“It is a growing conviction of mine that no parish can fulfill its true function unless there is at the very center of its leadership life a small community of quietly fanatic, changed and truly converted Christians. The trouble with most parishes is that nobody, including the pastor, is really greatly changed. . . .

We do not want ordinary men. Ordinary men cannot win the brutally pagan life of a city like New York for Christ. We want quiet fanatics.”

John Heuss, Our Christian Vocation (Greenwish, 1955), pages 15-16.

HT: Ray Ortland

“Indeed, the criterion of successful churches in the future is not how much Bible knowledge their people have, [or] how strong their pastor is in the pulpit . . . While content and pulpit expertise aren’t to be minimized, the biblical measure of success is whether they’re making disciples.”

Aubrey Malphurs, Planting Growing Churches For The 21st Century (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 30.

A couple weeks ago, John Piper linked to Ray Ortlund’s blog and I have really benefitted from his posts. Tonight, he posted on how praise befits the upright. I really appreciate the tie analogy.

A frowning church is ugly. A praising church is beautiful. Think of a man wearing a great suit, with the perfect shirt for that suit, but then he puts on a killer tie that makes the whole thing pop. That’s what praising God does for a church. A spirit of praise beautifies everything.

Boom.

If you don’t already, you should find some way to connect with the Of First Importance blog everyday. Its mission is to “provide a helpful quote to help you remember what’s “of first importance”: the gospel of Jesus Christ. The phrase “of first importance” comes from 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul tells the church in Corinth he delivered what was of first first importance, namely the gospel.

All that to say I found the quotation yesterday very insightful.

“By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity. . . . If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians.”

• Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill, Crossway Books, 2008), 41.

I know this is a little old, but Paul Tripp comments on what hinders community in today’s American culture. I think he hits the nail on the head when he says:

“You can’t fit God’s dream (if I can use that language) for his church inside of the American dream and have it work. It’s a radically different lifestyle. It just won’t squeeze into the available spaces of the time and energy that’s left over.”

If the church wants to be a community that stands out in this increasingly individualistic society, then we need to fight for that selfless, sacrificing community. Otherwise, we will be swept along to create our individual kingdoms with everyone else.