Quotes About Ministry

In my day there was no one to tell me anything and I feel I have a responsibility to help a new generation. A lady in Atlanta came up to me and said: 'Honey, you are a ministry.' It is about the knowledge I can give others. I think gays will look after their own.

When it comes to the income of the ministry, I have no problem talking about it or what happens to the money.

It is true that they are less inflamed than formerly by political passions properly speaking; but do you not see that their passions, far from being political, have become social? Do you not see that, little by little, ideas and opinions are spreading amongst them which aim not merely at removing such and such laws, such a ministry or such a government, but at breaking up the very foundations of society itself?

It is the understanding of others and the awareness of their needs, that the ambassador of CHRIST should strive to cultivate

It's so natural to think the Presence of Jesus has no greater purpose than to improve the quality of our journey through life—with quality defined as a pleasurable, satisfying, self-affirming existence—a journey where certain things don't go wrong or, if they do, they correct themselves. Marriages should work, biopsies should come back benign, ministry efforts should succeed, and we should feel pretty good about the way most things go.

The final question to ask before launching a new or revamped small group ministry is, "Who already does what we want to do well—and does it in a church we would go to if we lived in the area?

In my own profession, some surveys show that up to 80 percent of pastors rate their preaching skills as well above average.

What matters is not the size of the church or the slickness of the programming. What matters is that those who come find a ministry and relationships worthy of spontaneous word-of-mouth recommendations.

When I first entered the ministry, I dreamed of communicating God's Word so powerfully that people would mull it over and discuss it during the week. I envisioned impassioned discussions of the deep theological truth I'd presented in the sermon. I must have been smoking something.

Once people get a taste of frontline ministry, they don't let it go easily. Once the church has been let loose, it's hard to put it back in the box.

Jesus was making it clear that the most important thing in pleasing God is not a particular approach to spirituality or style of ministry; it's the fruit that matters, the end results produced by our life and ministry.

The artist and writer Mervyn Peake, invalided out of military service, joined the Design, Poster and Visualising Group of the Ministry of Information in 1942.

It is more important to be than to do, for if I am what God wants me to be, then I will do what He wants me to do. If I try to promote a program, however well-meaning, without personal holiness, it will be tainted by the defects of my life. It may lack the direction of full knowledge of the Word, or the discernment of maturity, or the direction that comes through unclouded fellowship with the Lord. Primarily we do not need to develop programs, but people.

For pastors, no asset is more precious than the consistent prayers of God's people. However, one major problem in the church today is that people spend more time criticizing their pastors than they do praying for them. More than ever, God's servants need to be upheld in prayer. More than ever they need utterance, boldness, and clarity in presenting the gospel. It is time we stopped criticizing and started interceding.

One reason so many Christians are not happy in their careers is that they don't view their occupations as God's work. They see them as jobs. They love teaching Sunday school. They love working with young people. They wish they were in the ministry full-time. But they hate their jobs. They fail to see that their primary ministry is their jobs.

It has been broadly observed that the first Reformation of the early 1500s placed the Bible in the hands of the people and that the Second Reformation will place the ministry in the hands of the people.

Now in the new-paradigm churches, it is generally assumed that ministry is the province of the laos, the whole people of God.

The New Testament pictures the church as an every-member ministry. The "priesthood of all believers" is not just a Reformation watchword but a biblical ideal.

Bill Hull has prophetically written, "The crisis at the heart of the church is a crisis of product.

Leroy Eims a generation ago asked, "What then is the problem today? Why don't we see more of this [disciple making] going one? Why are fruitful, dedicated mature disciples so rare? The biggest reason is that all too often we have relied on programs or materials or some other thing to do the job. The ministry is carried on by people, not programs.

Jesus went about his ministry with a relaxed urgency.

Robert Coleman's challenge: "One must decide where he wants his ministry to count—in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of his life in a few chosen ones who will carry on his work after he has gone? Really, it is a question of which generation we are living for.

Instead of equipping the saints to do the work of ministry, those in pastoral leadership do it themselves.

Eugene Peterson puts this truth cleverly: "Jesus, it must be remembered, restricted nine-tenths of His ministry to twelve Jews, because it was the only way to reach all Americans."2