Seven Practices of Effective Ministry Quotes

“Whenever a leader tries to build job security by making himself indispensable to the organization, he in fact does the organization a disservice. Job security is too often based on someone’s insecurity.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“The teaching philosophy of most companies today is similar to that of the schools I went to – lots of people sitting in a classroom, with an expert up front telling you things. I’ve always thought that if that was the natural way for people to learn, we ought to see four-year-olds spontaneously forming themselves into rows.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“The truth is that church by its nature is a very general concept and most people are not looking for a church; otherwise, churches would be full of visitors every week. What people are looking for is something that works for them as individuals. And that is something specific, not general.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“How do you recruit and keep volunteers?” Part of the answer is that we clarify the win. Countless individuals quit working in churches every year”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Nothing hinders morale more than when team members with separate agendas are pulling against one another. When this happens, it’s usually because those in charge have not taken the time necessary to clarify the win for their team.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Nothing hinders morale more than when team members with separate agendas are pulling against one another.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Too many church leaders have bought into the myth that to clarify the win means establishing attendance goals and raising a lot of money.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“There’s an old wooden sign in the church my dad grew up in. It still hangs on the left wall behind the pulpit. Maybe you’ve seen one like it. The sign has slats that display numbers announcing the church’s critical statistics. There is a column for “Last Week” and a column for “This Week.” Every Sunday you can check out how things are progressing in three areas: attendance, the number of visitors, and total offerings. I can remember, as a kid, looking up at the numbers and thinking, Things are getting better. Or during some weeks, Things are getting worse. That sign has been hanging there for at least thirty years, but I’m not sure it truly communicates whether or not the church is actually winning. Most churches do not have a reliable system for defining and measuring what success looks like at every level of the organization. Instead they post some general statistics that give them a vague sense of progress or failure as a church, and they go through the motions of continuing to do ministry the way they always have, productive or not. Thus it is possible for a church to become very efficient at doing ministry ineffectively.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Churches are notorious for creating competing systems, wherein unclear direction and conflicting information threaten to cause a breakdown and paralyze the ministry. Instead of replacing old systems, we tend to just download and add whatever is new to what already exists. Soon our capacity becomes fragmented and we find ourselves confronted with the signs of ineffectiveness: some ministries seem routine and irrelevant; the teaching feels too academic; calendars are saturated with mediocre programs; staff members pull in opposite directions; volunteers lack motivation; departments viciously compete for resources; and it becomes harder and harder to figure out if we are really being successful. Too many churches desperately need an upgrade. They need to reformat their hard drives and install a clean system. They need to rewrite their code so everyone is clear about what is important and how they should function.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“If you want your church to stand the test of time, then you have to be replaced.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“one of the primary reasons that you have to listen to outsiders: If you don’t, you will be driven by the complaints and demands of the insiders.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Don’t be so concerned about keeping the folks you’ve got, that you neglect the folks you’re trying to reach.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“I went to church my entire childhood, and do you know what I learned?” “What?” “Not a thing. I know I heard a lot of things about God, but I don’t remember one of them.” “Maybe you didn’t have good teachers.” “How good do you have to be to teach a child one thing? No, the problem wasn’t that they couldn’t teach me one thing. The problem was they tried to teach me everything. Every week was a different story and a different lesson with a different picture. All I knew is that if I sat there quietly, I’d get a cookie at the end.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Pitchers don’t need to hit well; they need to pitch well. Every step you create needs to do what it does best and nothing more. Focus allows you to pursue excellence, to zero in on the target. You can ruin a great pitcher by trying to make a hitter out of him, and you can ruin a great church…”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“Narrow the Focus. By that I mean you shouldn’t try to do everything; you should do a few things well.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

“The tendency in business, or in church work for that matter, is to mistake activity for progress. We think that just because people are busy and doing a lot of stuff that we are being successful. The fact of the matter is, if all that activity isn’t taking you where you want to go, then it’s just wasted time.”
― Andy Stanley, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry