Christian Ministry Quotes

Has what you do for God become more important to you than the Lord Himself? ~ Colin S. Smith

I also pray for favor and His anointing on my life and ministry that I might have spiritual blessing when I minister to people. They're my principal prayers; I don't have a prayer list that I go down. ~ Pat Robertson

The priesthood of Christ is "not according to the law of a fleshy commandment, but according to the power of an indestructible life" (Heb. 7:16). Aaron was constituted high priest according to the powerless letter of the law, but Christ according to the powerful element of an indestructible life. Our High Priest is constituted of a life which nothing can conquer, but which rather conquers everything! It is a life which cannot be destroyed. A life which saves to the uttermost. The endless, eternal, divine, uncreated life. The resurrection life which has passed the test of death and Hades. ~ Witness Lee

Despite the damaging effects of mounting criticism, we saw some lovely examples of the triumph of the human spirit. Al's greatest trouble was accustoming his people to the concept that each had been given at least one gift of the Holy Spirit to be used for ministry in the community. It seemed to be foreign to them. For those who actually experimented with expressing what was locked inside there was delight and fulfillment. ~ David R. Mains

Christian life is not a life divided between times for action and times for contemplation. No. Real social action is a way of contemplation, and real contemplation is the core of social action. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

Though He did what he could to help the multitudes, He had to devote Himself primarily to a few men, rather than the masses, so that the masses could at last be saved. This was the genius of his strategy. ~ Robert Emerson Coleman

Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him. ~ James Hudson Taylor

We cannot make up for failure in our devotional life by redoubling energy in service. We shall never take people beyond our own spiritual attainment. ~ William Griffith Thomas

The goal of the pastor is not to get people to show up but to get people to grow up. ~ John C. Maxwell

For Christians to influence the world with the truth of God's Word requires the recovery of the great Reformation doctrine of vocation. Christians are called to God's service not only in church professions but also in every secular calling. The task of restoring truth to the culture depends largely on our laypeople.

To bring back truth, on a practical level, the church must encourage Christians to be not merely consumers of culture but makers of culture. The church needs to cultivate Christian artists, musicians, novelists, filmmakers, journalists, attorneys, teachers, scientists, business executives, and the like, teaching its laypeople the sense in which every secular vocation-including, above all, the callings of husband, wife, and parent--is a sphere of Christian ministry, a way of serving God and neighbor that is grounded in God's truth. Christian laypeople must be encouraged to be leaders in their fields, rather than eager-to-please followers, working from the assumptions of their biblical worldview, not the vapid clichés of pop culture. ~ J. Gresham Machen

Our faith institutions have the best product that God can offer; but we have the worst customer service imaginable. ~ Johnnie Dent Jr.

When you climb my favorite Welsh mountain, the highest outside Snowdonia, by my favorite route, there are two places where you are sure you are seeing the top ahead of you; but when you get to the point you saw, you find it was only a fold in the terrain, and the real summit is still a distance away. That is a good illustration of how Christian ministry feels in all its forms. ~ J.I. Packer

In some Christian ministry, we assess how mature a believer is based on how much he knows. But the New Testament assesses the maturity of a believer based on how much he obeys (e.g. John 14:15; James 1:22-25) ~ Steve Smith

Let every preacher take note: Amid the frustrations and hardships of ministry, the most Christ-like thing is to stay focused on your calling, give thanks to God, and go on preaching the Gospel. ~ Joel Beeke

If the pace and the push, the noise and the crowds are getting to you, it's time to stop the nonsense and find a place of solace to refresh your spirit ~ Charles R. Swindoll

I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, 'I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!'

Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of coloured paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you ar ~ C.S. Lewis

I would argue that the truth of Easter does not depend on whether there was an empty tomb, or whether anything happened to the body of Jesus ... I do not see the Christian tradition as exclusively true, or the Bible as the unique and infallible revelation of God ... It makes no historical sense to say, 'Jesus was killed for the sins of the world.' ... I am one of those Christians who does not believe in the virgin birth, nor in the star of Bethlehem, nor in the journeys of the wisemen, nor in the shepherds coming to the manger, as facts of history. ~ Marcus Borg

This spirit of humanity breathes in Cicero and Virgil. Hence the veneration paid to the poet of the Aeneid by the fathers and throughout the middle ages. Augustine calls him the noblest of poets, and Dante, "the glory and light of other poets," and "his master," who guided him through the regions of hell and purgatory to the very gates of Paradise. It was believed that in his fourth Eclogue he had prophesied the advent of Christ. This interpretation is erroneous; but "there is in Virgil," says an accomplished scholar,84 "a vein of thought and sentiment more devout, more humane, more akin to the Christian than is to be found in any other ancient poet, whether Greek or Roman. He was a spirit prepared and waiting, though he knew it not, for some better thing to be revealed. ~ Philip Schaff

The purpose of the Disciplines is freedom. Our aim is the freedom, not the Discipline. The moment we make the Discipline our central focus we will turn it into law and lose the corresponding freedom ... Let us forever center on Christ and view the Spiritual Disciplines as a way of drawing us closer to His heart. ~ Richard J. Foster

What happened here began somewhere else. ~ Christian Mørk

Leaders make things better and that requires change. ~ Andy Stanley

Only one reliable force stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. Only one reliable force forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law. Only one reliable force restrains the hand of the man of power. And, in an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power. ~ Peter Hitchens

The word of God renewed my mind. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

It's a really, really scary thing to stand here, to put words in people's mouths to say to God. It's terrifying to me. You potentially could mess someone up for...I don't know, eternity. ~ David Crowder

When culture changes around us, God's standard of living does not. Even when we're engulfed by evil, the eyes of the Lord range to and fro throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. ~ David Jeremiah

Why miss out on what God has in store for you while you're trying to get in on his plan for somebody else? Your plans are the best - for YOU - and so is your personality. You're so worth it ~ Nancy Rue

I think that America is a nation of faith. I do believe that. Certainly by way of heritage - there's a powerful Christian thread through all of American history. ~ John Edwards

We Christians are secure, realizing that even our failures and our sins are under His control. ~ Alistair Begg

Instead of a 'Western Christianity,' we now witness a post-Christian West (in Europe) and a post-Western Christianity (in the global South). America is somewhere in between. ~ Harvey Cox

It's not complicated. Just love the one in front of you. ~ Heidi Baker

Mum," she frowned "if one has freedom of worship to either be a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or pagan: why can't one have freedom to marry whoever or whatever one loves? ~ S.A. David

The destiny of any country is in the hands of the people who know God; they are the people who carry Christian ideas ~ Sunday Adelaja

We can serve humanity with our divine passions and gifted skills. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

When you choose to work with a willing, happy heart, you become a beautiful source of joy to all. ~ Elizabeth George

Every cult of personality that emphasizes the distinguished qualities, virtues, and talents of another person, even though these be of an altogether spiritual nature, is worldly and has no place in the Christian community; indeed, it poisons the Christianity community. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

[I]ndeed, one hears, in early Christian theology, as many echoes of Persian dualism as of Hebrew Puritanism or Greek philosophy. ~ Will Durant

Jesus came into our world as a man to embody grace. He left us, the church, to be the body of Christ, not a flock of parakeets that repeat Christian jargon but the ongoing in-the-flesh presence of His grace. We are the evidence that God's grace is more than just words. ~ Preston Sprinkle

I have had the good fortune to live - as an inside witness and, even, a modest participant - at a time when our understanding of this wonder we call 'life' has made its most revolutionary advances. ~ Christian De Duve

Justice, not the majority, should rule. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

I'm still Christian. I was not raised in a Christian church to hate people. I was taught to love people and accept people. I know what I believe. ~ Lance Bass

To experience spiritual victory, you must depend on God's resources. ~ Jim George

The greatest way to witness is through the life you live. Let the radiance of your Christian life be such that it will make [others] ask questions about your [faith]. ~ Billy Graham

No horoscope matches this accuracy. No theory of human causality, Freudian, Marxist, Christian or animist, has ever been so precise. No prophet in the Old Testament, no entrail-grazing oracle in ancient Greece, no crystal-ball gypsy clairvoyant on the pier at Bognor Regis ever pretended to tell people exactly when their lives would fall apart, let alone got it right. ~ Matt Ridley

People today know a lot more about how to become a Christian than about how to be one. ~ Margaret Feinberg

The Apostle Peter declared that the Church was built by the Holy Spirit. For you read that he said: 'God, Who knows the hearts of men, bore witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as was given to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:8-9). In which is to be considered, that as Christ is the Cornerstone, Who joined together both peoples into one, so, too, the Holy Spirit made no distinction between the hearts of each people, but united them. ~ Ambrose

People are often unhappy in the Christian life because they have thought of Christianity, and the whole message of the gospel, in inadequate terms. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

God created us with sexual passion so that there would be language to describe what it means to cleave to him in love and what it means to turn away from him to others. ~ John Piper

Are you letting culture, not scripture, determine your sexuality, how you date, how you present yourself, how you engage in certain relationships with members of the opposite sex? We need to be very clear that the way we do life is different than the rest of the world. ~ Mark Driscoll

I am discovering that in trying to find God's will and the shape of the Christian life I have begun an adventure so great that its total completion will always be ahead. ~ Keith Miller

Right now counts forever. ~ R.C. Sproul

We must learn to share the gospel in ways that show it is both GOOD and NEWS. The gospel is about what God has done for us and what we can become in Christ ~ Rick Warren

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of 'Heaven' ridiculous by saying they do not want 'to spend eternity playing harps'. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs. ~ C.S. Lewis

I used to think of the Christian life as a sort of achievement test in which we were supposed to hurry to figure out all the right answers, but I'm starting to wonder if these slow, hard days of growth help transform us into our eternal form, and therefore are crucial. God lets us live out our belief (and our unbelief) in such a way that the truth of ourselves rises to the surface. Sincere doubt and deflective doubt are divided. What we love most is exposed by our long days of chasing. We are shown ourselves so that we can resign more and more to the indwelling God. Those who love the light pursue the light, and those who love the darkness of self-deification are allowed to feel the gravity of this choice while time remains to make new choices. ~ Rebecca K. Reynolds

Every time economic and technical development takes a step forward, forces emerge which attempt to create political forms for what, on the economic-technical plane, has already more or less become reality. ~ Christian Lous Lange

Essentially, I'm untrained, so I just go with my imagination and try to put myself as solidly as I can into the shoes of whatever person I'm going to be playing. ~ Christian Bale

If ever I expected to come face to face with an angry Christian fundamentalist, it wasn't in FAO Schwarz. ~ J.K. Rowling

Cleanse your mind from anger, remembrance of evil, and shameful thoughts, and then you will find out how Christ dwells in you. ~ Maximus The Confessor

You'll call me a damned Jew, a Christ murderer, a secret worshipper of pigs and a kidnapper of christian children.' This was all said cheerfully. 'How absurd! Who would want to kidnap children, Christian or otherwise? Vile things. The only mercy of children is that they grow up, as my son has but then, tragically, they beget more children. We do not learn life's lessons. ~ Bernard Cornwell

Go for what you want. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Prayer changes from entreaty to thanksgiving, and meditation on the divine truths of faith fills the heart with a sense of jubilation and unimpeachable hope. This hope is a foretaste of future blessings, of which the soul even now receives direct experience, and so it comes to know in part the surpassing richness of God's bounty, in accordance with the Psalmist's words, 'Taste and know that the Lord is bountiful' (Ps. 34:8). For He is the jubilation of the righteous, the joy of the upright, the gladness of the humble, and the solace of those who grieve because of Him. ~ Gregory Palamas