Ministry Quotes - Page 4

Finally, the work of the minister tended to be judged by his success in a single area - the saving of souls in measurable numbers. The local minister was judged either by his charismatic powers or by his ability to prepare his congregation for the preaching of some itinerant ministerial charmer who would really awaken its members. The 'star' system prevailed in religion before it reached the theater. As the evangelical impulse became more widespread and more dominant, the selection and training of ministers was increasingly shaped by the revivalist criterion of ministerial merit. The Puritan ideal of the minister as an intellectual and educational leader was steadily weakened in the face of the evangelical ideal of the minister as a popular crusader and exhorter. Theological education itself became more instrumental. Simple dogmatic formulations were considered sufficient. In considerable measure the churches withdrew from intellectual encounters with the secular world, gave up the idea that religion is a part of the whole life of intellectual experience, and often abandoned the field of rational studies on the assumption that they were the natural province of science alone. By 1853 an outstanding clergyman complained that there was 'an impression, somewhat general, that an intellectual clergyman is deficient in piety, and that an eminently pious minister is deficient in intellect.

Richard Hofstadter

For every Gospel action, there is an opposite and devious demonic reaction. We see this in the book of Acts. It appears in church history. We experience it in our personal journeys.

Daniel Henderson

Helping people to know God and to be obedient to him is perhaps the greatest gift we can bestow. Understood in this way, Christian education can be be one of the most compassionate ministries of the church.

Perry G. Downs

Some contemporary theology has been enamored with the heady idea of an imagined freedom that functions without any law or norm or rule of obligation. The technical name for this idea is antinomianism. This yen for freedoms other than Christ's freedom has compounded the problems in pastoral theology. Pastoral practice has at times been exceedingly ready to be guided by this antinomian tendency in theology that implies: if God loves you no matter what, then your own moral responses to God's absolute acceptance make little or no difference; God is going to love you anyway, so assert your individual interest, express yourself, do as you please, and above all do not repress any impulses. It is on the basis of this normless, egocentric relativism that much well-intended liberal pastoral practice has accommodated to naturalism, narcissism, and individualism. It has therefore steered consistently away from any notion of admonition, hoping to avoid 'guilt trips.' But ironically, guilt is more likely to be INCREASED by the lack of timely, caring admonition. For if there is no compassionate admonition, we tend to hide our guilt in ways that make it worse.

Thomas C. Oden

I was going to stop pretending that just because we were in ministry we were perfect. I was tired of wearing the mask of ministry, and knew that I needed to start living the life.

Anna Aquino

Harboring bitterness against people is actually confessing their sin to myself, over and over again. Anger is akin to confessing their sin to God, dissatisfied that he hasn't done something and placing myself in his position as judge.

Paul David Tripp

Personal ministry is not about always knowing what to say. It is not about fixing everything in sight that is broken. Personal ministry is about connecting people with Christ so that they are able to think as he would have them think, desire what he says is best, and do what he calls them to do even if their circumstances never get "fixed." It involves exposing hurt, lost, and confused people to God's glory, so that they give up their pursuit of their own glory and live for his.

Paul David Tripp

We forget that God's primary goal ia not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy.

Paul David Tripp

God will constantly send people to you who need the fruit of your ministry

Sunday Adelaja

We are called to serve God and not to rely on our achievement in ministry

Sunday Adelaja

In order to know your ministry, you need to start serving and be under the leadership of someone, who already knows his ministry

Sunday Adelaja

You must please God and not man with your ministry

Sunday Adelaja

We must all have a ministry we can function in, no matter how small

Sunday Adelaja

What is important to God is that you remain faithful to Him in your ministry

Sunday Adelaja

Even if you are completely busy at work, you should still have a constant ministry in the church

Sunday Adelaja

Change the value system of the people you are ministering to

Sunday Adelaja

You must be able to communicate properly with the people you want to minister to

Sunday Adelaja

To fully carry out your purpose as believers, you have to discover where the people you want to minister to are

Sunday Adelaja

We are not here to build our empire only but also to help people discover the kingdom of God

Sunday Adelaja

The needs of the people around you should your utmost priority

Sunday Adelaja

The desire of the people should be the major instrument used to draw them closer to God

Sunday Adelaja

Find out the needs of the people you are ministering to and help them overcome their fears

Sunday Adelaja

Locate the problems in people’s lives with the intention of finding a solution

Sunday Adelaja

Find the interest of people and help them achieve their calling

Sunday Adelaja

When you provide things for free to meet their needs and help them discover their skills, they automatically become your family

Sunday Adelaja

Reveal God to the people and teach them His ways

Sunday Adelaja

Don’t wait for people to locate you. Rather, reach out to people and help to bring them to Christ

Sunday Adelaja

We were created to use our lives as an instrument and everything we have to extend God’s Kingdom

Sunday Adelaja

God does not just save you for your personal interest but for you to become a channel for the salvation of others

Sunday Adelaja

Our main mandate in our place of work is to make sure that the people open up their hearts to others

Sunday Adelaja

You have to bring relevance to people before teaching them the ways of Christ

Sunday Adelaja

You have to discover the needs of the people you want to minister to

Sunday Adelaja

Our goal in life is to bring the Kingdom of God to people and help change their lives

Sunday Adelaja

Reveal to the people and make them experience God first before you make them church members

Sunday Adelaja

Love is the easiest way of evangelism

Sunday Adelaja

You have to bring relevance to people before teaching them the ways of Christ

Sunday Adelaja

You have to discover the needs of the people you want to minister to

Sunday Adelaja

Our goal in life is to bring the Kingdom of God to people and help change their lives

Sunday Adelaja

Reveal to the people and make them experience God first before you make them church members

Sunday Adelaja

Love is the easiest way of evangelism

Sunday Adelaja

Teach the people the Word before converting and baptizing them

Sunday Adelaja

Our success in ministry is not to elevate us but to glorify Him who has called and equipped us

Sunday Adelaja

A ministry gives us the opportunity to establish roots

Sunday Adelaja

Jesus had the ministry of light (knowledge).

Sunday Adelaja

You need to use the instrument that the people desire to captivate them back to things that are right

Sunday Adelaja

To fully communicate with people, you need to find tactics that would interest them

Sunday Adelaja

Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.

A.W. Tozer

Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.

A.W. Tozer

One of the most amazing and perplexing features of mainstream Christianity is that seminarians who learn the historical-critical method in their Bible classes appear to forget all about it when it comes time for them to be pastors. They are taught critical approaches to Scripture, they learn about the discrepancies and contradictions, they discover all sorts of historical errors and mistakes, they come to realize that it is difficult to know whether Moses existed or what Jesus actually said and did, they find that there are other books that were at one time considered canonical but that ultimately did not become part of Scripture (for example, other Gospels and Apocalypses), they come to recognize that a good number of the books of the Bible are pseudonymous (for example, written in the name of an apostle by someone else), that in fact we don't have the original copies of any of the biblical books but only copies made centuries later, all of which have been altered. They learn all of this, and yet when they enter church ministry they appear to put it back on the shelf. For reasons I will explore in the conclusion, pastors are, as a rule, reluctant to teach what they learned about the Bible in seminary.

Bart D. Ehrman

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Ministry Quotes - Page 4

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