Quotes About Congregations

When I meet pastors, I'm not like, 'Hey, you should go out there and be a rapper.' Because for so many of us, I think it would just pull us away from our congregations too much to be able to serve them like we should.

It is not unkind to say that the ingrownness of many congregations is the antithesis of the Great Commission to make disciples.

I wish I could turn to the church for help, but so many congregations are preoccupied with keeping the lights on right now that the last thing they want to talk about is how to befriend the dark.

Believe it, brethren, God looks for more from England, than from most nations in the world; and for more from you that enjoy these helps, than from the dark, untaught congregations of the land.

If clergymen knew their congregations as well as physicians do, the sermons would be often more closely related to the parish needs.

The Baptists expanded from 94 congregations in 1760 to 858 in 1790 to become the single largest religious denomination in America. The Methodists had no adherents at all in 1760, but by 1790 they had created over seven hundred congregations—despite the fact that the great founder of English Methodism, John Wesley, had publicly opposed the American Revolution.

If an apostle is one who builds the kingdom of God by helping govern and administrate the Spirit's activity on earth, why would we limit this role to ministerial positions within the walls of traditional congregations?

pastors don't want to make waves; or they don't think their congregations are "ready" to hear what scholars are saying;

A primary task of the community of Jesus is to maintain this lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of its families, neighborhoods, congregations, and missions. Love is intricate, demanding, glorious, deeply human, and God-honoring, but — and here's the thing — never a finished product, never an accomplishment, always flawed in some degree or other.

Those of us who preach the Scriptures, along with being nourished by it ourselves, have to figure out along with our congregations how we can incarnate the gospel in our community, or we will preach to a religious ghetto.

The Low Church rectors, in the main, struggle with poor congregations, born to the faith but deficient in buying power. As bank accounts increase the fear of the devil diminishes, and there arises a sense of beauty. This sense of beauty, in its practical effects, is identical with the work of the Paulist Fathers.

like any human practices, those of religions are not exempt from ethical questioning. Rituals and rites in groups change behavior, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. For the madness of crowds is a very close cousin to the fervor or congregations and the martial spirit of armies.

Third, hear our loss of focus on the gospel in our songs. This is no comment on musical styles and tastes, but simply an observation about the lyrical content of much that is being sung in churches today. In many cases, congregations unwittingly have begun to sing about themselves and how they are feeling rather than about God and His glory.

How many churches today find themselves paralyzed in the upper room? How many congregations have just enough religion to come together, but not enough passion to go out. If the doors aren't locked, they might as well be. Upper room futility - a little bit of faith but very little fire.

I grew up in the church. My mother was highly religious. I was singing at the age of five for big congregations.

Most leaders assume that everybody who comes to church knows God's mind on financial matters. But the truth is that many people are absolutely clueless regarding the basic principles of Christian financial management. Leaders and teachers need to educate their congregations before they can expect them to honor God with their money and eventually get excited about resourcing the church.

Slick marketing, high-tech production values, and a practical message have created a product that plays well to today's fickle churchgoer. Megachurches - defined as congregations with more than 2,000 members - number close to 600 in the United States.

To church congregations and denominations that are weary of strife, of continually arguing things out in a tense, judgmental atmosphere, it may come as welcome news to learn that they, too, are allowed to say 'I know not' with regard to the Bible, free to not use it to justify taking sides in every issue that comes along.

Too many congregations look to their pastors for simple answers to problems that their pastors see as anything but simple. And too many pastors don't trust their congregations enough to say, "It's not that simple from my point of view and here's why.

Mission is not a trip or a youth activity, a silent cousin to evangelism, or an optional model of youth ministry. Mission is the business that congregations are in.23 Christ views young people as participants in God's mission rather than as targets of ours.

The more members of the clergy that are out there working to expand their congregations, the more people will go to church.

Congregations are lifeless because dead men preach to them.

Congregations are lifeless because dead men preach to them.

And he continues: "Thus it is increasingly necessary you recognize that other congregations of material bodies exist elsewhere in the universe, like this of our world, which the ether encircles in eager embrace