Edison Churches Quotes

“Often when we think of church planting,” says Philip, “we think of planting worship services, and we think that once we have planted a worship service, we have planted a church. This is just stupid from a theological point of view.”
― Jesse C Middendorf, Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough

“Up to this point, Philip hadn’t actually heard much about the kingdom. Even though he had studied theology for four years and listened to thousands of sermons, somehow he had never heard the kingdom of God explained. Philip was shocked to discover that Jesus’s central message was not forgiveness or love or even reconciliation. Rather, the single theme that unites Jesus’s teachings in the Bible is this mysterious kingdom of God.”
― Jesse C Middendorf, Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough

“Finances are more likely to follow the mission than to lead it.”
― Jesse C Middendorf, Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough

“Sit with this painful comparison for a moment. In a predominantly Muslim country, a brand-new church pioneered a kingdom work that saw thousands of new churches organized in two decades. Meanwhile, in a country where religious freedoms are legally protected, many denominations—with thousands of paid clergy, vast resources, hundreds of thousands of members, and beautiful buildings—saw a decline in their numbers across the board. It’s a bit like being an unsuccessful lifetime golfer and watching video of a five-year-old child hit a hole-in-one. You’ve worked your whole life and have never achieved what someone just starting out has already achieved.”
― Jesse C Middendorf, Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough

“Embracing Failure WE NEED TO FAIL. Churches need to fail more. Leaders need to fail more. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has, since the 1990s, been hosting what he calls failure parties for scrapped research projects. 1 Edgy design company 5Crowd has a failure party every month—complete with failure high-fives and often wrapping up with a celebratory failure cake! 2 When venture capitalists assess whether to invest in a new idea, one of the key characteristics they look for is a previous failed startup. They prefer to invest in a leader who has already run a company into the ground.”
― Jesse C Middendorf, Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough