Discipling Quotes

“Part of being a Christian is recognizing that sin deceives us, and we need other believers to help us see the things we cannot see about ourselves. Joining a church, I’ve often said, is like throwing paint on the invisible man. New sins become visible in the course of our discipling relationships.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Discipling in the gospel means that sometimes you lead the way in confessing weakness or sin. By doing so, you demonstrate what it looks like not to find your justification in yourself, but in Christ. And so you live transparently and honestly.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Local churches exist to display God’s glory to the nations. We do that by fixing our eyes on the gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting him for salvation, and then loving one another with God’s own holiness, unity, and love.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Yet the Bible teaches that the local church is the natural environment for discipling. In fact, it teaches that the local church is itself the basic discipler of Christians. It does this through its weekly gatherings and its accountability structures (this chapter), as well as its elders and its members (next chapter). These in turn provide the context for the one-on-one discipling we have been considering so far.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Ask your friends what God has been teaching you about himself. Small groups can also be useful for facilitating these kinds of relationships.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Can we say anything further about what discipling is? I’ve said it’s helping others follow Jesus. It’s doing them spiritual good. But to fill all that out, discipling is initiating a relationship in which you teach, correct, model, and love. It takes great humility.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Churches don’t need programs so much as they need cultures of discipling, cultures where each member prioritizes the spiritual health of others.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Serving brings great rewards, but sometimes those rewards come gift-wrapped in trying situations. Those who lovingly serve others can end up feeling like crash dummies designed specifically to discover the heat, force, and pain tolerance of some new product.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“Crecer rápidamente en número ha tenido más peso que crecer lentamente en gracia.”
― Jonathan Leeman, La Membresía de la Iglesia (Church Membership) 9Marks (Edificando Iglesias Sanas (Spanish))

“«Morir a uno mismo significa considerar que es mejor morir que tener lujuria; considerar que es mejor morir que decir esta falsedad; considerar que es mejor morir que… [nombra tú el pecado]».”
― Mark Dever, Discipular (Discipling): Spanish (9Marks) (Building Healthy Churches (Spanish))

“The fundamental response to God’s radical love for us is for us to radically love him.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Cuando se trata de un discipulado cristiano con Cristo, la iglesia local es la autoridad cristiana más alta en la tierra.”
― Jonathan Leeman, La Membresía de la Iglesia (Church Membership) 9Marks (Edificando Iglesias Sanas (Spanish))

“¿Ejercerá la iglesia local las llaves perfectamente? No. Cometerá errores igual que cualquier otra autoridad establecida por Jesús comete errores. Como tal, la iglesia local es una representación imperfecta de la asamblea de Cristo del final de los tiempos.”
― Jonathan Leeman, La Membresía de la Iglesia (Church Membership) 9Marks (Edificando Iglesias Sanas (Spanish))

“La iglesia local es un grupo de cristianos que se reúne regularmente en el nombre de Jesús para confirmar y supervisar oficialmente la membresía mutua en Jesucristo y en su Reino a través de la predicación del evangelio y la práctica de los sacramentos”.”
― Jonathan Leeman, La Membresía de la Iglesia (Church Membership) 9Marks (Edificando Iglesias Sanas (Spanish))

“The motive for discipling others begins in the love of God and nothing less. He has loved us in Christ, and so we love him. And we do this in part by loving those he has placed around us.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“Ultimately, discipling involves living out the whole Christian life before others.”
― Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

“The local church, too, has table servers. We call them “deacons.” The joy, peace, unity, and fruitfulness of the local church depends in part on having a cadre of faithful table servants who are present when needed, eager to serve without being intrusive.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“Shepherds are not perfect men. Though God sets the bar for pastoral ministry necessarily high, he uses the poles of grace to support that bar.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“To be good pastors, we must remind our people of this simple yet profound truth: “we have our hope set on the living God.” This phrase deserves a full exposition, an exposition written in the actual lives of those who have so trusted the Savior. A good pastor’s life should be such an exposition. He should live as one who has (past tense) settled his hope in the Author of life—the one who has life in himself, the giver of eternal life, the living God, Christ Jesus our Lord.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“If a man supervises but fails to nurture, it’s possible that he’s either a tyrant or an absentee landlord. Neither is fitting for a father, much less an elder.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“Churches become unsafe places if its leaders fail to be honest, transparent, and reliable. Sincerity may not be the final basis of truth, but there is no deep truth communicated where sincerity is lacking.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons

“On my first Sunday morning visiting Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, my family and I sat in front of a lovely family in the church balcony. I first noticed them because their young children sat attentively and patiently as they participated in the service. I then noticed their lovely, vigorous singing. But they really grabbed my attention when they greeted us warmly immediately after the service. The man of the family took me around and introduced me to many of the men in the church, and after about fifteen minutes or so invited my family to join his family at their home for lunch—right then. Honestly, the experience made me feel a little weirded out. First of all, his name was Jim, and literally the first three men he introduced me to were all named Jim. Strange, I thought. What kind of church is this? Will I have to change my name again? Then the quick invitation to lunch about knocked me down. It happened too fast. And with my Southern upbringing, it might have even been considered impolite. So I gave him my best polite Southern way of saying no: “That is mighty nice of you. Perhaps some other time.” Everybody down South knows that a sentence like that means no. Southerners know that that is how you must say no because saying no itself is impolite. Southerners are nothing if not polite. So I had clearly said no to this man’s kind but hasty offer of lunch. And wouldn’t you know it? The very next week, when we went to this strange church again, he insisted that we join them for lunch. I was North Carolina. He was New Jersey. There was a failure to communicate. He didn’t understand the rules of the South, but Washington, DC, apparently was too close to the Mason-Dixon Line to clearly establish which “Rome” we were in and what we should do. But I was wrong, and Jim was right. He was the godlier man. He was more hospitable than anyone I had ever met and remains more hospitable than I am today. He embodied Paul’s insistence that hospitable men lead Christ’s church. And rightly, he was a church elder.”
― Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons