A New Kind of Church Quotes

“Where Churches Are at Fault • Churches are too slow to change their methods. • Churches have failed to take advantage of their opportunities. • Churches don’t value evangelism. • Churches aren’t recruiting gifted leaders.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Barna Research Group supplies this information: “After exploring the religious life of adults attending a variety of Protestant churches, only three types of churches—Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, and nondenominational churches—had a majority of adherents who had shared their faith in Christ with a non-Christian in the past year.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“The mission of the church, according to Matthew 28:19–20, is to make disciples, and that includes evangelism as well as other functions.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“a large number of the Busters and Mosaics have rarely attended church, if at all. Their question for the established church is, Why should I attend your church when there are so many other things that I could be doing?”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Does this mean that these people are upset with or even angry at the institution of the church? Not necessarily. When asked why they no longer attend church, many unchurched felt that it simply wasn’t that important, while 34 percent said they were just too busy.5 And many others are looking elsewhere for answers to their questions about spiritual matters because they believe the church is answering questions that most of them aren’t asking.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Today’s churches must realize that Jesus, his disciples, and the early church didn’t have any problem attracting men. They developed a culture that included such characteristics as challenge (Matt. 4:18–19), commitment (v. 20), conviction (Acts 20:22–24), and risk (Acts 4:29), as well as a number of other qualities that likely attracted men.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“I believe it was Peter Wagner who said a church that attempts to reach everyone in general will likely reach no one in particular.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“The third possibility and the best response to culture is contextualization, which attempts to plant or reestablish churches within people’s cultural context and to communicate the gospel in language and practices that are understandable so that the biblical message is clear. Therefore, contextualization views culture as a means or vehicle that God, man, and Satan can use for their own purposes, whether good or evil. It teaches that a convert doesn’t have to adopt or embrace another, so-called Christian or church culture to be accepted, saved, or to join a church. It uses indigenous cultural forms and practices to communicate biblical truth; otherwise, the gospel isn’t clear.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Our worldview dictates what we think and believe is true. We hold our beliefs at two levels. One is our operating beliefs. They are the beliefs that we act on. These beliefs affect and influence our values and overall behavior. Our theoretical beliefs are the beliefs that we hold at a theoretical level. They may or may not affect our lives. A church’s doctrinal statement or creed would be one example of a theoretical belief.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Traditional definitions of culture usually include such elements as people’s thoughts, beliefs, values, speech, actions, and artifacts (man-made objects). These all fall under people’s beliefs and actions. Therefore, I define culture as the sum total of what people believe and how they act on their beliefs.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Four Reasons Why Culture Is Important • It profoundly shapes and influences our life and all our beliefs. • It affects the development of our theology and what we believe about the Bible. • It affects the way we conduct our ministries in the church. • It helps us understand better the different people we seek to reach for Christ.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Culture helps us understand better the different people we seek to reach for Christ. We live at a time of growing cultural diversity. Consequently, we are reaching out and ministering the gospel to an increasingly multicultural North America.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Our cultural presuppositions affect the development of our theology and what we believe about the Bible. Our culture provides a semantic, conceptual framework through which we view God and the Bible. Most of us who are in ministry in evangelical pulpits have been educated under a Western European influence. The institutions where we have trained were heavily influenced by a European system using European theologians”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Culture shapes and influences our life and all of our beliefs. Most people are not aware of the profound influence that culture has on us. But even if we don’t realize it, we use culture to order our lives, interpret our experiences, and evaluate behavior. It’s our resource for understanding our experiences and making sense of our lives. Since this is largely a mental reflex—an unconscious process”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Forms are the temporal, changing, and negotiable practices that are based on culture and are methods that all churches are free to choose to accomplish their functions.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California—a great church that God has wonderfully blessed—teaches on the Purpose-Driven Church and argues for five purposes of the church: evangelism, worship, fellowship, discipleship, and ministry.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“The biblical teaching on the priesthood of the believer is found in such passages as 1 Peter 2:5, 9 and Revelation 1:6; 5:10. In the Old Testament God set aside one tribe (Levi) as his representatives to serve him on behalf of the others. In the New Testament he has called and set aside all believers as his priests to serve him as well as his body, the church. The point is we’re all to be involved in ministry in our churches. Service or ministry is necessary and vital to the life of every church.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“My experience has shown, though, that while some of these people are mature, many aren’t. In the 1980s and 1990s in Dallas, when the pastoral staffs of some of these churches attempted to lead them to a more contemporary approach to ministry, I observed that these people could be just as nasty and mean as those who don’t know the Bible well. Not only must congregants know the Bible well, they must apply or live the Bible well. This calls for obedience to the taught word. In Matthew 28:20 Jesus speaks of “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Thus teaching all nations to obey everything he commanded is vital to making disciples. Spiritual maturity involves both a knowledge of the Bible and its application to one’s life.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“I believe that there are five general church functions. They are teaching, fellowship, worship, evangelism, and service. All are found in Acts 2:42–47 and are prescribed in other parts of the New Testament. All five of them must be somewhat balanced and are necessary in a church’s ministry if its people are to become spiritually mature.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

“Functions are the timeless, unchanging, and nonnegotiable precepts that are based on Scripture and are mandates for all churches to pursue to accomplish their purpose.”
― Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century