Last night I decided to pull out a book that I had read a few years back called “The Present Future” by Reggie McNeal. I got through about 2 1/2 chapters. There was alot in it that stood out to me, and reminded me why we are taking this leap of faith by planting Veritas to be a missional community of authentic worshippers. Here are a few of the quotes that stood out to me.

“The North American church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand his kingdom.”

“The correct response, then, to the collapse of the church culture is not to try to become better at doing church. This only feeds the problem and hastens the church’s decline through its disconnect from the larger culture. The need is not for a methodological fix. The need is for a missional fix. The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.”

“This is what it’s going to take to gain a hearing for the gospel in the streets of the twenty-first century- the smell of cleaning solution, dirty faces, obvious acts of servanthood.”

I probably could go on listing a bunch of other quotes, but those three I feel are enough to chew on for quite a while.