Gaining By Losing Quotes

“The Christian life is a call to risk. You either live with risk or waste your life.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Every great risk in God’s name begins with confidence in the goodness and trustworthiness of God.”
― J. D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Our mission, according to Jesus, is not to gather audiences, but to grow disciples.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“But this kind of motivation never lasts. Guilt produces a dramatic, knee-jerk reaction, but the human spirit has mechanisms for getting beyond guilt. We assuage it by comparing ourselves positively with others. We rationalize our indulgences. We numb ourselves to others’ pain. “Smacking” us with guilt never produces sustained generosity.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Planting always involves risk. We release control of something we need in the hopes that it will come back to us in multiplied measure. But once we let go of it, we forfeit any ability to use it for ourselves. Seeds you plant you can no longer consume. Yet without the act of planting, there will never be a harvest.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“We’re not continuing to write the Bible — that is complete — but what Jesus “began” to do in his three-year earthly ministry and “continued” through his church in Acts he continues through us today. We are the next episode. We’re still in the same season, and the finale is still to come. Every believer now has a part of the story to write. The”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Peter Drucker says that the worst kind of failure in business is success in the things that don’t matter.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“It sounds so spiritual to say something like, “We should only worry about the depth of our ministries, and let God worry about the width.” But disregarding the width of your ministry is blatantly unfaithful to the Great Commission.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“The deader your gospel, the flashier your package.” Smoke and subwoofers can never do what one glimpse of Christ crucified can do.”
― J. D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Whatever you’re good at, do it well for the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God.”
― J. D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“And that means releasing — planting — the seeds we have been given. It means letting go and sending out our very best to bring a harvest in God’s kingdom, even — especially — when it doesn’t benefit our church directly.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Steve Timmis: We can no longer assume that if people want to find God or discover meaning or cope with a personal crisis, they will go to church. They may attend any number of religious bodies or sects. Or they may go to a therapist. Or read a self-help book. Merely opening our doors each Sunday is no longer sufficient. Offering a good product is not enough. . . . What is clear is that great swathes of America will not be reached through Sunday morning services.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“The Great Commission is not a calling for some; it is a mandate for all.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Each believer is called to leverage his or her life for the spread of the gospel.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Motivation for mission grows out of deep, personal experience with the gospel.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Many skills make for an effective minister, but there is one without which everything else we do is useless: make disciples. Apart from that, all the money we raise, buildings we build, ministries we organize, sermons we preach and songs we write won’t move the mission forward. Without that one thing, we fail.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Saying, “Preach the gospel; if necessary use words,” is like me saying, “Tell me your phone number; if necessary, use digits.” Apart from digits, there is no phone number. Apart from words, there is no gospel.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“The church is not an audience to be entertained; it is an army to be empowered. The large crowd will not change the world; the mobilized force of Spirit-filled believers will.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Faith-based generosity, you see, is about more than having an open hand with money; it’s about having an open hand with every good thing God has put in your life. As you give away precious seed, he multiplies it.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Luke wanted us to see that the same power Jesus used we have access to as well. This means that ordinary people — people with problems and faults and stubborn habits and personal weaknesses — can be used mightily in the mission of God, because it’s not about their abilities to do things for God, but about his ability to work through them.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Luther believed that every believer must discover how he or she is gifted by God to develop his world, because this is in large part how followers of Christ fulfill their callings. Thus, if God has given you “secular” skills — in business, banking, painting, landscaping, medicine, art, law, or the like — understand that there is nothing second-class about them. God uses your vocation to care for his world through you. As you work, you are being used by God in his original mission.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Our English word “vocation” comes from the Latin word voca, meaning “to call.” The Reformers saw our vocations, whether “secular” or “sacred,” as callings by God to assist in his care for the earth.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“The gospel alone produces the passion that sustains the mission. Programs and institutions can be useful servants of passion, but never its sustenance. The gospel is its sustenance.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“The church exists for mission. As Christopher Wright says, “Jesus did not give a mission to his church; he formed a church for his mission.”12 Without the mission, a church is not a church; it’s just a group of disobedient Christians hanging out.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“It was a simple game. The goal was to “give away” all of your checkers by putting them in a position to be jumped and captured by the other player. The first one to “give away” all of his checkers was declared the winner. In essence, you won by losing. I didn’t know it at the time, but my dad was teaching me a powerful lesson about the marketplace, marriage, and ministry — because in each of these important arenas, those who give away the most end up gaining the most.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Making disciples is more about intentionality than technique: Discipleship means teaching others to read the Bible the way you read it, pray the way you pray, and tell people about Jesus the way you do. If you have Christian habits in your life worth imitating, you can be a disciple-maker. It doesn’t require years of training. You just teach others to follow Christ as you follow him.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“In the same way, God grows his kingdom only as we take our hands off of what little portion he’s given to us, “die” to our control of it, and plant it into the world.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Every Christian is called into full-time ministry. Once we step over the line and begin to follow Jesus, everything we do is supposed to be done in his name, representing him, with the goal of advancing his kingdom.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Carl F. H. Henry was reputed to say, “The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send

“Business guru John Kotter says that the place most leaders fail in effecting change is in assuming their people understand the need for change more than they actually do.”
― J.D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send