Posts tagged Quotes
Quote of the Week – Tim Keller on “The Country Parson”
Dec 16th
“Young pastors should not turn up their noses at such places, where they may learn the full spectrum of ministry tasks and skills as they will not in a large church. Nor should they go to small communities looking at them merely as stepping stones in a career. Why not? Your early ministry experience will only prepare you for ‘bigger things,’ if you don’t aspire for anything bigger than investment in the lives of the people around you. Wherever you serve, put your roots down, become a member of the community and do your ministry with all your heart and might. If God opens the door to go somewhere else, fine and good. But don’t go to such places looking at them only as training grounds for ‘real ministry.’”
- Tim Keller, on “The Country Parson”
Quote of the Week – Trueman on the “The Nameless Ones”
Sep 8th
“Finally, I worry that a movement built on megachurches, megaconferences, and megaleaders, does the church a disservice in one very important way that is often missed amid all the pizzazz and excitement: it creates the idea that church life is always going to be big, loud, and exhilarating and thus gives church members and ministerial candidates unrealistic expectations of the normal Christian life. In the real world, many, perhaps most, of us worship and work in churches of 100 people or less; life is not loud and exciting; big things do not happen every Sunday; budgets are incredibly tight and barely provide enough for a pastor’s modest salary; each Lord’s Day we go through the same routines of worship services, of hearing the gospel proclaimed, of taking the Lord’s Supper, of teaching Sunday School; perhaps several times a year we do leaflet drops in the neighbourhood with very few results; at Christmas time we carol sing in the high street and hand out invitations to church and maybe two or three people actually come along as a result; but no matter — we keep going, giving, and praying as we can; we try to be faithful in the little entrusted to us. It’s boring, it’s routine, and it’s the same, year in, year out. Therefore, in a world where excitement, celebrity, and cultural power are the ideal, it is tempting amidst the circumstances of ordinary church life to forget that this, the routine of the ordinary, the boring, the plodding, is actually the norm for church life and has been so throughout most places for most of the history of the church; that mega-whatevers are the exception, not the rule; and that the church has survived throughout the ages not just – or even primarily – because of the high profile firework displays of the great and the good, but because of the day to day faithfulness of the mundane, anonymous, non-descript people who constitute most of the church, and who do the grunt work and the tedious jobs that need to be done [emphasis added]. History does not generally record their names; but the likelihood is that you worship in a church which owes everything, humanly speaking, to such people.”
Quote of the Week – Of Science and God
Sep 1st
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about the conquer the highest peak. As he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
- Dr. Robert Jastrow (from “God and the Astronomers“, quoted from Grace and Truth to You)
Quote of the Week – Counseling and Application
May 27th
“The best application is mined, not from homiletical brainstorming, but from pastoral counseling.” - Jonathan Dodson (http://theresurgence.com/Dodson_Counseling-on-Mission_part3)
Quote of the Week – No Prom or No Graduation?
May 18th
“In life, we constantly make decisions whether we are going to please self or please God. (Frost) chose one path, and the school committee chose the other” - Tim England , Principle of Heritage Christian School, on Tyler Frost not being allowed to graduate because he attended Findlay High School’s prom with his girlfriend
Convicting Oswald Chambers Quote
Oct 20th
“It is impossible to get exhausted in work for God. We get exhausted because we try to do God’s work in our own way.”
-Oswald Chambers
Quote of the Week – Hudson Taylor on Missionary Requirements
Sep 4th
“There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience 2. Patience 3. Patience.”- Hudson Taylor
Quote of the Week – Sam Storms
Aug 28th
He is present in and among his people. He guards and protects and preserves the church. He is never, ever absent! No service is conducted at which he fails to show up. No meal is served for which he does not sit down. No sermon is preached that he does not evaluate. No sin is committed of which is he unaware. No individual enters an auditorium of whom he fails to take notice. No tear is shed that escapes his eye. No pain is felt that his heart does not share. No decision is made that he does not judge. No song is sung that he does not hear.How dare we build our programs and prepare our messages and hire our staffs and discipline our members as if he were distant or unaware of every thought, impulse, word, or decision! How dare we cast a vision or write a doctrinal statement or organize a worship service as if the Lord whose church it is were indifferent to it all! Do you care “What Christ thinks of the Church”? Or are you more attuned to the latest trend in worship, the most innovative strategy for growth, the most “relevant” way in which to engage the surrounding culture? Yes, Jesus cares deeply about worship. Of course he wants the church to grow. And he longs to see the culture redeemed for his own glory. All the more reason to pray that God might quicken us to read and heed the “words” of Christ to the church in Ephesus, then, and to the church now, whatever its name, denomination, or size. It obviously matters to him. Ought it not to us as well?
-Sam Storms
Quote of the Week
Jul 17th
This week’s Quote of the Week is from John Newton’s autobiography, “Out of the Depths“:
“So strong, though secret, is the connection between the greatest and the least important events. What a comfortable thought is this to the believer: to know that amid the various interfering plans of men, the Lord has one constant goal, which He cannot, will not miss, namely, His own glory in the complete salvation of His people. He is wise, strong, and faithful to make even those things that seem contrary to this plan nevertheless serve to promote it.”
- John Newton
Quote of the Week
Jul 10th
This is probably my favorite quote by Rich Mullins:
“It don’t do to fight with God, ’cause He always wins. He’ll bloody your nose and then He gives you a ride home on His bicycle.” -Rich Mullins
