Sunday, May 31, 2015

175 Tweetable Quotes from The Prodigal Church by Jared Wilson

So, yeah, this sort of got out of hand. I got started and it was a slippery slope sort of deal.

Nevertheless, I really found The Prodigal Church by Jared C. Wilson very helpful and informative. I like doing these "so-many Tweetable Quote" posts as a way to review a book. These posts also end being a resource for use in the future. And the issues Wilson raises in this book are worth pondering and re-pondering and re-re-pondering. So I hope you also find this helpful.

I am a pretty weak typist, and so there could be some errors; I'm also not great at pronouncing my words and since I used Dragon Dictation to do some of this work there may be more errors. I tried to catch them, but if they still exist than the fault is all mine. Enjoy.


  1. “…guilt can be a powerful motivator…But guilt is not a very enduring motivator.” (9)
  2. “This is not an argument for a more traditional church so much as it is an argument for a more biblical one.” (18)
  3. “…I invested in the attractional church because I shared its heart for the lost. I still have not rejected its primary aims.” (20)
  4. “How we “do church” shapes the way people see God and his Son and his ways in the world.” (21)
  5. “If we give either legalism or license an inch, they will take a mile.” (23)
  6. “What if the way we communicate Jesus actually works against people trusting him?” (24)
  7. “‘What if what we’re doing isn’t really what we’re supposed to be doing?’ We should ask that. All of us.” (24)
  8. “A definition of attractional…a way of ministry that derives from the primary purpose of making Christianity appealing.” (25)
  9. “…too often the message of Christ’s death has become assumed, the thing you build up to rather than focus on.” (27)
  10. “To hear a lengthy appeal to our abilities, culminating in an appeal to our utter inability, can cause spiritual whiplash.” (27)
  11. “…the idea that the attractional church is having its doors beaten down by lost people is a myth.” (35)
  12. “…the kind of growth the attractional church experiences the most of is in reality the kind of growth they often claim they don’t want… ‘transfer growth.’” (35)
  13. “The family has not been won to a church. They’ve been won to a menu of attractive goods and services.” (36)
  14. “God will use anything to bring people to him. But just because he is no snob, that doesn’t mean ‘anything’ is normative for our use.” (38)
  15. “The ends don’t justify the means.” (38)
  16. “It is a customary mantra of ministry that healthy things grow. And yet sometimes healthy things shrink.” (40)
  17. “‘Healthy things grow’ sounds right. But cancer grows too.” (40)
  18. “So it’s possible to look big, to look successful, and to not actually be big or successful in the ways that matter.” (40)
  19. “Sometimes unhealthy things grow.” (41)
  20. “It would see, actually, that for some churches, bigger inadvertently becomes the point …” (41)
  21. “”…in the attractional model, all too often members are not contributing to the life of their church body but to the church’s programming…” (45)
  22. “Shouldn’t we measure our models against the means and methods found in the Scriptures?” (46)
  23. The Bible is frustratingly vague on ‘how to do church.’” (47)”
  24. “…as we seek to do the good work of missionary contextualization, we have to make sure that we have not crossed lines into cultural accommodation…” (48)
  25. “Beneath the exercise of liberty in methodology is always a functional ideology driving our decisions.” (48)
  26. “A ‘functional ideology’ is the belief…in a church that…drives the methods and practices of the church.” (49)
  27. “In short, just because we think we can do something doesn’t mean we should.” (49)
  28. “I think the evangelical church in the West is particularly susceptible to two primary ideologies…pragmatism and consumerism.” (49)
  29. “…I think the attractional model is fundamentally built on these functional ideologies…pragmatism and consumerism.” (49)
  30. “We need to be careful, however, not to confuse pragmatism with simply being practical.” (50)
  31. “I would suggest that pragmatism runs counter to the functional ideology of Scripture.” (50)
  32. “It [pragmatism] assumes a method’s value is based on the demonstration of our desired results.” (50)
  33. “Those verses are instead a reminder that we can do our work but we cannot do God’s. Nor is his work contingent upon ours.” (51)
  34. “The sower [in Luke 8:5-8] appears to be scattering the seed somewhat indiscriminately.” (51)
  35. “In the pragmatic way of thinking, faithful church ministry always results in growth. And it does! But not always in the ways we expect and desire.” (52)
  36. “Pragmatism has a utilitarian ethos to it. It is by nature unspiritual.” (52)
  37. “Pragmatism is anti-gospel because it treats evangelism as a kind of pyramid scheme…” (53)
  38. “Pragmatism reasons that God’s ability to use anything means our freedom to use everything.” (53)
  39. “The way the church wins its people shapes its people.” (54)
  40. “…the most effective way to turn your church into a collection of consumers and customers is to treat them like that’s what they are.” (54)
  41. “But in my dad’s mind-in the world of logic and realism and fairness-the customer is sometimes pretty stupid.” (56)
  42. “No human’s desires are value-neutral.” (56)
  43. “We can and should address some felt needs, but not all felt needs are created equal.” (56)
  44. “…the attractional church model necessarily gives rise to competition among churches…” (57)
  45. “…the target audience of the ‘worship experience’ is not any mortal in the congregation. The target audience is God himself.” (58)
  46. “The purpose of the worship service is not what we get out of it but the God who has drawn us into it.” (59)
  47. “…the functional ideologies…of pragmatism and consumerism are disastrous, because they make the individual person the center of the religious universe.” (60)
  48. “The worship service, biblically, is never seen…as a place where individuals go to enjoy a particular experience nor as the central place of evangelism.” (62)
  49. “The worship service, biblically, is a gathering of Christians to enjoy God in communion with him and each other.” (62)
  50. “The attractional church follows a trajectory away from what makes the church the church.” (63)
  51. “The worship service must be conducted with the unbeliever in mind, but it doesn’t need to be conducted with the unbeliever in focus.” (63)
  52. “…in the biblical picture of the earliest church, we don’t get any indication that the worship gathering is meant to be an event oriented around the unbeliever’s presence.” (63)
  53. “…designing your service specifically for the [unbeliever] is neither biblical nor wise.” (65)
  54. “What the Bible seems to express is that unbelievers in the service are best served not by having their tastes catered to…” (66)
  55. “What you win them with is what you win them to.” (66)
  56. “What we do in church shapes us. It doesn’t just inform us or entertain us. It makes us who we are.” (67)
  57. “The worship service…doesn’t just cater to certain tastes; it develops certain tastes.” (67)
  58. “We will eventually become conformed to the pattern of our behaviors.” (67)
  59. “Habits come from character, but it works the other way too-character is shaped by habits.” (67)
  60. “The Bible’s ‘functional ideology’…is that ‘what works’ is the Holy Spirit through the message of the gospel of Jesus.” (70)
  61. “…neither the Spirit nor the gospel needs help from our production values.” (70)
  62. “The wider evangelical church is suffering terribly from theological bankruptcy.” (74)
  63. “We [evangelicals] have tended to favor the practical half truth rather than the impractical (allegedly) whole truth.” (74)
  64. “Our shepherds are increasingly hired for their…laboring in the increase in attendance rather than the increase of gospel proclamation.” (75)
  65. “The dilution of understanding of worship is a direct result of the dilution of theology in the church.” (75)
  66. “Fortune-Cookie preaching will make brittle, hollow, syrupy Christians.” (77)
  67. “We fill our buildings with scores and scores of people, but we’ve reduced the basic message to fit the size of an individualistic faith.” (77)
  68. “The typical application message tends to overemphasize our good works while a good proclamation message will emphasize God’s finished work.” (82)
  69. “The essential difference between applicational preaching and proclamational preaching ultimately depends on how much the preacher wishes to make of Jesus.” (83)
  70. “The applicational preacher either presupposes the gospel or relegates it to the conclusion of his message.” (83)
  71. “…just because you dress casually, play edgy music, and talk a lot about grace, it doesn’t mean you aren’t a legalist.” (84)
  72. “…it’s my belief that the self-professed ‘culturally relevant’ churches are the chief proponents of legalism in Christianity today.” (84)
  73. “But ‘do’ isn’t any less law-minded than ‘don’t.’” (84)
  74. “The gospel isn’t ‘don’t,’ but it also isn’t ‘do’; both are merely religion.” (84)
  75. “They [unbelievers] don’t need the church to act like good people, really; they need the church to point to Jesus as the only truly good person.” (84)
  76. “”Pharisaical legalism was just self-help without the cool clothes.” (84)
  77. “…we must never teach the practical points as the main points.” (85)
  78. “The [good] news is so much better than the instructions! It is better because the news actually saves us.” (86)
  79. “But what will really save the lost world? Let me tell you: none of our complaints against it.” (87)
  80. “It is possible, actually, that all of our emphasis on the practical has only served to make things impossible.” (87)
  81. “Preaching even a ‘positive’ practical message with no gospel-centrality amounts to preaching the law,” (88)
  82. “…when we preach ‘how to’ law sermons instead of the gospel, we may end up with a bunch of well-behaved spiritual corpses.” (89)
  83. “,,,what the Christian church needs today in its imperfect fumbling back to the beauty of gospel-centrality is a stubborn unmuddling of law and grace.” (90)
  84. “It seemed as though authenticity was a style we were going for, which is, surely, the exact opposite of authenticity.” (93)
  85. “…emotionalism is dangerous.” (94)
  86. “The danger in this [emotionalism] is that we end up craving the emotions associated with emotional worship, not necessarily the spirit of worship itself.” (94)
  87. “It’s not the charismata that are offensive to me; it is the complete lunacy that claims Spiritual authenticity.” (95)
  88. “We are in very real danger of divorcing our styles and preferences from our object.” (95)
  89. “Worship must really be worship, which is to say worship of God, the triune God.” (96)
  90. “The problem in these emotionalistic, faddish, trendy times is that worship becomes more about us than God.” (96)
  91. “The danger we face when we worship is coming into the experience assuming we are summoning God.” (97)
  92. “If you worship God in a less-than-clear or in a doctrine-less sense, you end up worshipping another god.” (99)
  93. “When we divorce theology from worship…we compromise our worship. It may look great but it is hollow and shallow.” (99)
  94. “The center of worship is the perfect and eternal God…not the achievements of the created.” (99)
  95. “Self-celebratory worship music is the result of self-celebratory teaching and discipleship.” (100)
  96. “Worship is a way of life, a quality of the believing heart.” (100)
  97. “Modern church worship is characterized by an exaltation of the self, but authentic worship is marked by an emptying of ourselves.” (101)
  98. “Authentic worship doesn’t just focus on the fullness of who God is, but it glories in the beauty of what God has done.” (102)
  99. “It [real worship] is basking in the warm glow of eternity.” (102)
  100. “The gospel is a blinding light interrupting our minding our own business on a lonely road.” (102)
  101. “When we gather, are gathering a watchers or as beholders?” (103)
  102. “When we gather…Are we gathering to see a performance or to see the passing by of the glory of God?” (103)
  103. “The gospel must be central because nothing else even comes close to filling the eternal gap.” (104)
  104. “The way the attractional church worships produces the kind of worshipper it gets.” (111)
  105. “I’m only saying that we should use these things after asking deeper questions about them than ‘Will this work?’” (112)
  106. “But the uncritical use of media and technology can stunt our church's spiritual growth, even if in the short-term it entertains and pleases the people.” (112)
  107. “The uncritical co-opting of the cultures need for media might actually feed inside the church the negative qualities they feed outside the church... ” (113)
  108. “All churches should be seeker sensitive in the best sense of the phrase…” (116)
  109. “At what point do we look at cultural trends not as things to mirror and copy but as things to challenge and subvert?” (116)
  110. “I am afraid many churches have moved from leveraging technology to merely co-opting whatever they think the world finds appealing or slick.” (116)
  111. “We cannot expect our people to grow in God's glory if we do not put God's glory for their faces.” (119)
  112. “We cannot settle for success. Our people need real glory, and only the gospel "of first importance" reveals it. ” (120)
  113. “In other words, the bigger and the attractional church becomes, the more programs and ministries it thinks it must offer.” (121)
  114. “The drive to provide an array of goods and services prevents a church from exercising missional nimbleness.” (122)
  115. “Churches passionate about simplicity will pursue a simple vision.” (128)
  116. “The attractional of church often reasons according to available resources, not according to actual spiritual value.” (128)
  117. “But it isn't more entrepreneurial visionaries we really need more cross-focused visionaries.” (131)
  118. “If the church is people, then the organizational machine and a local congregation should be considered expendable.” (132)
  119. “When an attractional church multiplies, the results more resemble franchises then church plants.” (133)
  120. “As the attractional church accumulates more complexity, it becomes more rigid, despite all its claims to innovation and cultural relevance.” (133)
  121. “… the simple church adopts an approach to church growth that is more reflective of farming, of cultivation.” (134)
  122. “… the simple church focuses simply on the long-term investments in growth and trusts the “Spirit produce growth in his time.” (134)
  123. “The simple church follows the direction not of the shifting winds of the culture but the surprising currents of the Spirit.” (134)
  124. “The simple churches mission waiting much more nimble than the attraction church. (134)
  125. “Similarly, the church needs to stick to what the Bible actually tells us to do, and what the Bible actually tells us to do is not very complicated.” (134)
  126. “Over programming create an illusion of fruitfulness just be busyness.” (134)
  127. “Here's a good test: take a look at a typical over-programmed church's calendar and see how many of the activities resemble things seen New Testament.” (136)
  128. “Always ask 'should we?' before you ask 'Can we?'” (137)
  129. “Somewhere between the poles of attachment to church programs and 'self-feeding' lies the real stuff of covenant community.” (143)
  130. “Systems may aid the discipleship process, but discipleship is not a system.” (144)
  131. “Underneath our felt needs is an entire industry of idols emerging from the foundation of sin and longing for glory.” (144)
  132. “Are we trusting our programs, or are we trusting God?” (145)
  133. “Whatever our programs, our churches' leaders need to take seriously the command of Christ – in as many ways as possible – to feed his sheep.” (145)
  134. “But if we want to Christ–exalting, Christ–loving, Christ–following people, we have to get more personal and go deeper.” (145)
  135. “Pragmatism, on the other hand, is the mind-set that says that whatever "works" can and should be used.” (147)
  136. “A pragmatic mind-set treats spiritual matters along the lines of mathematics.” (147)
  137. "We must remember that pastoral ministry, like Christianity itself, is not a matter of formulas but of faith.” (147)
  138. “Or maybe we've taken the biblical sheep metaphor a bit too far, and we're looking at how best to herd the sheep instead of how to best feed them.” (148)
  139. “But when all is said and done, we are not managers of spiritual enterprises: we are shepherds.” (148) 
  140. “Jesus neither sulks nor sighs about us. He ministers to us willingly, eagerly. ” (149)
  141. “Therefore, personal presence is so important. And I'd say you're not really a pastor if you're not present. ” (149)
  142. “Only the Gospel goes deep enough to effect real hard change. Everything else is just behavior modification. ” (150)
  143. “But in order to reveal someone's functional ideology… we have to employ the only tool adequate for that job, and that is the gospel of Jesus…” (150)
  144. “The way we are typically programmed to measure the success of our ministries sets us up for hollow victory in desperate failure.” (151)
  145. “It is only to say that what we measure and how we measure shows where our confidence lies.” (151)
  146. “Clearly, accumulating numbers cannot be our primary measure of success.” (151)
  147. “… in the attractional church, growth in numbers is often seen just as a measure of success but as a justification for any methodology used to get them.” (151)
  148. “Biblical credibility is not found in big stats.” (152)
  149. “… We are responsible mainly for the care of the souls, not the accumulation of them. ” (152)
  150. “When we pastors cling to the gospel ourselves, it will shape us, giving us the mind and heart of Christ for our people.” (153)
  151. “The central idea of the church should be the Gospel.” (156)
  152. “Numbers don't account for everything. In some cases, they don't account for anything. ” (157)
  153. “What God will require of us is not ministry quantity but ministry quality.” (157)
  154. “...but in a church centered on the gospel, things like inspiration and good feelings are seen as byproducts of the experiences, not the aim of the experience. ” (158)
  155. “What is emphasized and valued the churches media correlates to what the church is measuring success.” (159)
  156. “The attractional church, which places a huge emphasis on numbers, science, and raw data, highly prices statistics.” (159)
  157. “The gospel-centered church highly prizes stories. Rather than prizing bigness, it prizes relationality. ” (159)
  158. “The gospel is not made more powerful by a dynamic preacher or a rockin' band… The gospel cannot be improved. ” (163)
  159. “You cannot program salvation.” (165)
  160. “The Spirit doesn't where the church’s wristwatch. You cannot control him." (166)
  161. “That's what prayer is, essentially: acknowledged helplessness.” (166)
  162. “But we do not worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ingenuity.” (167)
  163. “Everything good and valuable must come from the Spirit's sovereign working, not from our ministerial machinations.” (167)
  164. “The Evangelical church's search for the magic bullet is insatiable.” (169)
  165. “The nurturing of your congregation's desire for experiential community begins with you.” (169)
  166. “Reject the tyranny of results.” (172)
  167. “Preach hard on the importance of discipleship, on the call to community…” (173)
  168. “… the church does not exist to facilitate all our good ideas.” (176)
  169. “Good intentions and strong giftedness do not baptize on biblical methods.” (176)
  170. “If all of life is repentance, then all of ministry is too.” (184)
  171. “The very nature of Grace throws off all measurements of balance.” (185)
  172. “In reality, both irreligion and religion are fundamentally self-salvation projects.” (185)
  173. “… in the New Testament, you never find application on exhortation disconnected from gospel proclamation.” (187)
  174. “It’s about letting the gospel direct the methods.” (199)
  175. “If you treat your church like a business, you will see other churches as your competition.” (219)


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