Hugh Halter Quotes

In other words, how "missional" you are is largely determined by the extent to which your people model the life, activities, and words of Jesus.

What makes the stories of our lives beautiful are not the people we've led to faith, or the churches we've grown, or the poor and hurting people we've renovated. What makes our stories matter are the day-by-day swan dives we take for the King of glory that may never look that glorious - but to God they are!

I think the reason this was so important to Jesus was that He wanted people to know that God is relational - truly relational without any impure or selfish motives. He wanted His Father to be trusted, and therefore He needed men and women who represented this. The psychology of agendas is that they make relationships transactional, which means that people are used for a purpose. People become a means to someone else's end, and this erodes a person's belief that he or she is valued regardless of any production.

We have to remember that the ancient faith communities that set a course to change the history of the world did so without church programs, without paid staff, without Web sites, and without brochures, blogs, or buildings. They were lean! The point of going without all the stuff is simple but profound. When you don't have all the "stuff," you're left with a lot of time to spend with people.

The second essential incarnational habit we hope to cultivate is simply listening. Listening is watching and sensitively responding to the unspoken and spoken needs of Sojourners in ways that demonstrate sincere interest.

And the day is coming fast when the gospel will again pass through the lives and ministries of normal people who have a full calling to ministry but also have a trade.

The more we do "together," the less individualistic we'll be. The more we become "one" with Christ, the less consumer oriented we'll be. The more we do for "others," the less materialistic we'll be.

We may not always feel it when building a deck for someone, shoveling snow, helping out financially, watching a neighbor's kids, opening our home, or giving gifts, but these habits and activities do create a well that people will eventually gravitate toward.

Do you ever wonder why a battered wife stays with her husband? Why people continue to spend money they don't have even though they know they are deeply in debt? Why some keep jamming food in their mouths when they're already overweight? Why do people stay in bad relationships? Why are some people still racist? Why do people still drink and drive? You'd think the response to all these things would be obvious and cause them to scream, "Duh, of course I need to change this." Why do we keep doing church the same way even when we know it's in critical decline? Why do paid church leaders spend so much time preparing for a 90-minute service for Christians who have heard it all before? Why do we still call our message the good news when it clearly seems to be bad news or no news to Sojourners? Why do we think Pharisees are only found in the Bible? Why is returning to a simpler form of ancient church so hard to grasp?

The incarnation is what those inside and outside the Christian faith are looking for, and if every Jesus follower truly "got it," it would fix every negative stereotype people have about Christians, Christianity, and the church. The incarnation of Jesus will give you proof that God understands how hard it is to be human, and it will help you see how to be human to the fullest.

Jesus's gospel is not about a cosmic religious apocalypse upon rebellious pagans. His gospel is about a new messianic kingdom where He rules in the spirit of His Father, a kingdom full of joy, grace, freedom, and release from all that ails humanity.

Here is a truism. What you say about yourself matters very little, but what others say of you means the world.

Christianity has lost its place at the center of American life. Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society. We must learn to build relational bridges that win a hearing."7

We love Jesus as a baby on Christmas, and Jesus risen from the grave on Easter, but somehow we miss Jesus the man, the teacher, the sage, the rebel, the subversive King, the local hero, the neighborhood friend.

We buy into the saving work of Jesus big-time, but we dodge his words and his life as prototypical for the authentic Christian life.

If you want a safe faith, you will never really know God because He doesn't hang out in the shallow end much.

our "gathering" - or what people used to call "church" - is an aspect of what we do, but not the only thing. The gathering is where we . . . gather. That's it. It's a place that anyone can come to and not feel any pressure at any level.

The gospel is not about trying to wedge a little Jesus into our crazy lives. The gospel is about letting God bring redemption and the way of his crazy kingdom into our frantically dysfunctional patterns of living.

Jesus shows us that there's never a change of mind unless there's a change of heart, and there will never be a change of heart without a conversation between trusted friends.

Halter, Hugh (2014-02-01). Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth (p. 167). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

In God's kingdom we are not just people He saves but fellow heirs of all that the King has.