Quotations from Christianity Magazine

The quotations below are taken from the January 2008 edition of Christianity magazine, and are reproduced with permission. They have much to say about the qualities needed for Hope projects, as well as timescale and expectations. Read them thoughtfully and prayerfully and pray for all involved in such projects in our area and elsewhere. And if you are currently involved in a Hope project, take courage!  More quotes ...

Mother Teresa

  • “I have never had clarity. What I have is trust.”

Rowan Williams

(Archbishop of Canterbury)

  • “Mission is finding out what God is doing – and joining in.”

Paul Bayes

(National mission adviser for the Church of England)

  • “Sometimes the problem is not coming up with ideas, but working out which ideas to implement of the many ideas your church has.”
  • “It really helps if churches first of all identify what the needs are in their own area, and then pray and prepare to meet those needs with God’s resources.”
  • “Do a few things and do them well.”
  • “The best pro baseball player ever missed two hits out of every three. It’s OK to miss.”
  • “Sometimes we’ll give it our best shot, but our plans and initiatives will not flourish as much as we hoped.”
  • “The way to enter God’s hall of fame in mission is to keep on praying again, listening again and trying again.”

Ian Bunce

(Head of the Baptist Union of Great Britain’s mission department)

  • “Frantic unfocused activity rarely leads to major success.”
  • “Always having your eye on the next thing does not give opportunity to do the present project well.”
  • “Before you kill the members of the church with exhaustion and lose the human resource in a cloud of disillusionment and despondency, identify the one thing the church is called to do and do it well.”

Gavin Tyte

(Beatboxer)

  • “Who you are is way more important than what you do.”
  • “I feel like God just uses me very naturally and organically.”

Jan Burn

(Pastor of Kingfisher Church, Gloucester, of the 'Drug Proof Your Kids' course)

  • “We were looking for services that could be used to go outside of the church at into the community, something that would be really useful to the community, something which meets people where they are at.”
  • “It's not overtly Christian, but it opens up doors for us as church.”
  • “We're not judging, we're just saying we want to be part of the solution.”
  • “‘Backdoor’ methods of evangelism lack all integrity.”

John Hunt

(Minister of Harlow Baptist Church, of the Church’s “Kidz Klub”)

  • “People take time to identify with church. Some people who have been with us six years are just starting to ask questions about Christianity. It takes patience and commitment.”
  • "It’s about befriending people and building real friendships.”
  • “The idea of journey is central to the way we approach mission.”
  • “It doesn’t make the success stories in quite the way that some people want, but it is effective.”

Wendy Adams

(Ministering among the bars and nightclubs of Tenerife)

  • “We started visiting the people who are paid to stand outside bars and entice people in, bringing them doughnuts or crisps, and started to chat with them.”
  • “We wanted to give people a place to relax, but also somewhere that would offer practical advice. Eventually we were able to set up a drop in centre for the workers.”
  • “It’s recognised as God’s place even though the people who come aren’t Christians.”
  • “We found it was taking longer and longer to get around to everyone, because the conversations were getting deeper.”
  • “People knew we were Christians and we weren’t hiding the fact, but we didn’t want to push anything on to anyone.”
  • “We wanted to open things up for people, not manipulate them.”
  • “If ever we started to be pushy, it always backfired.”
  • “You just had to be genuinely interested in them and in their lives.”
  • “Slowly, over time, we began to see people becoming interested and then come to faith.”
  • “You can see God has done it, but it’s also us being patient and just loving people.”