Ed Stetzer Quotes

Everything created in the world should be seen in the context of existing for God's glory.

We have to assess: Are we making disciples along the way as we draw people to our churches?

Culturally appropriate evangelism answers the actual questions being asked by a given culture rather than those questions the church believes the culture should ask.

you cannot "save" a church without focusing on the important things that make it a church - scriptural authority, biblical leadership, teaching and preaching, ordinances, covenant community, and mission.

I don't think you can love Jesus without loving His wife.

You can preach heresy at a lot of churches, and people will not object. Leaders can lead double lives, and people will let it be. But, change the order of service, and it's time for a fight.

Teaching people to become like Jesus, outside of the power of Jesus, dishonors Jesus.

We don't own mission, and it is not ours to define.

When Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21), the mandate was not for a select group of cross-cultural missionaries. It was a commission to you, to me, and to our churches. We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (those in our culture). It is worth the effort to go beyond personal preferences and attractional methods to proclaim the gospel in our church services and outside the walls.

Global evangelism does not take place in a demilitarized zone but on the battleground of spiritual warfare. Satan, in vengeance and jealousy for that which belongs to God, is deceiving the nations and holding them in bondage to a lie.

In his work The Book of Church Growth, Thom Rainer explained, "Prayer is the power behind the principles. There simply is no more important principle in church growth than prayer. The prayers of the early church unleashed the power of God to add thousands to the church. It happened then. It is happening in some churches today. And it can happen in your church."13

Your denomination is not defined by a style. So don't let style become a point of contention.

A church without the broken is a broken church.

Contrary to Western evangelicalism's obsession with the individual, discipleship is and always was a group project. No one in the New Testament followed independent of other followers. - Steve Murrell, Wikichurch

You cannot hate a people and reach a people at the same time.

We celebrate those comebacks because they inspire us to believe that seemingly impossible things really are possible.

Being Missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining Biblically sound.

The passion of the church and every follower of Christ should be that all peoples have an opportunity to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel.

Barna is correct when he writes, "After fifteen years of diligent digging into the world around me, I have reached several conclusions about the future of the Christian church in America. The central conclusion is that the American church is dying due to lack of strong spiritual leadership. In this time of unprecedented opportunity and plentiful resources, the church is actually losing influence. The primary reason is the lack of leadership. Nothing is more important than leadership."7

Put your 'yes' on the table and let God put it on the map.

This leads us to an important spiritual principle for growth: comeback leaders know that our Lord considers commitment to Him and His desires an indispensable ingredient to growing spiritually and numerically.

God has made relationships His chosen delivery system for the gospel of hope.

Belief followed by strategy and culture moves people to community.

Jesus did not send us to declare the gospel only where people are responsive or where our witness is welcome. He did not expect us to be on mission to disciple peoples only where there is no danger or risk involved. He was unequivocal in His mandate to disciple the nations (peoples) - all of them!

Community is essential when it comes to successfully living out the Christian walk in a day-to-day context. So the math is simple: More community = More disciples Understanding the nature of groups helps you