and more from awaken

Erwin McManus: There are a lot of great churches out there that are reaching people like Mary and Martha and Peter in the Scriptures, but there aren’t enough which reach out to Dionysius and Damaris (Acts 17). It’s better to be alienated by the Christian world if that is what it takes to reach the alienated.

Mark Batterson: “If you want to please Christians then quote the Bible. If you want to gain credibility with the non-Christian world quote other sources. Every “ology” is a branch of theology.” Paul quoted the poets of Athenians, so we should do the same. Rather than buying a property to build a church, National Community Church bought a coffeehouse next to Capitol Hill in order to develop genuine relationships with people who wouldn’t go to a church. The world gains their understanding of theology through movies and music.

Erwin McManus & Wayne Cordero: Every church has a rate of speed. You want to get just a bit ahead of it. If you go to fast, you will loose your people. If you move to slow, the entrepreneurs will feel under challenge and leave. This goes to show that we may have to pick up the pace in our leadership. Yet, if God has the church going at 60 miles per hour, we have to be humble enough to allow those going at 90 miles per hour to leave. Wow.

Bill Hybels: It’s not just enough to cast a vision. The people must own the vision. We have to take time to help people own the vision. This means moving away from a Sinai approach (I go away, come back with a vision, and tell you what to do) to a Team approach (We work through the vision and implementation together as a team).

Mark Batterson: We often trade in our imagination for what’s logical. We can drift towards being predictable. We have to keep dreaming and keep our innovation fresh.