Christians in the Age of Outrage Quotes

“Our interests, goals, and ambitions must be centered on the all-embracing task the gospel sets before us. Paul describes this in Romans 15:20: “My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Every church and believer must ask: What are we known for in the community? What do we represent?”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Dedicating ourselves to Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting enables us to reset our minds, steering us away from the road toward outrage and onto the path of peace.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“We are not commissioned to retreat into our buildings to form holy huddles and talk about the good old days. In his omniscience, Jesus knew he was sending his followers into hostile territory. Nevertheless, he commanded them to go into the world (Matthew 28:18-19), be fishers of men (Mark 1:17), and tell people everywhere about him (Acts 1:8).”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“you can’t hate people and engage them with the gospel at the same time. You can’t war with people and show the love of Jesus. You can’t be both outraged and on mission.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“When the church protects the powerful at the expense of the victim, we have compromised. And in the end, these compromises add up and convince the world that the church is not a community for the broken in search of healing but just another human institution that puts expediency above righteousness and justice.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Together we are called to ask, What does it mean to be followers of Christ in our local community? In what ways do our values and beliefs shape how we live out the gospel and its implications in our cultural context? How can we best communicate the hope and truth in Jesus’ Kingdom to our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family?”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“A mature Christian recognizes that correcting every wrong on the Internet would take more hours than a full-time job. If you snap every time your great-aunt’s friend’s cousin thrice-removed makes a snarky comment about “all the contradictions in the Bible,” it will consume you and your joy.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Americans now believe that having equal rights in a political system also means that each person’s opinion about anything must be accepted as equal to anyone else’s.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Because God is in control and will redeem all things, I can be calm, bold, and gracious as I share the gospel.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“You have the Holy Spirit inside you, empowering you and enabling you to live on mission. In a world at its worst, live out your calling to be a Christian at your best in the age of outrage.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Worldly love (licentiousness) seeks to endorse or embrace everything. It begins from the false dichotomy that we either accept without question people’s beliefs and behavior (unless it is obviously destructive to someone else) or we are unloving. As a result, we cannot address underlying sin or rebellion. Thus, love is set as opposite to judgment.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“have heard plenty of sermons that address the problem of pornography, but I can count on one hand the number of times a pastor or Sunday school teacher discussed a more comprehensive online discipleship.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“As ambassadors of Jesus Christ, they were consumed with the task given to them by God. Any authority and influence they had were not their own, or even connected to their brilliance or dynamic leadership strategies. Rather, they were servants of the King. Their allegiance was to his priorities, and they discerned the many ways they could walk in obedience to show and share the gospel in a world of great need.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“No longer representative of the dominant culture, Christians need to rethink the way we understand cultural engagement, mission, and evangelism in a newly post-Christian society.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“It’s time to live as people shaped by a gospel-centered worldview.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Reading church history and allowing it to influence our worldview reassures us not only that God has promised to be with us, but that he has delivered on this promise to every generation of believers regardless of the trials and tribulations of their time.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Through Scripture, we hear Christ’s voice speaking into the outrage, giving us wisdom rather than forcing us to seek it from the chaotic masses. Through prayer, we cast our anxieties and fears upon Christ rather than pouring them out into a vat of outrage. Through fasting, we remind ourselves of the soul’s dependence upon Christ and the insufficiency of everything else.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Fasting is designed to reorient our hearts to God and to reveal our dependency upon him and the complete insufficiency of this world to meet our needs.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Fasting is by far the most neglected spiritual discipline, with roughly 80 percent of churchgoing Protestants saying they have not fasted in the past six months.[21]”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Fasting: disciplining spiritual/gospel reliance”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“In essence, we cannot hope to engage the age of outrage unless we are properly devoted to the habit of prayer. Without it, we will inevitably succumb to the temptations and pressures that give rise to outrage rather than proclaim the victory and peace of Christ.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“The discipline of prayer actually guards our hearts and minds in Christ.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“In prayer, we bring to Jesus those anxieties and insecurities that would otherwise fuel our outrage. The discipline of prayer prevents us from venting, flaming, or savaging others, either in person or online. I’ve never seen people go after someone they’re praying for.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Prayer: outputting spiritual/gospel concern”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Scripture: inputting spiritual/gospel truth”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“Actually, reading the Bible was the factor that had the highest correlation with every other factor of discipleship. Now when people ask me, “How do we get people to witness?” “How do we get people to serve others?” or “How do we get people to pray?” I give them the same answer: Get people to read the Bible.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“If we are to begin to push back against this, we have to understand how meditating on God’s Word is central to worldview formation.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“In times when “truth” seems like a commodity peddled on every street corner, we need to grasp the power of the foundation we have in Scripture. While many readers will say “yes” and “amen” to this, the sad truth is that Bible reading is low even among those who frequently attend church. A 2015 study by LifeWay Research found that only 45 percent of people who attend church regularly read the Bible more than once a week. More than 40 percent of church attenders read their Bibles occasionally, about once or twice a month. Almost one in five churchgoers say they never read the Bible, which is about the same number as those who read it every day.[18]”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst

“The answer for Christians in the age of outrage is not some silver-bullet study that will give a new piece of knowledge. Rather, it begins with looking at our habits, the things that we love every day through our choices and actions.”
― Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst