Pastoral Ministry Quotes

“Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first.”
― Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion

“My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction

“We don't forget that we are Christians. We forget that we are human, and that one oversight alone can debilitate the potential of our future.”
― Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion

“You must read to lead. Reading feeds. It opens our souls to a long line of counselors.”
― Dave Harvey, Am I Called?: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry

“Pastors and Bible teachers go about their work in communal settings, where they listen to as well as deliver sermons, hear as well as speak, and gain biblical insights from their parishioners as much as they pass them on.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

“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

“Once a seminary student asked to shadow me for two days to see what my life as a pastor was like. At the end, he said, "Oh my gosh, you're basically a person for a living.”
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner Saint

“If you want progress, take up running. If you want meaning, run a church.”
― Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear

“Whereas the public means of grace (such as church services) will do a lot of good to other Christians, those of us who are pastors have to rely a lot more on the private means of grace.”
― Thomas K. Ascol

“If a church is good at making disciples it will be good at making leaders because in the end, a good spiritual formation plan will lead to an accelerated spiritual multiplication.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Next Steps For Leading a Missional Church

“If evangelism is really going to be a value that your church embraces, the church will have to embrace the changes that will take place when evangelism is activated in the church.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk

“Learn a lesson from the branch.
Although it has brought fruit for thirty years, the branch is well aware that the years of experience in bearing fruit is not a reason to be independent. The goal of God’s training is never to develop you to stand alone without Him.”
― Kingsley Opuwari Manuel

“Leaders are passionate learners. Leaders are always seeking ways to improve themselves by sharpening their skills. They fully embrace the fact that growing leaders lead growing organizations.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk

“Great leaders are teachable leaders.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Church Planting Landmines

“Our real problem is not the pervasiveness of the darkness but a failure of the light. Light always dispels darkness. The glorious light of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ is still sufficient and available to those who reject self-reliance and return to His plan for biblical leadership. This return can reignite the radiance of the Gospel in transforming power.”
― Daniel Henderson, Old Paths, New Power: Awakening Your Church Through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

“The prayer level of a church never rises any higher than the personal example and passion of the leaders. The quantity and quality of prayer in leadership meetings is the essential indicator of the amount of prayer that will eventually arise among the congregation.”
― Daniel Henderson, Old Paths, New Power: Awakening Your Church Through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

“I regret the immaturity with which I approached the problems and tasks of the ministry but I do not regret the years devoted to the parish.”
― Reinhold Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic

“When a pastor is led by what people demand of them and not what God demands of them a shepherd turns into a wolf”
― John M Sheehan

“Our enemy attacks the conscience little by little seeking to wear us down and then wears out a leader's resolve to fight the good fight.”
― Gary Rohrmayer

“No man is exempted from the subtle deception of doctrinal drift – the man of God expects this temptation.”
― Gary Rohrmayer

“Missional leaders know that their church will only grow as large as its capacity to provide ongoing care through a network of small groups and ministry teams.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Next Steps For Leading a Missional Church

“Leadership is simply a well applied energy burst. If a leader is going to let his energy get depleted through not important and urgent activities that distracts every ministry, then there will not be any energy left to counteract the evangelistic entropy that attacks every church and robs them of their evangelistic effectiveness.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk

“When a leader is at their limit the last thing they want to hear is that they need to change even more. Maintaining good rhythms of rest, exercise and fun create more energy for a leader to be willing and open for change.”
― Gary Rohrmayer

“Vision is capturing God's assignment”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Next Steps For Leading a Missional Church

“There is nothing better than to have a highly motivated team of leaders focused on than reaching those far from Christ. And yet statistics and our experience reveal that evangelism entropy can creep deep inside a new church within months of its first public service. The longer we are around new churches the more amazed we are at how quickly these mission-focused, vibrant new churches become old.”
― Gary Rohrmayer, Church Planting Landmines

“[R]eal prayer is not an excuse for laziness but, in fact, is one of the most arduous engagements I know of in ministry. Prayer is not a replacement for hard work but, in most cases, empowerment for even more fruitful work.”
― Daniel Henderson, Old Paths, New Power: Awakening Your Church Through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

“A prayer culture is fueled by experience not explanation. A passion to seek the Lord in prayer is more caught than taught.”
― Daniel Henderson, Old Paths, New Power: Awakening Your Church Through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

“As someone who has spent the last decade training young men and women for Christian service, I have been keen to help them see that the best kinds of ministry are, more often than not, long term and low key. I have tried to prepare them for a marathon, not a short, energetic sprint. In other words, to help them have a lifetime of sustainable sacrifice, rather than an energetic but brief ministry that quickly fades in exhaustion.”
― Christopher Ash, Zeal Without Burnout: Seven Keys to a Lifelong Ministry of Sustainable Sacrifice

“Don't just cry over your 10 or 20 member church. Sometimes, God gives you your future first. The ones you call little carry in them every possibility you desire of the future. God would send you leaders but they may come as weak men and women first. Don't be so 'gift' conscious that you fail to realize that certain things are results of growth.”
― Kingsley Opuwari Manuel

“When discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it.”
― Jonathan Hayashi, Ordinary Radicals: A Return to Christ-Centered Discipleship