Barefoot Church; My favorite parts...

There's been a running theme in my head these past few months. Simplify and prioritize my life and service... And right around that time, this lady started talking about simplifying and living a more focused life as well (using different kinds of words)... So she mentioned a book and it made me dig a bit more and I settled on Barefoot Church. I read it... no devoured it. I can't tell you the impact it had on my head and heart. I took some notes and I thought I'd share a few with you...

I hope it speaks to you as much as it spoke to me!

• I want my church to be a place where love and self-sacrifice are hard wired into the DNA of my people, of solidarity with the poor - a true community rallied around the gospel.

• Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he told us to serve the least. He knew that if we would serve them, we would become agents of change. Despair would change to hope. The reputation of his bride would change. And along the way, our hearts and minds would change.

• We may say we're more than just a Sunday service, but 90% of our resources and efforts are either committed to the Sunday morning experience or events designed to draw people to our buildings.

• Mercy offers relief and compassion. Justice offers an advocate and action.

• Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid He would ask me the same question.

• The purpose of missional communities is to be a source of radical hope, to witness to the new identity of vision, the new way of life that has become a social reality in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The persistent problem is not how to keep the church from withdrawing from the world, but how to keep the world from the drawing from the church. The forming of Christian community in therefore not an option but the very lifestyle and vocation of the church.

• Our identity as a church body:

1. Evangelism and social action are distinct activities
2. Proclamation is central.
3. evangelism and social action are inseparable.

• We need to develop a better understanding of the gospel and how it is both a message we announce and a reality we display to a lost and broken world.

• Have we fallen so far into serving ourselves, our structures, and our agenda that we no longer have room for those who want to pour themselves completely out in creative and fresh ways?

• The more people grow in in their faith, the less they will depend on our structures. the more we challenge them to serve, the less they will value our programs. This is exactly what the Bible says will happen. If a mark of a discipline is one who is on a mission, then by our very nature, we must be sent.