Jeff Vanderstelt is the leader of the Soma Family of Churches and the lead teaching pastor at Doxa Church in Bellevue, Washington. Following Mark Driscoll’s resignation in 2014, Jeff has headed the care and leadership of Doxa Church, a new church plant born out of what was Mars Hill Bellevue. We recently had the opportunity to interview him for our 5 Leadership Questions podcast here.
Jeff newest book is Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Many Christians have unwittingly embraced the idea that “church” is a once-a-week event rather than a community of Spirit-empowered people; that “ministry” is what pastors do on Sundays rather than the 24/7 calling of all believers; and that “discipleship” is a program rather than the normal state of every follower of Jesus. Drawing on his experience as a pastor and church planter, Jeff Vanderstelt wants us to see that there’s more—much more—to the Christian life than sitting in a pew once a week. God has called his people to something bigger: a view of the Christian life that encompasses the ordinary, the extraordinary, and everything in between.
Here are some of our favorite quotes from the book:
Before Jesus did formal ministry, he spent thirty years of his life doing normal, mundane, unremarkable stuff. He lived a regular life for the glory of God.
I’ve found one of the main reasons many people do not get involved with the work of God in this world is because they don’t believe God wants to or can use them. They don’t know that Jesus prefers normal, weak, and broken people.
God the Father, the Creator of the universe, receives and accepts you in Christ Jesus. If you believe this, you can rest. You are loved. You are accepted. You are already significant.
God’s Spirit calls us out of hiding reminding us that in Jesus there is no more guilt, no more shame, and no need to cover up.
The thing that matters most cannot be taken away from us, and nothing can happen to us to prevent us from inheriting it.
Our job is not to change people. That’s God’s job. Our job is to love people so they come to know the Father’s love through us.
If we believe Jesus is the Savior of our future—we can rest secure in him in the middle of this broken world where we live.
God always intended that every part of life be a participation in His activity and a celebration of His goodness.
If we are servants of Jesus, we are in the place where he has put us in order to serve others like he served us.
Jesus didn’t call us to merely make a decision for him. He doesn’t need our vote of approval. He doesn’t want deciders. He wants disciples—people who are devoted to becoming more and more like him in everything, everyday.
If we are to be disciples of Jesus who are being reformed and restored to become more like him, we need to have people in our lives, up close and personal.
Genuine repentance and faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ always lead to a change of behavior.
We have the Spirit of God in us so that we might be empowered, just as Jesus was.
We taught Christians to see themselves as the church in our city, instead of seeing church as only an event they attend on Sunday. They learned how to see all of life as sacred and every action as part of God’s missionary work in the world. They began to see that he was in them, working through them in the normal stuff of life.
It’s amazing how often Christians want to experience the presence and power of God apart from the mission of God.
This is what Jesus does. He takes empty religion and ritual, and brings it to life every day for everyday people.
