Mike Yaconelli Quotes

Quotes about:

Church Grace Growth Jesus Joy Reality Soul

The grace of God is dangerous. It's lavish, excessive, outrageous, and scandalous. God's grace is ridiculously inclusive. Apparently God doesn't care who He loves. He is not very careful about the people He calls His friends or the people He calls His church.

Mike Yaconelli

People, Grace, Church

61 Copy quote
Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring. The grace of God is preposterous enough to accept as beautiful a coloring that anyone else would reject as ugly. The grace of God sees beyond the scribbling to the heart of the scribbler - a scribbler who is similar to two thieves who hung on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of the two asked Jesus to please accept his scribbled and sloppy life into the kingdom of God and He did. Preposterous. And very good news for the rest of us scribblers.

Mike Yaconelli

Beautiful, Jesus, Heart

54 Copy quote
The power of the Church is not a parade of flawless people, but of a flawless Christ who embraces our flaws. The Church is not made up of whole people, rather of the broken people who find wholeness in a Christ who was broken for us.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Power, Broken

62 Copy quote
Im unfinished. Im unfixed. And the reality is thats where God meets me is in the mess of my life, in the unfixedness, in the brokenness. I thought he did the opposite, he got rid of all that stuff. But if you read the Bible, if you look at it at all, constantly he was showing up in peoples lives at the worst possible time of their life.

Mike Yaconelli

Reality, Opposites, Showing Up

55 Copy quote
Spirituality isn't about being finished and perfect; spirituality is about trusting God in our unfinishedness.

Mike Yaconelli

Perfect, Spirituality, Trust In God

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.24, Harper Collins

41 Copy quote
I want a lifetime of holy moments. Every day I want to be in dangerous proximity to Jesus. I long for a life that explodes with meaning and is filled with adventure, wonder, risk, and danger. I long for a faith that is gloriously treacherous. I want to be with Jesus, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Adventure, Knowing

Michael Yaconelli, Mike Yaconelli (2000). “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith”

38 Copy quote
Rest is a decision we make. Rest is choosing to do nothing when we have too much to do, slowing down when we feel pressure to go faster, stopping instead of starting. Rest is listening to our weariness and responding to our tiredness, not to what is making us tired. Rest is what happens when we say one simple word: “No!

Mike Yaconelli

Tired, Simple, Decisions We Make

64 Copy quote
Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives.

Mike Yaconelli

Letting Go, Spiritual, Reality

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.14, Harper Collins

29 Copy quote
Nothing in the church makes people in the church more angry than grace. It's ironic: we stumble into a party we weren't invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in. Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus' irresponsible love, we decide to make grace "more responsible" by becoming self-appointed Kingdom Monitors, guarding the kingdom of God, keeping the riffraff out (which, as I understand it, are who the kingdom of God is supposed to include).

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Party, Doors

41 Copy quote
Children live in a world of dreams and imagination, a world of aliveness… There is a voice of wonder and amazement inside all of us; but we grow to realize we can no longer hear it, and we live in silence. It isn’t that God stopped speaking; it is that our lives became louder.

Mike Yaconelli

Dream, Children, Voice

19 Copy quote
There are a whole lot of people who are so freakin' busy—they've so cluttered up their lives—they're at their wits' end. And if they'd only just stop for a minute, they could hear the God of the universe whisper to them, “I love you.

Mike Yaconelli

Love You, People, Busy

31 Copy quote
Play is an expression of God's presence in the world; one clear sign of God's absence in society is the absence of playfulness and laughter.

Mike Yaconelli

Laughter, Expression, Play

Michael Yaconelli, Mike Yaconelli (2000). “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith”

14 Copy quote
Speed damages our souls because living fast consumes every ounce of our energy. Speed has a deafening roar that drowns our the whispering voices of our souls and leaves Jesus as a diminishing speck in the rearview mirror.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Mirrors, Voice

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.64, Harper Collins

18 Copy quote
Until we start thinking in terms of revolution instead of compromise the Church will continue to pat itself on the back with token steps of renewal.

Mike Yaconelli

Christian, Thinking, Church

29 Copy quote
What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Godly, Ideas

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.14, Harper Collins

26 Copy quote
Think about how many of us have wondered why we don't fit, why our faith doesn't stabilize us, why we seem so out of sync with most of the world. Genuine faith is the isolating force in our lives that creates tension wherever we go. To put it another way, faith is the unbalancing force in our lives that is the fruit of God's disturbing presence.

Mike Yaconelli

Thinking, World, Way

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.54, Harper Collins

26 Copy quote
Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring.

Mike Yaconelli

Joy, Lines, Christianity

Michael Yaconelli, Mike Yaconelli (2000). “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith”

16 Copy quote
Jesus cares more about desire than about competence

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Desire, Care

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.25, Harper Collins

15 Copy quote
When we are in touch with God's joy and peace in us, then we become whole and holy persons. Like living torches we radiate the light and heat of God's compassionate love.

Mike Yaconelli

Love, Christian, Light

4 Copy quote
Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness. (Messy Spirituality)

Mike Yaconelli

Spirituality, Fixed, Messy

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.14, Harper Collins

23 Copy quote
Spirituality is a mixed-up, topsy-turvy, helter-skelter godliness that turns our lives into an upside-down toboggan ride of unexpected turns, surprise bumps and bone shattering crashes ... a life ruined by a Jesus who loves us right into his arms.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Bumps, Arms

22 Copy quote
Sin does not always drive us to drink; more often it drives us to exhaustion. Tiredness is equally as debilitating as drunkenness. Burnout is slang for an inner tiredness, a fatigue of our souls. Jesus came to forgive us all of our sins, including the sin of busyness. The problem with growth in the modern church is not the slowness of growth but the rushing of growth.

Mike Yaconelli

Jesus, Rushing, Soul

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.64, Harper Collins

21 Copy quote
Religious people love to hide behind religion. They love the rules of religion more than they love Jesus. With practice, Condemners let rules become more important than the spiritual life.

Mike Yaconelli

Spiritual, Religious, Jesus

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.36, Harper Collins

27 Copy quote
Speed is not neutral. Fast living used to mean a life of debauchery; now it just means fast, but the consequences are even more serious. Speeding through life endangers our relationships and our souls.

Mike Yaconelli

Mean, Soul, Debauchery

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.63, Harper Collins

21 Copy quote
Spiritual growth thrives in the midst of our problems, not in their absence. Spiritual growth occurs in the trenches of life, not in the classroom.

Mike Yaconelli

Spiritual, Growth, Problem

Mike Yaconelli (2009). “Messy Spirituality”, p.49, Harper Collins

8 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Brennan Manning

Brian D. McLaren

Frederica Mathewes-Green

Mike Yaconelli

Follow

Born: July 24, 1942
Died: October 30, 2003
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics