Quotes from Thom S. Rainer

Weak leaders of churches blame people and circumstances. Breakout church leaders accept responsibility and see God's possibilities in even difficult situations.

Confident and courageous leaders have no problems pointing out their own weaknesses and ignorance.

Even if the church began to grow on its own, the members of the dying church would only accept the growth if the new members were like them and if the church would continue to "do church" the way they wanted it.

And when any internal or external force tried to change the past, they responded with anger and resolution: "We will die before we change." And they did.

When the early Jerusalem church members devoted themselves to prayer, they were doing a lot more than reading names off a list. They were fervent, intense, and passionate about prayer.

Make me the father, O Lord, who will show my sons enough of a sense of humor, so that they will always be serious, but never take themselves too seriously. Give them humility, so they will always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

When the church is engaged in meaningful prayer, it becomes both the cause and the result of greater church health.

When a church ceases to have a heart and ministry for its community, it is on the path toward

For where the money of the church goes, so goes its heart.

In dying churches the last expenditures to be reduced are those that keep the members most comfortable.

The money, though, was symptomatic of a heart problem. The church cared more for its own needs than the community and the world.

So if we approach church membership from the perspective of entitlement, we have it upside down. You always ask first what you can do for your church.

In other words, if you aren't focusing resources and time on your church website, you are thumbing your nose at the Great Commission. And that's not an overstatement. A church with a lousy website is committing the sin of Great Commission negligence.

It's really okay for low-hanging fruit to fail. It means the trial run did not work, but the church did not invest the resources in a major endeavor. Successful low-hanging fruit efforts are evident to almost everyone in the church. At the very least, there is a sense of encouragement in the congregation that something went well. Typically, though, the evidence is so compelling that the church becomes highly enthused. The excitement is palpable.

Pastors simply need three characteristics to satisfy all their church members: omniscience; omnipresence, and omnipotence.

Successful low-hanging fruit results will be clear, compelling, and, potentially, paradigm shifting.

Our wives and the Holy Spirit have a lot in common. It is not enough for our wives to move into a home. That is only the beginning. Redecorating is a must. And this is not a one-time redecorating. It keeps going and going. The same is true with the Holy Spirit. Continual work is inevitable. It is never done. It is a lifelong process.

Here is another great contribution of the low-hanging fruit. You and many other people get to see what is working or not working on a relatively small scale. With this collective insight and wisdom, you are able to proceed more wisely with the larger change later. You get greater

Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church.

One of the biggest benefits of the low-hanging fruits effort is to show the naysayers that it can be done.

Unity in the church will not happen if members have unforgiving hearts.

If given a choice between life and death, most church members and church leaders choose death if they have to make substantive changes in their churches.

Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.

We should not "go to church" to get our self-centered needs met. Instead we go to worship the one true God as we serve alongside other believers.