Interrupted Quotes

“God does not change, but He uses change—to change us. He sends us on journeys that bring us to the end of ourselves. We often feel out of control, yet if we embrace His leading, we may find ourselves on the ride of our lives.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith

“The starving, the unwanted old and unborn, the criminal, those of wrong color, ideology, sex, nation, class—whatever category renders a person least in our minds—bear the face of Jesus.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“It is not your responsibility to explain what God is doing with your life. He has not provided enough information to figure it out. Instead, you are asked to turn loose and let God be God. Therein lies the secret to the “peace that transcends understanding.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Believer, your life is too essential to waste on pettiness or word wars, greed or ladder climbing, anger or bitterness, fear or anxiety, regret or disappointment. Life is too short. We must run, not walk, the way of Isaiah 58, embracing authentic faith manifested through mercy and community. Living on mission requires nothing less. It is a grand adventure, a true voyage into the kingdom of God. Would you lose days, months, years pointing fingers and quarreling, or would you rather break yokes of oppression? Imagine what would happen if we all chose the latter.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“We don’t get to opt out of living on mission because we might not be appreciated. We’re not allowed to neglect the oppressed because we have reservations about their discernment. We cannot deny love because it might be despised or misunderstood. We can’t withhold social relief because we’re not convinced it will be perfectly managed. Must we be wise? Absolutely. But doing nothing is a blatant sin of omission. Turning a blind eye to the bottom on the grounds of “unworthiness” is the antithesis to Jesus’ entire mission.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith

“Jesus always colored outside of the lines here, extending grace and healing to those well beyond His people group. He often healed people first; they believed second.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“My people are crumbling and dying and starving, and you’re blessing blessed people and serving the saved.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Do we really need to be fed more of the Word, or are we simply undernourished from an absence of living the Word? Maybe we love God, but are we loving others? If our faith is about us, then we are not just hungry—our spirits are starving.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“If we’ve been in church for years yet aren’t full, are we really hungry for more knowledge? In our busy lives, do we really need another program or event? Do we really need to be fed more of the Word, or are we simply undernourished from an absence of living the Word? Maybe we love God, but are we loving others? If our faith is about us, then we are not just hungry—our spirits are starving.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“This is what God taught me through Judas at Jesus’ table, eating the broken bread that was His body: We don’t get to opt out of living on mission because we might not be appreciated. We’re not allowed to neglect the oppressed because we have reservations about their discernment. We cannot deny love because it might be despised or misunderstood. We can’t withhold social relief because we’re not convinced it will be perfectly managed. We can’t project our advantaged perspective onto struggling people and expect results available only to the privileged. Must we be wise? Absolutely. But doing nothing is a blatant sin of omission.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“I worry the Christian community has accepted an insidious shift from laboring for others to prioritizing our own rights. We’ve perpetuated a group identity as misunderstood and persecuted, defending our positions and preferring to be right over being good news. We’ve bought the lie that connecting with people on their terms is somehow compromising, that our refusal to proclaim our moral ground from word one is a slippery slope. It has become more vital to protect our own station than advocate for a world that needs Jesus, who came to us, wrapped in our skin, speaking our language. If we were not too beneath Christ, who died for us while we were still sinners, then how dare we take a superior position over any other human being? How lovely is a faith community that goes forth as loving sisters and brothers rather than angry defenders and separatists.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“We cannot think our way into a new kind of living. We must live our way into a new kind of thinking.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“If people around me aren’t moved by my Christ or my church, then I must be doing a miserable job of representing them both.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“However, if you’re navigating the tension between your Bible and your life, or Jesus’ ancient ideas and the modern wayward church, or God’s kingdom on earth and reality, then welcome. Sometimes it’s better to wade through murky waters with a fellow explorer than with an authority. Questions can still be investigated with another learner instead of with one who has only answers.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“People in America are not ignorant of Christianity. They’ve heard the message, seen our churches on every corner, they flick by our Christian TV shows, they see our fish symbols on the backs of our cars. They’ve seen so much of pop Christian culture that they have a programmed response to us: Ignore, ignore, ignore. What’s needed is a change of parameters—something that will alter their emotional response.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills—against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. . . . Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. . . . It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.—Robert F. Kennedy18”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith

“There will never be enough knowledge to fill the cracks of Christian maturity without the fruit of selfless service manifested in our lives.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Our only hope is to follow the example of Jesus and get back out there, winning people over with ridiculous love and a lifestyle that causes them to finally sit up and take notice. Listen, no church can ever do this for me—not one who once hired us, not one we started, not an invented one in our imaginations. This is my high calling: to live on mission as an adopted daughter of Jesus. If people around me aren’t moved by my Christ or my church, then I must be doing a miserable job of representing them both.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“I want the church to be great because we fed hungry mommas and their babies. I’d like to be great because we battled poverty with not just our money but our hands and hearts. I desire the greatness that comes from seeking not only mercy but justice for those caught in a system with trapdoors. I hope to be part of a great movement of the Holy Spirit, who injects supernatural wind and fire into His mission. My version of great will come when others are scratching their heads and saying, “Wow, you live a really different life.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Our only hope is to follow the example of Jesus and get back out there, winning people over with ridiculous love”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Never once did Jesus charge them with something they did wrong. His entire indictment was on what they didn’t do right. It was a sin of neglect, a crime of omission. And it went far beyond ignoring poverty. Jesus explained that when we ignore the least, we ignore Him.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“It’s not magic; it’s hard work by vested people who share a vision for God’s kingdom in their city. An influential church is nothing more than a bunch of believers who get in the game and live on mission.”
― Jennifer Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“With the resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of humanity, we are no longer identified by nation, race, gender, or any group dynamic. We don’t get to stand behind the shield of church or denomination or political party. There is no “us” and “them” anymore. “Us” is the worldwide assembly of the rescued who have been transformed from hopeless humans to adopted sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus. The end.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith

“Love has won infinitely more converts than theology. The first believers were drawn to Christ’s mercy long before they understood His divinity. That brings us back to the overemphasis on Sunday morning as the front door: If love is the most effective way—and the Bible says it is—then how much genuine love can one pastor show an entire congregation? His bandwidth is not wide enough; this is a crippling, impossible burden. When he fails to connect with every person (which he will), the congregation becomes disgruntled because he can’t fulfill what should have been their mission. Nor can a random group of strangers standing in a church lobby offer legitimate community to some sojourner who walks in the door.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“It isn’t our responsibility to defend our values and prioritize our message over our posture. We inherited a kingdom that cannot be shaken; we are an unthreatened people. God will stay on His throne without our rigorous defense.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“That brings us back to the overemphasis on Sunday morning as the front door: If love is the most effective way—and the Bible says it is—then how much genuine love can one pastor show an entire congregation? His bandwidth is not wide enough; this is a crippling, impossible burden.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“How lovely is a faith community that goes forth as loving sisters and brothers rather than angry defenders and separatists.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Leaving is hard, even when a great adventure awaits you.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24) Now you are the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27) Not only was Communion a symbolic ritual, it was a new prototype of discipleship. “Continuously make My sacrifice real by doing this very thing.” Become broken and poured out for hopeless people. Become a living offering, denying yourself for the salvation and restoration of humanity.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“780 million people lack basic water sanitation, which results in disease, death, wastewater for drinking, and loss of immunity.[17] Americans consume twenty-six billion liters of bottled water a year.[18] We spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world spends on all goods combined.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity