Uncategorized Murray McLellan on 19 Dec 2007 01:24 pm
Jesus saves bad people
A quote from the book, Organic Church:
“I have always been amazed at what can happen when we simply plant the good seed of God’s Word in the good soil of broken people. We have an expression in our movement: ‘bad people make good soil - there’s a lot of fertilizer in their lives.’”
on 19 Dec 2007 at 8:33 pm 1.Julie Cortens said …
I love it! Fertilizer is such a nice way to say….
So who wrote Organic Church? Tim Chester?
Just got my notice yesterday - “Total Church” shipped today from the UK. 7-14 days to the USA
on 20 Dec 2007 at 2:20 pm 2.Murray said …
The writer’s name is Neil Cole.
Here is couple of more quotes:
“Perspective can change the way we see our surroundings. Perspective is the difference between fear and courage. A little kid, walking home from school, is confronted by the neighbourhood bully. He runs but to no avail. He stumbles and falls to the ground as the bully approaches with threatening words and snarls, ‘I’m gonna pulverize you!’ Unbeknownst to the bully, the boy’s big brother from college comes up behind the bully. If the boy looks at the bully, he may feel fear. But if he chooses to look at the brother, he may lose his fear and even feel calm. The difference is perspective.”
“If ten people accept the Gospel and only two bear fruit, I no longer baby-sit the unfruitful eight. Instead I invest my life in the two. These two will bear much fruit … We must invest everything in the few who will bear fruit. Life is too short and the potential yields are too great to spend our lives babysitting fruitless people. This paradigm shift will change the way you do ministry. We must regain the lost art of wiping the dust (bad soil) off our feet. We might consider such a thing as unloving, but this is what Jesus did.”
on 20 Dec 2007 at 4:29 pm 3.Julie Cortens said …
Murray,
I am not sure I am onside with the quote about regaining the lost art of wiping the dust off our feet. Is that really the perspective we should take when it comes to those who are lost….even if the ‘8′ referred to are some kind of nominal Christians that have ‘accepted the gospel but don’t bear fruit’ (whatever that means)?
No doubt there are only so many hours in the day, but if someone will sit and listen to the gospel being preached - who knows when the coins will ‘clink’ out of their head and get into their heart.
David
on 20 Dec 2007 at 5:10 pm 4.Murray said …
Hi Dave!
I agree with your comment. I had an entire context when I read it. He is referring to a church planting ministry - and focusing his training energy into those who are “bearing fruit.” (i.e. being faithful in living out the mission of Jesus - not just living for comfort and earthly plans; but losing one’s life for the sake of advancing Christ’s kingdom.) The writer is saying that he is not going to spend all his time and resources trying to stir up the 8 to the neglect of the 2 that want to run. If 8 don’t hear and catch the message - then go on to those who do.
The context was regarding pouring your life into people - potential leaders (training potential church-planting leaders) - not evangelism.
As a stand alone comment, it is not very clear, and the dusting of the feet is taken out of context from its place in the Bible.