Foursquare NextGen Summit ’07: Quotes

A couple weeks ago I headed out to Anaheim, Calif., for the Foursquare NextGen Summit ’07, a cause-oriented youth event that I did a lot of writing for. I’m not generally a fan of high-energy, emotional events, but I did appreciate some of the speakers. What follows are a few quotes I found especially poignant or interesting.


Lakita Garth:

“The gospel has to be more than your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But I wasn’t seeing it in my generation. … The gospel has to be more than fire insurance.”

“God has given you the opportunity to change the planet.”

Erwin McManus:

“You can believe in stuff and not care about it, but you can’t care about something and not believe in it. It’s not about what you believe. It’s what you care about.”

“It’s the difference between doing something that matters and being indifferent to the pain of the world.” (good vs apathy)

Mike Foster:

“Christians have lost their credibility in the world.”

(a great talk about character, with the backdrop of his experience at porn shows with XXXChurch–you can listen to it here)

Marilee Pierce Drucker:

“An orphan faces all the devastating challenges of life alone.”

Tim Mossholder:

“When you confess your failure you’re taking a step towards being a revolutionary.”

Ron Luce:

(in a session for youth leaders)

“It’s not your job to fix the kids–it’s the church’s, the adults’, the parents’.”

Sharon Cohn:

“God is asking his people to stand up, show up and speak up on behalf of the oppressed.”

“God is not knocked backwards by the massiveness of the need.”

“The world does not revolve around you. … You were not just rescued from, you were rescued for.”

Charles Lee:

“I thought social issues were relegated to people who are liberal. If you read the gospels, you can’t get away from the fact that Jesus cared about social issues.”

Ron Luce:

“Maybe you should do something before you get old and crusty–call it crusty insurance.

“Instead of just sending your money–send yourself. God sent his son and today he still sends people.”

“If you don’t dream you’ll become a part of someone else’s dream.”

Luce made the point that 2% of the world creates entertainment for the other 98% (a breakdown that really irritated me; it’s not like that 2% doesn’t consume entertainment as well–it’s not such a cut and dry split), so you either need to make your own dreams or you’re going to be subject to someone else’s. That’s a powerful statement when you consider what an entertainment driven society we are (especially for young people where if you haven’t seen the latest movie you can’t keep up).

Margaret Feinberg:

“Our God answers with outrageous generosity. … When we give we become a little more attached to the world to come and a little less attached to this world.”

Matthew Barnett:

“The world will be forever changed by the people here this weekend.”

“The young woman who’s going to be the next Mother Teresa is sitting in here tonight.”

“You want everyone to come into your Christian world–[but] you need to go into another man’s world.”

Barnett and his church, The Dream Center in Los Angeles, really make a powerful example of the church getting out there and being the church.

Shane Claiborne:

“They taught me what to believe but not how to live.” (he says this all the time)

“The best things to do with the best things in life is to give it away.”

3 thoughts on “Foursquare NextGen Summit ’07: Quotes”

  1. I am one of those Foursquare youth pastors that are in total disagrement with the National Youth Office’s enamorment with the Emergent Movement. May of the speakers at the Summit were indeed Emergents, some were non-christians! This is sad, dangerous and appaling indeed. The following site has a lot to say about this heretical movement. So for starters, see the writeup on Shane Claiborne.
    http://www.apprising.org/archives/2008/02/shane_claiborne.html

  2. Thanks Joe. But what speaker at Summit wasn’t a Christian?

    Sorry man, but I just get tired of the whole anti-emergent backlash. Go ahead and disagree with them if you like (I’m not sure I agree with them), but the lies and accusations is really what’s appalling.

  3. Actually, they’re not all lies. There are some very relevant points made about the Emergent movement that Christians need to beware of. For a fair treatment of the subject, I highly recommend this book:

    “Why we’re not Emergent (by two guys who should be)” co-written by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

    Here’s the link for Amazon, it’s worth it to read just the reviews:

    http://www.amazon.com/Why-Were-Not-Emergent-Should/dp/0802458343/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218741030&sr=8-1

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