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The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church QUOTES

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church QUOTES

1 " Whether [new Protestant church movements] place their emphasis on new worship styles, expressions of the Holy Spirit’s power, evangelism to seekers, or Bible teaching, these so-called new movements still operate out of the fallacious assumption that the church belongs firmly in the town square, that is, at the heart of Western culture. And if they begin with this mistaken belief about their position in Western society, all their church planting, all their reproduction will simply mirror this misapprehension. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

2 " It is important to note that the missional church combines the concern for community development normally characterized by the liberal churches and the desire for personal and community transformation normally characterized by the evangelical movement. This blurring of the old lines of demarcation between theologies, doctrine, and ideology within the church makes the way open for much more integrated mission to occur. It’s like saying that we want to prepare like an evangelical; preach like a Pentecostal; pray like a mystic; do the spiritual disciplines like a Desert Father, art like a Catholic, and social justice like a liberal. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

3 " important to note that the missional church combines the concern for community development normally characterized by the liberal churches and the desire for personal and community transformation normally characterized by the evangelical movement. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

4 " It will place a high value on communal life, more open leadership structures, and the contribution of all the people of God. It will be radical in its attempts to embrace biblical mandates for the life of locally based faith communities without feeling as though it has to reconstruct the first-century church in every detail. We believe the missional church will be adventurous, playful, and surprising. Leonard Sweet has borrowed the term “chaordic” to describe the missional church’s inclination toward chaos and improvisation within the constraints of broadly held biblical values. It will gather for sensual-experiential-participatory worship and be deeply concerned for matters of justice-seeking and mercy-bringing. It will strive for a type of unity-in-diversity as it celebrates individual differences and values uniqueness, while also placing a high premium on community. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

5 " The Come-To-Us stance developed over the Christendom period is unbiblical. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

6 " We can no longer afford our historical sentimentality, even addiction, to the past. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

7 " The contemporary traditional church is increasingly seen as the least likely option for those seeking an artistic, politically subversive, activist community of mystical faith. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church

8 " The missional church will take context seriously, but will also work on recovering the biblical narrative with its richness and potency for today’s world. When story and context are equally embraced, we are beginning to think and act missionally. "

― Michael Frost , The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church