been made subject” [1 Cor 15:25, my translation]).”
― David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission

“proclaiming the gospel goes beyond something personal. The gospel is a cosmic reality that supersedes being about me. If it’s merely personal, the gospel would stop with me. I might share it with someone as something nice that really benefitted me and maybe the other person might like to give it a try too. But if it is cosmic, it is presented as a matter of fact that has reality regardless of whether I (or anyone else for that matter) have chosen to live by its news. Proclaiming the gospel therefore is the art of announcing to our neighbors that this new world has begun in Christ.”
― David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission