“Unless the church is equipping believers to embrace the values and vision of the kingdom of God and turn away from the materialism, consumerism, greed, and power of the present age.”

All their reproduction will simply mirror this misapprehension.

Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones and then manage the resulting distress.

I found out the hard way that if we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will.

It not only abandons its biblical mandate, it is rendered missionally ineffective.

Go among the people. Don’t assume you know what church looks like.

Truth is narrow, but grace is wide.

Our point isn’t to make an examination of popular film but to illustrate that the yearning for a heroic adventure lies just beneath.

At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives.

There’s no such thing as an unsent Christian. You have already been SENT.

And every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.

It is vital to see ourselves as part of an ongoing journey started by our heroes in the Scriptures.

Interestingly, it’s as though the gospel story of Jesus is the archetypal heroic journey.

In short, apostolic movement involves a radical community of disciples, centered on the lordship of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit.

In order to develop a pioneering missional spirit.

More data is not always the answer.

Most churches don’t have the resources for these tricks and inducements but are still bound to the imagination that church happens on a Sunday in a building.

I think that’s really where we need to be more consistent as believers.

I think for believers you know we are helping people pursue holiness through a relationship with Christ.

What I know about my relationship with Christ is that as a believer.

I know Christ. And that is secure. And I think that is something that actually helps believers pursue his holiness.

But we will encourage the church to do that in general for anyone and everyone who’s seeking to be a mature believer in Christ.

Someone wrote a Wikipedia entry about me, identifying me as an atheist because I’d said in a book I wrote that I wasn’t a believer.

One day, though, I realized I was no longer a believer, and realizing that, I couldn’t go back.

I’m not a believer in luck, but I do believe you need it.