Quotes from Wayne Jacobsen

There is no one that God does not love with all that he is. His love reaches beyond every sin and failure, hoping that at some moment they will come to know just how loved they are.

We make a fatal mistake when we try to force Scripture to offer redemption to those who want to go to heaven but who don't want a relationship with the living God. By trying to offer some minimal standard of conduct that will allow them to qualify for salvation while continuing to to pursue their own agendas, we distort the gospel and destroy its power, and we concoct legalistic games to give them a false sense of security.

The church thrives where people are focused on Jesus, not where they are focused on church.

It is not the fear of losing God's favor that takes us to the depth of fellowship with him and transforms our lives with his holiness. It is our certainty of knowing his unrelenting love for us, even in the midst of our weakness and failure, that leads us to the fullness of his life.

We acknowledge his place by actually following the Lamb as best we perceive him. That's not a decision you can make once for the rest of your life. It is a continuous challenge in a hundred decisions made day after day as you learn how different his desires are from your own. The new creation is not some sort of spiritual Disneyland where your every dream comes true. It's where Jesus' every word and desire comes to pass.

You can't earn points with someone who is no longer keeping score. Jesus already filled up your card with maximum points. You don't have to earn what he has already freely given; you simply get to receive it.

The key to living a productive Christian life is not waking up every day trying to be loved by God, but waking up in the awareness that you are already his beloved

The purpose of grace is to grant us access into his presence every day. Grace qualifies us for the relationship we could never earn on our merits.

consensus, I envision people putting their best ideas on the table and crafting a different option that both sides can embrace.

had it easy. Because he didn't have to run a ministry or manage a congregation, he was free to engage people exactly as he found them. He didn't have to make them do anything for him; thus, he was free to love them and they were free to respond to that love or reject it. He didn't need their tithes to pay his salary, their attendance to validate his ego, or their time to fill out his program.

Religion survives by telling us we need to fall in line or some horrible fate will befall us.

would the church of Jesus Christ look like if it were made up of people who were learning to live in the same reality Jesus did, with an eye on his Father and a compassionate heart for people around him? How

If you share my frustration with the disparity between the church as Scripture talks about her and what we see reflected in our religious institutions, you're not alone. You're standing in a long line that includes the likes of Francis of Assisi, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and nameless others who dared to ask the difficult questions and struggled with the uncomfortable answers.

who do not trust Jesus to build his church cannot imagine church life without leaders and followers. They

is going to be more like a family and less like a business, more a growing network of friends than a set of rules and rituals.

church Jesus is building will defy all human attempts to replicate it because it is the fruit of a life well loved. It is

is simply the way people share life together when Jesus is their growing preoccupation and they are learning to listen and follow him. If people

church is not a human creation. Rather, it is the fruit of the relationships of those who are part of a new creation—the redeemed race of humanity that relates to him as the Head. When

church of the new creation is more like wildflowers strewn across an alpine meadow than a walled garden with manicured hedges. I realize

community of the new creation that Jesus is building. They

keep trying to fit into the conventional system but something beckons you beyond that, and you're not even sure how to explain it. Your

The freedom to be honest and the freedom to struggle are key to a real friendship," John said.

the greatest journeys of our lives begin so simply that we don't even know we've embarked on them until we're well down the road looking back.

Busyness is not the goal of a conscientious believer; fruitfulness is. Not every request that comes my way is God's will for me to accept. Good opportunities are not necessarily godly ones. Expectations pushed on us by others are not the directions Jesus invites us to follow.