True Community (Part 4): A Greater Purpose | Jake Haber

Check out the finale of our series "True Community" as we explore our greater purpose as a community! 

 

Quotes: 

 

M. Scott Peck: 

“Community-building first, problem-solving second.” 

 

Rachel Held Evans:

“If you are looking for verses with which to support slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to abolish slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to oppress women, you will find them. If you are looking for for verses with which to liberate or honor women, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to wage war, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to promote peace, you will find them. If you are looking for an out-dated, irrelevant ancient text, you will find it. If you are looking for truth, believe me, you will find it. This is why there are times when the most instructive question to bring to the text is not "what does it say?", but "what am I looking for?”

 

Mark 4:31-32:

"The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the tiniest seed you can sow. But after that seed is planted, it grows into the largest plant in the garden, a plant so big that birds can build their nests in the shade of its branches."

 

Shane Claiborne:

“[Jesus] tells his listeners that the kingdom of God is like mustard, which grows like a wild bush. I once heard a farmer say it is like kudzu, and a city preacher compare it to the wild weeds that grow out of the abandoned houses and cracks in the sidewalks. The mustard seed’s growth would have been familiar to first century Jews and its symbolic meaning unmistakably clear. It may have been growing in the wild around them as Jesus spoke.”