Reggisms
Reggie McNeal is an interesting guy. He writes things that force us to think outside our comfort zone, and if you are lucky enough to hear him first hand, you will think you have run a marathon, and wonder where all the time went. Reggie talks as fast as an auctioneer, speaks in sentence fragments, is always smiling, and rubs his head (you will be rubbing your head too), and asks questions we don’t want to think about.
I’ve personally heard Reggie four times. He does not have “the look” of a young preacher-teacher-anti-establishment-why-are-they-doing-this-in-the-church-young-buck, because he’s older and been a part of the establishment.
Like him or not, he does provide a lot of information that causes us to pause and think. Here are some Reggisms from some of my notes:
- In 1900, 80% of Christians were white, Western, northern hemisphere. In 2000, 80% were non-white, non-Western and southern hemisphere. The kingdom is breaking out all over
- The church is not the destination; the kingdom is the destination. Jesus does not say, “Thy church come.” He spends 40 days before His ascension teaching about the kingdom. Acts closes with the kingdom. Jesus uses “church” twice, but “kingdom” 90 times. When the kingdom breaks out, things change. People’s lives get radically re-altered; their entire worlds get re-ordered.
- God says to Abram, “I’m blessing you so that you can bless all those people who are not like you.” God regularly blesses people with whom He disagrees.
- Our conversation rate has to go up before our conversion rate can go up.
More Reggisms to come.
I love the distinction between the church and the kingdom. The “church” is open to misunderstandings, inward focus. But the kingdom…that’s bigger than all of us. Even the word itself conveys stepping outside the church walls and into the kingdom (ie: community!). I haven’t heard Reggie before…thanks for sharing this.