Quotes from Ed Stetzer

Together we are called to ask, What does it mean to be followers of Christ in our local community? In what ways do our values and beliefs shape how we live out the gospel and its implications in our cultural context? How can we best communicate the hope and truth in Jesus' Kingdom to our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family?

When the church protects the powerful at the expense of the victim, we have compromised. And in the end, these compromises add up and convince the world that the church is not a community for the broken in search of healing but just another human institution that puts expediency above righteousness and justice.

you can't hate people and engage them with the gospel at the same time. You can't war with people and show the love of Jesus. You can't be both outraged and on mission.

You can move a leader's feet by force, or you can move their hearts by influence and inspiration.

Contrary to Western evangelicalism's obsession with the individual, discipleship is and always was a group project. No one in the New Testament followed independent of other followers. —Steve Murrell, Wikichurch

Dedicating ourselves to Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting enables us to reset our minds, steering us away from the road toward outrage and onto the path of peace.

Because God is in control and will redeem all things, I can be calm, bold, and gracious as I share the gospel.

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.

It is not enough for us to read this portion of the Bible and picture the Apostles Paul and Peter along with the church simply doing their best to be nice people. These letters reveal the subversive nature of God's kingdom at work among the empires of humanity. God set in motion a rebellion against the rebellions of men.

All of us are busy. Life isn't slowing down, it's speeding up, and our Daytimers reflect the fact. Yet that is precisely why we need to take time to pray.

What we see happening as we move further into the twenty-first century is a sovereign God moving through global events to open doors once closed to the gospel.

Scripture teaches us to contend for the faith (Jude 3) and contextualize to culture (1 Cor. 9:22-23).

God is able to see beforehand all that happens in our lives and in the world, and He is able to establish a plan of how it can be used for His purpose and His glory. We are assured, "All the nations You have made will come and bow down before You, Lord, and will honor Your name" (Ps. 86:9).

during the nineteenth century, one home missionary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church reported to the general conference in 1844 "that during four years he had covered 300 miles in his itinerant preaching, establishing 47 churches with a total membership of 2,000. He had seven other itinerant preachers working with him, and 27 local preachers had organized 50 Sunday schools with 200 teachers and 2,000 students.

Growth happens in community because the Bible places community as a critical step of obedience for the Christ follower. So the Christ follower outside of community is living in disobedience.

No longer representative of the dominant culture, Christians need to rethink the way we understand cultural engagement, mission, and evangelism in a newly post-Christian society.

You cannot hate a people and reach a people at the same time.