CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

'If you don't feel worthy in Christ, or you look to yourself for your worth, then you shouldn't lead God's people. Your leadership will be joyless, complaining and oppressive. You'll hide, rather than being vulnerable. You'll fear exposure. You'll minimize sin. You'll condemn others to boost your own self-image. The fruit of your ministry will be other legalists...

But if you do trust in Christ, you will be - as you always were - one sinner pointing other sinners to the source of grace; one hungry beggar telling other hungry beggars about the bread of life.'

Tim Chester, Captured by a Better Vision, p.88.

PORNOGRAPHY

'Porn is providing the sex education for a generation of young people, setting their expectations for sex and marriage.'

Tim Chester, Captured by a Better Vision: Living porn-free, p.13.

REST

'I can rest in the midst of busyness because:

• trusting God to be my Saviour sets me free from the pressure to prove myself
• trusting God to be my Master sets me free from the weight of other people's expectations
• trusting God to be my Provider sets me free from the fear that things will get out of control
• trusting God to be my Refuge stes me free from the compulsion to hide behind my busyness
• trusting God to be my Joy sets me free from the vain pursuit of satisfaction ibn possessions
• trusting God to be my Hope sets me free from the frantic need to make the most of this life.'

Tim Chester, The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness, p.151.

HOLIDAYS

'It is doubtful whether holidays are good for us. Eight out of ten people work extra hours before going away. One in three finds the days before a holiday the most stressful of the year. Most say they feel as stressed as ever by the end of the first week back. When you pattern is 48 weeks work and four weeks rest then your holiday is everything. People speak as working for their holidays. Christmas letters typically consist of holiday itineraries. That is the the sum of people's lives. Life has become week after week of toil for two weeks in the sun.'

Tim Chester, The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness, p.29.

EVANGELICALS

'This sadly is the world of much contemporary evangelicalism. We exalt the platform speakers who perform at Christian conferences. We prize the eloquence that Paul rejected (I Corinthians 2:1-5). We value degrees whereas Jesus ignored his disciples' lack of education when choosing the twelve (Acts 4:13). We follow numerical success. We pursue career paths. Church leaders look like company directors. Conference speakers look like entertainers. We've taken the word "minister" and somehow turned it into a designation of status, even though it actually means "servant". We reject the title "Father" on the basis of Matthew 23:8-11, but adopt other status titles like "Reverend" and "Pastor". Evelyn Astley suggests that, while in the West we're not scandalized by the cross itself, we are scandalized by leadership modelled on the cross: "leadership that displays human weakness, human limitation, human suffering, and human fragility, but functions in God's power". "Somewhere along the line, we seem to have fallen into the same trap as the Corinthian church. We have come to value power, control and success."'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.153.

SUFFERING

'We expect God to keep us healthy and safe. So when trouble comes - as Jesus promises it will (John 16:33) - we not only struggle to cope with the problem; we also can't make sense of what God is doing. "Why doesn't he answer my prayers?" "Is my faith too weak?" The result is that people struggling with turmoil in their circumstances are beset at the same time with turmoil in their hearts - a crisis that could have been avoided by a proper eschatology.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.126.

DISCIPLESHIP

'In the West we often take an incremental approach to discipleship. A person is converted and we begin to ratchet up their commitment to Christ. We start them off with prayer and Bible reading. We then encourage them to "come out" to friends and share the gosple. Later we might ask them to serve in church. If they prove very keen, we might encourage them to think about cross-cultural missionary service. We don't even ask people to live among the poor, though we're impressed when they do. Martyrdom is a distant prospect. Through a series of steps, we increase what it means to follow Jesus.

But in persecuted churches, martyrdom is written into the call to conversion. A decision to become a Christian might well mean persecution, ostracization or imprisonment. To decide for Christ is to decide for death. Now think about how Jesus issued his evangelistic invitation: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). It was an invitation to die.

When the decision for Christ means a decision for martyrdom, everything else is effectively decided. A thousand decisions about money, service, career, lifestyle, reputation are all already made in that one decision to follow Jesus to the end. The choice for martyrdom contains within it a whole life of cross-centred discipleship. And that is the point: not that we should look to be martyred, but that we should call people to cross-shaped lives of self-denial.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.56.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'...when the New Testament writers tell us how we should live, they don't often point back to the life of Jesus. Instead they take us again and again to the cross and resurrection. Whether they're talking about marriage or conflict or community or money or opposition or leadership or temptation or work or suffering, they look to the cross and resurrection. So if you want to know how to live as a Christian, you need to understand how the cross and resurrection shape our lives. The pattern of the cross and resurrection needs to become our reflex, our habit, our instinct. We need to live the cross and resurrection.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero: Living the cross and resurrection, p.11.

DEPENDENCE ON GOD

'A child will play happily in her own little world. But as soon as she senses danger, she'll look around for a parent. This is how it should be for the child of God. As soon as we sense danger, we should look up to our heavenly Father for help.'

Tim Chester, You Can Change, p.156.

LEGALISM & GRACE

'In Greek mythology, the Sirens would sing enchanting songs drawing sailors irresistably towards the rocks and certain shipwreck. Odysseus filled his crew's ears with wax and had them tie him to the mast. This is like the approach of legalism. We bind ourselves up with laws and disciplines in a vain attempt to resist temptation. Orpheus, on the other hand, played such beautiful music on his harp that his sailors ignored the Siren song. This is the way of faith. The grace of the gospel sings a far more glorious song than the enticements of sin, if only we have faith to hear its music.'

Tim Chester, You Can Change, p. 64.