quotes of the week #43

best quotes of the week:
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn

“For me, it became hard to read the Bible and walk away as if I had just watched a nice movie. Jesus never seemed to do anything normal.” – Shane Claiborne

“If I diminish you, I diminish myself.” – Desmond Tutu

“He who thinks he leads but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” – John Maxwell

[unfortunately,] “the system works for those with the power and influence to change the system.” [so] “they can’t hear the cry.” – Rob Bell

“It is not easy to challenge the reigning plausibility structure. It is much easier to conform.” – Lesslie Newbigin

“It was the most religious who seemed to get the secret message of Jesus the least, and the least religious who seemed to get it the most.” – Brian McLaren

“Everybody should see kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in your warm greeting.” – Mother Teresa

“The hope offered to believers is not that we will be a peculiar elite group of people who will escape out of the world, leaving others behind to experience the wrath of God. The hope is rather that by our sacrificial participation in the ever-expanding kingdom, the whole creation will be redeemed.” – Greg Boyd

“If there’s a legitimate indictment of the Church today, it’s that we’re subcultural rather than countercultural.” – Jay Howard

“‘Theology’ and ‘science’ never exist in such a generalized, abstract sense, but always only in quite specific social, historical, and intellectual contexts.” – J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

quotes of the week #42

my favorite quotes of the week to share with you - 42nd edition!

“Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa 

“When coercion of any kind is used in the interests of the Christian message, the message itself is corrupted.” – Lesslie Newbigin

“But our primary role as spiritual leaders isn’t making people see eye to eye. It’s making sure our eyes are focused on Jesus.” – Mark Batterson

“Sometimes our technological expertise has seemed to top our moral capacity to use this expertise for the good of humanity. We have a capacity to feed all and yet millions starve because we seem to lack the moral and political will to do what we know is right.” – Desmond Tutu

"Leaders goal: Don't deny a person who has faithfully served your vision the right to pursue a grand vision themselves!" - Brian Houston

"When you change the heart of a parent, you affect their child or teenager in a way that is lifelong." - Reggie Joiner

“If you have to explain a part of your ministry in a paragraph instead of a sentence then it has become too complicated.” – Chris Brown

"The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still." - A.W. Tozer

"God is not an American. He made the Americans." - my 4 year old son. #proudparent

- Stephen Wagoner

do you have any favorite quotes? 

quotes of the week #41

best quotes of the week
“There is no disembodied ‘reason’ which can act as impartial umpire between the rival claims.” – Lesslie Newbigin

“The Bible has a lot of principles, but it doesn’t have a lot of methods.” – Mark Driscoll

“The cost of discipleship must be compared to the terrible toll of nondiscipleship.” – Dallas Willard

“We can blame people or we can help them get better.” – Chris Brown (the pastor not the rapper)

"Money enables what's in a person's heart." - Matt Krol

“Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence.” – Mother Teresa

"If you aren't on a relentless pursuit to make your church better you will be critical of those who are." - Andy Stanley

"Dont expect anything back from the person you're trying to make amends to. The heart change is not about them; it's about you doing right." - Mike Foster

“Finishing well can be more important than starting well.” – Dave Ramsey

what quotes are you digging these days?

quotes of the week #40

quotes of the week #40!

“I have become convinced that Jesus’ worldview is better than ours.” – Brian McLaren

“Our greatest threat is that in reaching secular people we will fail to offer them anything specifically Christian…” – Bryan Stone

“there is no such thing as a gospel which is not already culturally shaped. 

The only way in which the gospel can challenge our culturally conditioned interpretations of it is through the witness of those who read the Bible with minds shaped by other cultures. We have to listen to others.”– Lesslie Newbigin

“Put your money where your vision is.” – Andy Stanley

"Jesus forgets your sins, but church people don't." – Perry Noble

“You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you everywhere if only out of curiousity.” – Colin Powell

“Either the size of your vision will determine the size of your budget or the size of your budget will determine the size of your vision.” – Mark Batterson

“If time is money then that makes life become money.” - Brian McLaren

“While I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation (Rom. 1:16), I am ashamed of the way many Christians have presented the gospel.” – Dan Kimball

any favorites?

quotes of the week #39

some great stuff that got me thinking this week. i hope it does the same for you...

#1 Quote of the week:

“A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.” – Rob Bell, pastor & author

[yep, because we've seen that happen before and it produces one ugly baby!] 

“The best criticism of the bad has always been the practice of the better.” – Richard Rohr, Franciscan Monk

“To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.” – Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister

[great statement + he looks like a pimp or something.]

“Christians are like manure. Spread them out and they help everything else grow. But keep them in one big pile & they stink horribly.”– Francis Chan, author & pastor

The church has previously wrestled with most of our issues, and those "wrestlings" are well worth our time to explore, or we cut ourselves off from the accumulated wisdom and insight of the ages." – James White, pastor, author, & my former professor

“The society shapes the person as much as the person shapes the society.” – Lesslie Newbigin, author, pastor, missiologist, Father of the current missional movement

[right on Lesslie. they’re linked. No such thing as individualism.]

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, late German author and genius

“Jesus’ invitation into the Kingdom of God was an invitation into the original universe, as it was meant to be.”– Brian McLaren, author and leader

“His (Satan's) chief lie is that self-exaltation is more to be desired than Christ exaltation.” – John Piper, pastor & author

“Words are powerful. They are life-shaping.” – Andy Stanley, pastor and author

“When you think about generosity is it always future tense?”– Chris Brown, (my) pastor - Ridge Church

[great question that could tell us a lot about how truly generous we are!]

do you have a favorite quote of the week?

quotes of the week #38

can't believe i've posted 38 editions of my quotes of the week! enjoy this one:
“Christianity is more than a matter of new beliefs. Following Jesus is an invitation to be part of an alternate society that is formed around Him. Right living within this community is more of the challenge than having the right beliefs.” – Mike Erre, pastor & author

“That everybody would worship God by serving each other. That those wouldn’t be two things, but one. This is why God continually mentions the widow, the orphan, and the refugee. Remembering them, caring for them, serving them is worshipping God.” – Rob Bell, pastor and author

“As far as the propositions of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” – Albert Einstein, late brilliant physicist [we could learn a lot about our new world from this quote.]

“In our culture, even if a Pastor doesn’t love people he can still be considered ‘successful’ as long as he’s a good speaker, makes his people laugh, and prays for those poor people every Sunday.” – Francis Chan, pastor and author 

[wow. ouch. how often does this happen?

“I’m perplexed at how anyone can hear the story of Jesus dying in our place and rescuing us out of our helplessness and have it produce arrogance in their life.” – Rick McKinley, pastor and author 

[right on, Rick. perplexed is right]

“The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do… to find that idea for which I can live and die.” – Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher

“Instead of being about the kingdom of God coming to earth, the Christian religion has too often become preoccupied with abandoning or escaping the earth and going to heaven.” – Brian McLaren, author & leader

“In a pluralist society there is always a temptation to judge the importance of any statement of the truth by the number of people who believe it. Truth, for practical purposes, is what most people believe. Christians can fall into this trap.” – Lesslie Newbigin, author & forefather of the postmodern missional church

[this is the world we live in!]

“I read the Gospels over and over. Nothing I was doing on Sunday was what I thought Jesus would be doing if He were here.” – Joe Boyd, pastor

"You have to follow your passion for a long time before you receive any external reward for it." – John Maxwell, author and leadership guru
[crazy true statement, eh?]

do you have a favorite quote of the week? 

quotes of the week #37

Here are my favorite quotes of the week to share with you. 37th edition...

“Jesus’ proclamations threatens the status quo, something that would perhaps appeal to the poor and oppressed, but would inspire something less than enthusiasm among the well-to-do and powerful for whom the status quo was a nice arrangement.” – Brian McLaren, author & leader

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” – William James, psychologist and philosopher

“I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism. This is a far more heinous and insidious challenge to the gospel, because in so many ways it infects each and every one of us.” – Alan Hirsch, author

“Christianity often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will get better in heaven.” – Shane Claiborne, activist, author, and ordinary radical

“People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that are connected with the poor in some way or other.” – Francis Chan, author and pastor

“Many organizations are infected with ‘terminal niceness.’” – Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author and business guru

[speaking of how we keep people around who have had too many chances already]

“Never make a principle out of your experience. Let God be as original with others as He is with you.” – Oswald Chambers, late author

“What do you do when your religion isn’t big enough for God?” – Rob Bell, pastor and author

"The Bible gives us all we must know, but not all that there is to know." – James White, pastor and author

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle

what's your favorite quote of the week?

quotes of the week #36

quotes of the week #36... go!

“Well I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn’t have anything to regret for the rest of their life.” – Lance Armstrong to Peter LeFleur in the movie Dodgeball

[an all time fav quote! of course it's funny, but it's RIGHT ON!]

"Love is not a fight, but it is always worth fighting for." - Love Dare the book

"Forgiveness liberates the soul. Forgiveness eliminates fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon." - Nelson Mandela

"The best thing a leader can bring to their team is their energy." – Bill Hybels

“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.” – Desmond Tutu

“War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.” – Sharon Welch

[I have actually not experienced it and it is far from sweet to me. But I get what she’s saying.]

“Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” - George Washington Carver

"there is no security on this earth. Only opportunity." Douglass MacArthur

"Christianity is not about where we attend on Sunday, but how we behave on Monday." – Andy Stanley

which is your fav?

quotes of the week #35

some awesome quotes - meant to be shared with you.

"Kophaan tchaala dansa" (an Ethiopian proverb) = "Being alone is only good for going to the toilet."

"To not forgive is to let someone rent free space in your head." – rob bell

“When God allows us to be bothered by something, it’s often because He’s going to use us to do something about that thing that bothers us.”– Chris Brown

“The busier you are fulfilling your calling the less you'll worry about getting the credit.” – Steven Furtick

"The meeting was probably too long. I suggest stand up meetings with no chairs so you talk about the stuff you need to talk about and this might have never happened." - carlos whittaker

"Churches gravitate towards preserving assets and away from advancing mission. Think like a start up!" - Andy Stanley

"If your gospel isn't touching others, it hasn't touched you." Curry Blake

“Don’t say ‘yes’ just because it’s hard to say ‘no’.” – Mark Batterson

have a favorite?

quotes of the week #34

here we go - quotes of the week #34... great stuff i've read lately

“Mission is an acted out doxology.” - Lesslie Newbigin (Godfather of the missional movement)

“If we could explain everything there is to explain about God, He wouldn’t be God.” – Reggie Joiner (Godfather of Family Ministry)

"It’s not a matter of how much of my money I give to God, but how much of God's money I choose to keep for myself." – Mark Driscoll (pastor & author)

"The only thing worse than training employees & losing them is not training them & keeping them." - Zig Ziglar (surely you know Zig)

“Our actions in the public life of the world are acted prayers for the kingdom.” - Albert Schweitzer (famed medical missionary and author)

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.” – Mike Foster (author, leader, entrepreneur)

“Without a global vision, there will always be a missing focus resulting in a church out of balance.” – Ed Stetzer (author & church planting missiologist)

"The church doesn't exist to meet our needs.. we exist as the church to meet the needs of others" – Joel Houston (leader of Hillsong United)

*Do you have a favorite "quote of the week"?

quotes of the week #33

Here we go with the 33rd edition of Quotes of the week:

“People consider it compassionate not to be honest with people. It’s not. That’s disrespectful.” - Carly Fiorina on dealing with poor performance

“Learning to read is at least as complex as learning to ski or to typewrite or to play tennis.” – Mortimer Adler

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas A. Edison

‘If a man will begin in certainties he will end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties.’  - Sir Francis Bacon

"Comedy is half about bringing people to a revelation that would be uncomfortable if they weren't laughing." Chris Rock (via Jon Acuff)

"SOME people are influenced by the Church but EVERYONE is influenced by family." - Reggie Joiner

“Never let anyone come to you without coming away better and happier.”– Mother Teresa [I love this!]

[speaking about capitalism] “The model did not work, but it was for years the only one available. Capitalist economists made no serious effort to deal with the justice question. Now we must create new models which are both moral and practical. What form should they take?” – Charles West

"The brave don't live forever, but the cautious don't live at all" - dahara via Carlos Whittaker

quotes of the week #32

The #1 quote i picked for this week is...

"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." - Louis Brandeis, old supreme court justice

 

“If all the money that is being spent on finding ways to kill people was used instead to feed them and house them, clothe them and educate them—how beautiful that would be.”– Mother Teresa

[right on Mother Teresa, right on.] 

"The entirety of our prayer is 'Your will be done' – not as a note of resignation but of desire beyond expression."- Richard John Neuhaus

"Generosity is about the condition of your heart, not the condition of your bank account." - Chris Brown, my pastor [YES!]

"Apple is simply the most influential company in the world today." - Fortune Magazine [big words]

"Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go." - Dr. Walter Bishop from Fringe (or should we say “Walternate”) 

[this might become my life motto one of these days. i guess we'll find out...]

"When we fail to stand up for the poor, we fail to stand up for God." - Rev. Malcolm Duncan

“You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.” – John Wooden, coaching legend 

[good advice]

"Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” Doug Ivester

[bkuz when that happens you are either almost dead or might as well be!] 

Do you have a favorite quote? which ones make you think?

quotes of the week #31

31st edition. the best quotes for you!

my #1 quote of the week:

“To be neutral in a situation of injustice is to have chosen sides already...” – Desmond Tutu, archbishop of South Africa 
 
"Is the life you’re leading worth the price you’re paying to live it?" - Mike Foster, visionary leader & entrepreneur

[this is a GREAT question for all of us! wow. just read that one again!]

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” - Mother Teresa

“How you respond to problems is just as important as preventing them.” – Chris Brown, pastor

"You would have bet on the Roman Empire against Jesus and His followers, but we name our kids Peter, Paul, and Mary and name our dogs Nero and Caesar." – Jon Gordon, leader

[haha, this one just makes me laugh.]

“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. Changing stuff means changing us.” – VP of marketing @ CFA (via Chris Brown at staff meeting)

“The thing that usually gets in the way of what would work best is something that is already working pretty well.” – Reggie Joiner, founder of ReThink
[this is a great & very true statement!!!]

"Life is about making mistakes. And death is about wishing you had made a whole lot more." - Gerard Butler's character in The Bounty Hunter
[i resonate with that for sure. i think we'll all wish we had risked more when we get to the "end".]

"As leaders you can't predict the future. What you can do is DEVELOP your people. Doing so will take care of the future." - Jim Collins, author
[brilliant!]

"Who needs our love more than the one who is totally devoid of love? = our enemy." – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author/pastor/martyr

what is your favorite quote?