Erwin McManus Quotes & Sayings

Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing his name. — Erwin McManus

The greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity. — Erwin McManus

You have a generation that is saying we are tapping out of religion in many ways. But what they are not saying is that we are tapping out of a serious search for meaning in life. — Erwin McManus

It is insanity to run from God and search for love. — Erwin McManus

I realize that I live on the bubble of insanity. I feel the weight of human suffering, loneliness and despair on me all the time. It's not getting easier; if anything, it's always right on the edge of my skin. — Erwin McManus

When we look at history, we see history is made up of the heroes of their times. Yet, somehow we miss this when we put on the lens of the Scriptures. — Erwin McManus

We have to ask ourselves, 'Am I really trying to discern God's will, or determine whether I want to do it?' — Erwin McManus

How many people just get up on Monday and do the same thing they've done every single Monday - go to work and just turn on route automatic and no longer have any meaning in their life? — Erwin McManus

It's not your freedom to choose that makes you free. It's what you choose in that freedom that makes you free. — Erwin McManus

When you begin to create the life of your dreams - or maybe better stated, when you begin to live the life that God dreams for you - you take responsibility to prepare for the future. — Erwin McManus

A life well lived is the most exquisite work of art. — Erwin McManus

The church does not exist for us. We are the church, and we exist for the world. — Erwin McManus

This thing that haunts you, that never seems satisfied, the cravings in your soul that you are unable to satiate through all the success that the world can bring this is your soul screaming for God. — Erwin McManus

While we would love to have no criticism, probably if we had no critique, we wouldn't be doing anything meaningful. — Erwin McManus

The world doesn't need more great leaders, it needs more great people who lead. — Erwin McManus

In some sense we are all hypocrites in transition. — Erwin McManus

I think many times Christians don't really take the opportunity to hear what people are saying and seeing in the world around them. — Erwin McManus

The Barbarian Way was, in some sense, trying to create a volatile fuel to get people to step out and act. It's pretty hard to get a whole group of people moving together as individuals who are stepping into a more mystical, faith-oriented, dynamic kind of experience with Christ. So, I think Barbarian Way was my attempt to say, Look, underneath what looks like invention, innovation and creativity is really a core mysticism that hears from God, and what is fuelling this is something really ancient. That's what was really the core of The Barbarian Way. — Erwin McManus

If you come at the Bible as if it's a document of encyclopedic information, you've pretty much killed any kind of life change in a seeker and unbeliever. — Erwin McManus

God allows and at times causes us to go through the kinds of circumstances that strip away all falsehood and leave us with our real selves. God's ultimate intent is not to leave us faithless, but to leave us faith-full. There are few things as exhilarating as going through the fire and finding that you had the resilience to make it through. All of us wonder at times whether we have what it takes. God wants to bring us to a place where we have no doubt of the work He has done within us. — Erwin McManus

I have so much confidence in the reality of Jesus that I feel no pressure to try to make people act or be a certain way. I'm banking everything on the fact that God actually changes people. — Erwin McManus

We are all hypocrites in transition. I am not who I want to be, but I am on the journey there, and thankfully I am not whom I used to be. — Erwin McManus

We're a part of the insurrection, trying to turn Christianity upside down. We're an experimental church: God's research and development arm. — Erwin McManus

You are both a work of art and an artist at work. — Erwin McManus

When researchers try to break down what is happening at Mosaic, far too often they see the skin and miss the heart. — Erwin McManus

Truth should never travel faster than love. — Erwin McManus

It is amazing how much we can endure when we are convinced there is a purpose to our struggle. — Erwin McManus

Your soul craves truth, beauty, wonder, love. Your soul craves to dream, to imagine, and even simply to understand. Your soul craves to connect, to commune, to create. — Erwin McManus

I think Christianity is the same as Buddhism and Hinduism - whenever a religion begins to say that these are the things you have to do to be loved by God, you have a religion. — Erwin McManus

Courage frees us from the fears that would rob us of life itself. — Erwin McManus

One trend I see is the rejection of growth for self-discovery and the pursuit of authentic community. So we keep whittling our spiritual community to a smaller and smaller and more exclusive inner circle. The problem is if the diagnoses are wrong, so will be the cure. — Erwin McManus

God has leveraged the human spirit to move in His direction, and all the material we need to bring a person to the realization that they were created by God actually already exists inside that person. — Erwin McManus

Is it possible that the creative act is simply the materialization of the future- making the invisible, visible? — Erwin McManus

I've worked in the business world and, as a futurist, the whole 20 years that I've led at Mosaic. — Erwin McManus

I think the exploration and the search for who Jesus is, and that 2,000 years later we're still trying to figure out who He was, and did He really rise from the dead ... And I think for me, the answer is 'yes,' and that's why we're talking about Him today. — Erwin McManus

I became a Christian because I met God. — Erwin McManus

God has given us an imagination, and our imagination is really the principle tool from which all creativity and artistry comes from. — Erwin McManus

Gratitude changes your perspective about life. You see the future, experience the present, and remember the past in a dramatically different way. — Erwin McManus

We can't change history, but we can create the future. — Erwin McManus

There is something powerful about singing to God as an act of worship, but it is time to reframe our perspective and our language to genuinely encompass all of life as worship. — Erwin McManus

The system of Christian celebrity was not a good space for me, and it was brutal on my kids - my son in college was frequently confronted by people railing against me as a heretic. — Erwin McManus

The bulk of our community is probably between the ages of 20 and 34. — Erwin McManus

The Christian faith grew through story - not text. Only later did the stories become Scripture. While the Scripture must be held in the highest regard, we must not neglect the power of story. — Erwin McManus

For years I have made it my mission to destroy the influence of the Christian clich, 'the safest place to be is in the center of the will of God.' God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life, — Erwin McManus

How in the world could you ever imagine a life of faith that does not require risk? Faith and risk are inseparable. — Erwin McManus

God clarifies in the midst of obedience, not beforehand. — Erwin McManus

The person who loves the process has a much greater chance of success than the person who loves the outcome. — Erwin McManus

The limitations you are willing to accept establish the boundaries of your existence. — Erwin McManus

I think the opportunity to bring together the people in the world of politics, business and entertainment and have an opportunity to listen to their best learning and thinking is a great opportunity. — Erwin McManus

We need to understand that Christianity is about changing; it is not about a religion. — Erwin McManus

Sin creates the illusion of freedom. In the end it fools us into seeking freedom from God rather than finding freedom in God. — Erwin McManus

When you live your life knowing the mission and calling and voice of God in your soul and you know where that compass is driving you forward, you will become a rare commodity in a world searching for direction. — Erwin McManus

You need to remember who God is, forget the painful wounds and let Him renew you. — Erwin McManus

The word 'entertain' means to hold someone's attention, and what we want is a faith that is vibrant and alive and beautiful and real. — Erwin McManus

When we lack integrity, we use power to control. When we lead with integrity, we use power to bless. — Erwin McManus

One of the things you'll discover ... as you listen to your own soul is that you spend a great amount of your life trying to bring meaning to your own life. And, by the way, most people are not going to church, so the place they're actually trying to find meaning in their life is at work. — Erwin McManus

I think that's a part of what motivates me in my teaching and writing. Once the Gospel feels mainstream and becomes a nicely organized, orchestrated belief system, frankly, I don't think there is even an attraction to the human spirit. — Erwin McManus

My goal is to destroy Christianity as a world religion and be a recatalyst for the movement of Jesus Christ ... Some people are upset with me because it sounds like I'm anti-Christian. I think they might be right. — Erwin McManus

I refused to let go of what I had. — Erwin McManus

I think we are all trying to figure out what it means to be the Church as opposed to just doing church. — Erwin McManus

Jesus' death wasn't to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death. Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live. Jesus Christ wants to take us to places where only dead men and women can go. — Erwin McManus

True religion always moves us to serve others and to give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom. — Erwin McManus

The Bible is not an antiquated text. The scriptures are the text that will lead us into the future. — Erwin McManus

The Bible has been trapped in modernity. Everything has to work perfectly. And if everything doesn't fit in a Lego-oriented functionality, then we don't deal with it as Christians. — Erwin McManus

Talent doesn't win. Hard work, determination, and character wins. If you root your talent and ability in those things, then you have a powerful combination. — Erwin McManus

Within a moment there is monumental potential. That is the mystery of a moment. It is small enough to ignore and big enough to change your life forever — Erwin McManus

People who are fully alive look out of their minds to those who simply exist. — Erwin McManus

The church must acclimate to a changing world, or she will destine herself to irrelevance or even extinction ... One of those dramatic changes in our environment is the shift from words to images. To do church in a way that is entirely text driven is the kiss of death. — Erwin McManus

The shape of your character is the shape of your future. — Erwin McManus

The future awaits those with the courage to create it. — Erwin McManus

My goal is to destroy Christianity. — Erwin McManus

We need both to aspire and accomplish. Without a vision for your life, without a sense of purpose, you will begin to die a slow death. — Erwin McManus

Los Angeles has been known as the center of creativity but has often been equally known for the absence of spirituality. — Erwin McManus

We were created to be expressions of the goodness and wholeness of God. — Erwin McManus

I think a lot of us are not on a path; we're in a rut. We have confused comfort with peace, belief with faith, safety with wisdom, wealth with blessing, and existence with life. — Erwin McManus

I know it sounds crazy, but as soon as Christians start telling non-Christians how to live their lives, we've lost the Christian faith. — Erwin McManus

If you look at it from just a pure economic basis, technology is replacing all of the jobs robots can do, and machinery is replacing the jobs that humans once held. If we don't train our children to imagine, to create, they're going to be unemployable. — Erwin McManus

It is amazing where God will take you when you are willing to follow. Life is full of surprises when we choose mystery over security. — Erwin McManus

When you're passionate about God, you can trust your passions. — Erwin McManus

The reality is that every human being is placed on this planet, and one of the things that drives humans is their need for meaning, and if you can make every job meaningful, then you will guarantee that every job will be done to its highest level of excellence. — Erwin McManus

You can plant a church and grow a church. That's not that hard to do, but it's harder to be a viable source of transformation in a city or your time or space. — Erwin McManus

Two thousand years ago, God started a revolt against the religion He started. So don't ever put it past God to cause a groundswell movement against churches and Christian institutions that bear His name. — Erwin McManus

It's a wonderful thing when you look inside your own heart and like what you see. — Erwin McManus

The journey to freedom is paved by the substance of our character. — Erwin McManus

If you were meant to fly, not even running really fast is that impressive. — Erwin McManus

Behind real freedom, there lies discipline. — Erwin McManus

If our children are going to walk away from Christ, we need to raise them in such a way that they understand that to walk away from Jesus is to walk away from a life of faith, risk and adventure and to choose a life that boring, mundane and ordinary — Erwin McManus

The epicenter of creativity and imagination should be the Church, reflecting the character and glory of God. — Erwin McManus

The church is not here to meet our needs. We are the church here to meet the needs of the world. — Erwin McManus

Your dreams are the product of your longings, a portrait of your potential, and a promise of your future. — Erwin McManus

God gives God-sized dreams to people with God-shaped hearts. — Erwin McManus

Deeper than our instinct to live is our longing to be alive. — Erwin McManus

We are constantly learning and growing and changing. We are really an experiment. We are endeavoring to discover if a community of faith can exist purely for the good of others. — Erwin McManus

If God imagined you at birth, what makes you think He's stopped imagining you now. — Erwin McManus

Problems, obstacles, and challenges can either become the markers of our limits and limitations, or they can become the springboard into a whole new world. — Erwin McManus

Promise Keepers was looking for a movement that can actualize the hope of Jesus, the hope that we see. And 'Uprising' was what they were looking for. — Erwin McManus

I guess when I really think about it, God's voice sounds a lot like my voice. — Erwin McManus

You're not supposed to die with your potential. A life well lived squeezes all the potential placed within and does something with it. — Erwin McManus

A person God himself deems as wise is one who not only hears His voice, but immediately begins to act upon His instruction. — Erwin McManus

When we stop believing the world can become a better place, when we stop caring about the lives and conditions of others, we lose a part of ourselves. — Erwin McManus