Well-Intentioned Dragons Quotes

“If pastors become preoccupied with the dragons, afraid to challenge them, or at least too concerned about “fighting only battles that need to be fought,” they often lose their spontaneity and creativity. Change is stifled, growth stunted, and the direction of ministry is set by the course of least resistance, which as everyone knows, is the course that makes rivers crooked. If the first casualties in dragon warfare are vision and initiative, the next victim is outreach. When a pastor is forced to worry more about putting out brush fires than igniting the church’s flame, the dragons have won, and the ministry to a needy world has lost.”
― Marshall Shelley, Ministering to Problem People in Your Church: What to Do With Well-Intentioned Dragons

“If a person is argued into submission or politically subdued in one area but the underlying emotional need isn’t met, he’ll simply create another headache somewhere else.”
― Marshall Shelley, Ministering to Problem People in Your Church: What to Do With Well-Intentioned Dragons

“The goal in handling dragons is not to destroy them, not merely to disassociate from them, but to make them disciples. Even when that seems an unlikely prospect.”
― Marshall Shelley, Ministering to Problem People in Your Church: What to Do With Well-Intentioned Dragons

“Wherever there’s light, there’s bugs.”
― Marshall Shelley, Ministering to Problem People in Your Church: What to Do With Well-Intentioned Dragons

“Seldom are your critics actually disappointed with you. They are usually disappointed with themselves, their circumstances, or God. You are simply a convenient target. Wayne Cordeiro”
― Marshall Shelley, Ministering to Problem People in Your Church: What to Do With Well-Intentioned Dragons

“I have never met a man who wanted to be bad," writes George MacLeod. "The mystery of man is that he is bad when he wants to be good.”
― Marshall Shelley, Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church