Mark Beeson Says We Should Stop Talking & Start Doing

Mark Beeson launched Innovate 2008 with a strong exhortation to start getting something done. Some quotes...

• I've watched for years as the church has talked and talked and talked, but hasn't even kept up with the population growth around us.
• Some of us have been in the "church bubble" for so long that we have truly disengaged from the needy world around us.
• Sometimes we go to God and give Him our advice.
• There are people all around us going through life headed for a bad crash, and there are times when the truth of that is very urgent.
• Balance is not a goal. Someone who is balanced is standing still. You don't want to be balanced, you need to be leaning. Lean into your marriage. Lean into your relationships. Lean into God.
• People say, "But if I'm leaning, I might fall down." Yeah, that's right. It's risky. You might fall down sometimes.
• Paul was not a man of mercy. He had a mission and wanted to get it done.
• In the 16 chapers of Mark, the word "eutheos" is used more than 40x. It means "now." It translated well to the Roman world where "get it done now" was the way things were done.
• Mark's gospel was written to the Romans, and he starts in immediately. He doesn't use a bunch of parables or flowery stories...because he knew that language wouldn't work with the Romans.
• In numerous places, Mark uses the word "immediate" to describe happenings, miracles or events in Jesus' day.
• The Jewish mindset - theology, visuals, artistic.
• The Roman mindset - authoritative, get it done now.
• Today's American culture has a mixture of both the Jewish and Roman mindset.
• We live in a culture that wants something to happen.
• We are also in a culture that requires we use story and image...but it has to be quick.
• The demand for immediate consequence, immediate results is COLLIDING with the desire for story, image and visuals.

Mark ended his session with this video...