Quotes from Mike Breen

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." —Luke 11:28—30 msg

If we are going to build a culture of discipleship, we will have to learn to balance invitation and challenge appropriately.

If we can't live the sacred journey with Christ daily and are not actively drawing others into that journey—way outside the worship center or sanctuary and outside our stained-glass or silk-plant ghettos—we can't expect to do it in an hour on Sunday morning or Wednesday night.

Family on mission is how we stop thinking of discipleship as a task that we do and start living out discipleship as a way that we are.

When disciples are in stage three, the concept that sets them free is "God is in charge." They have to acknowledge grace and begin to work it into their lifestyle. This is not easy for most of us, but it is the one thing that will move us on to growth and maturity.

The destiny of the Church is directly tied to how passionate she remains to her mission.

As John Piper puts it, "For people who are passing through the dark night of the soul, turnaround will come because God brings unwavering lovers of Christ into their lives who do not give up on them."24

While the Bible clearly defines roles within the Church, the mission of the Church was intended to be shared by the whole body.

we should focus on people who don't know Jesus yet, but Jesus himself gave us the model for doing that: Disciple people.

Friends are those who serve the cause when they can. Followers are those who submit their skills and resources to have Jesus transform them. But family are those who surrender completely, laying down their agenda fully for the agenda of Jesus. This is what the disciples eventually do.

So while many churches say, "We do discipleship in our small groups," the fact of the matter is that their small groups are missing one of the main ingredients of a discipling culture: Challenge.

rest from our activities is listed in God's Top Ten. The commandment to keep the Sabbath is right up there with "don't kill," "don't steal," and "don't commit adultery." In other words, being a workaholic is, to God, just as bad as being a murderer or adulterer.