'The first step of any kind of Christian engagement with the outside world...is to focus on the primary arena of Christ's reign - his church. We threaten the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places by our life together, by being the kind of alternative community that demonstrates that the blood of Christ has triumphed, making those who were at odds into one new reality in Christ (Eph.3:9-12)...
What would it mean if the leadership structures of our churches weren't as predictable as the leadership structures of every other organisation in our communities? What would the outside world say if they saw, in the pictures of our Christian publications, people who would be rejected by the advertising industry for being too fat or too pimply or too awkward? What would our neighbors think, to see that our chairman of deacons has Down syndrome or that a minimm-wage janitor is mentoring the millionaire executive of the hotel chain where he cleans toilets? It would look awfully strange. But it would look no stranger than a starving homeless wilderness wanderer turning down the opportunity to rule the world.'
Russell D Moore, Tempted and Tried, p.159.
