This Beautiful Mess, by Rick McKinley (Quotes/Review)

If you've read Donald Miller's, Blue Like Jazz, then you've heard about Pastor Rick. Now the circle is complete, because I've heard from Rick! This Beautiful Mess is a beautiful treatise on how we as Christ followers (and even us American church goers that have lost our way) can practice the presence of the Kingdom of God in our lives. Rick pastors the  Imago Dei Community in Portland, OR. Rather than my babble, here are some selected quotes:

"Choosing to live in the kingdom dimension creates some major shifts in our thinking...advancing to embracing...[and] producing to growing." (62-65)

"...church is not about getting big but about creating space where we live out a new community as he taught...Following Jesus isn't about us; It's about Him. I can't embrace the kingdom when my arms are full of me." (63)

"...the condition of your heart radically dictates what the kingdom is going to look like in your life. If you wrap all your hopes and dreams around it and let it sink far into your inner being, the kingdom of Jesus will live in you and bear fruit." (72)

"We become relevant when we are committed to being that signpost of heaven in some part of our world...Authentic relationships make us relevant." (95)

"...I think we must also vow to fight a fight of faith to keep the universe belonging to Jesus in our hearts and minds. This will take intentionality, because we're all at risk of allowing our lives to be reduced, to instinctively function as if all the world is about us, and for us, and its Sovereign is absent, and His kingdom is not here." (129,130)

[a conversation on the western Church] "We see what you're up against," Celestin said. "When you have medicine for the dandruff in your hair and for the fungus in your fingernails, it's hard to believe that you need God on a daily basis. That's a difficult thing to be up against." (156)