Quotes About Service

Through all the ages to come, the Indian church will rise up in gratitude to attest to the heroism and self-denying labors of the missionary body. You have given your goods to feed the poor; you have given your bodies to be burned. We also ask for love. Give us friends."3

A veteran leader of an agency working among Muslims read my report, and he reflected: "The Nigerians remind me of how older generations went out. Today, I spend hours and hours on evacuation policies, hostage policies, and insurance policies. In the old days, we just went and died.

For many of us, following Jesus in this world will not require literally dying. But it might require downsizing our lifestyle. It might mean taking vacation time to go on a short-term mission trip when we could be just relaxing. In any case, it's all about identifying with Jesus and saying, in light of the Great Salvation, "Jesus, I want to go where you're going and where you want to bring me.

Tame the assertiveness. Those of us who carry the Western "can-do" spirit, especially those of us from the United States, need to learn how to go into the world to serve rather than to lead. Although I've referred to the positive power of Western optimism, we need to tame it.

When Jesus told John the Baptist, "Perform this baptism on Me," John the Baptist replied, "Yes Sir, I will do so.

you want to help the customer in three key ways:

Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don't. Everybody worships; it's just a matter of what, or whom, we serve.

Even the most regular, seemingly unimportant tasks of my life must be shaped and directed by a heartfelt desire for the glory of God.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you declare that your life does not belong to you, but has been created for the purpose of Another.

For the church to be the church—not just a place where you can find ministry but where the people are a ministering community—every believer must accept his or her role in the life of every other believer.

To live for yourself is to rob yourself of your own humanity. It is only in living for Christ that we actually begin to become what we were meant to be.

One of God's sweetest gifts to us between the "already" of our conversion and the "not yet" of our homegoing is the gift of the body of Christ. God makes his invisible grace visible by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace. His people are meant to be the look on his face, the touch of his hand, the sound of his voice, the evidence of his love, the picture of his presence, and the visible demonstration of his faithfulness

Developing leaders is not just downloading theological knowledge and ministry skill, but calling people to lead with hearts captured by the awe of God.

Grace doesn't make it okay for you to live for you. No, grace frees you to experience the joy of living for One greater than you.

The church is in desperate need of a leadership community whose function is not just structured to achieve with efficiency but is more deeply shaped by the comforts and calls of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Human relationships are most satisfying when we enter them not just to please ourselves or even the other person, but to please God.

We simply weren't constructed to live only for ourselves. We were placed on earth to be part of something bigger than the narrow borders of our own survival and our own little definition of happiness.

You and I were created for more than filling up our schedules with the self-satisfying pursuits of personal pleasure.

A life of vibrant ministry is not the result of ministry training, but the result of a deep conviction that God is who he has said he is and is doing all that he promised to do. Ministry always flows from a thankful heart. 3.

Corporate worship is a regular gracious reminder that it's not about you. You've been born into a life that is a celebration of another.

God is not satisfied with you being a witness to his work of grace. He's called you to be an instrument of that grace to others.

We simply weren't constructed to live only for ourselves. We were placed on earth to be part of something bigger than the narrow borders of our own survival and our own little definition of happiness. The desire resides in each of us, and it is called transcendence. To transcend is to be part of something greater. We were created to be part of something so big, so glorious, so far beyond the ordinary that it would totally change the way we approach every ordinary thing in our lives.

We were a Christian family in active participation in a vibrant church, but what we were involved in lacked one of the primary and essential ingredients of healthy New Testament Christianity: a trained, mobilized, and functioning body of Christ. It was Christianity devoid of Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Hebrews 3:12–13. For

You were put here for the purpose of the glory of another. This is not a lifestyle option; it is in the very nature of your humanity. To live for yourself is to rob yourself of your own humanity. It is only in living for Christ that we actually begin to become what we were meant to be.