Ministry in the Image of God Quotes

“Any work for God that has less than a passion for Jesus Christ as its motive will end in crushing heartbreak and discouragement.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“Sometimes we can miss God's work by our very desire to do God's will!”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“there is a profound difference between doing things for God and doing what God tells us to do.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“So much of our stress and burnout is the direct result of our failure to grasp this basic truth about ministry. We are carrying burdens that we were never designed to carry-burdens that Christ never intended for us to carry. Instead of following Christ the Leader, we wrongly assume the burden of leadership ourselves. No wonder we collapse under its weight.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“The greatest danger that success brings, aside from arrogance, is the fear of losing what has been gained. The courage and willingness to risk that breed success are endangered after success is obtained."26”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“only one Person can live the Christian life, and that is Christ Himself; and only as I
trust Him to live His life in me, can I possibly live the quality of life that satisfies the heart of God and challenges the world in which I witness.19”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“there is a world of difference between being productive and being fruitful,”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires that you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“ministry is participating with Christ in his ongoing ministry as he offers himself to others through us.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“[Marriage] is disturbingly intense, disruptively involving, and that is exactly the way it was designed to be.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“[Marriage] is disturbingly intense, disruptively involving, and that is exactly the way it was designed to be. It is supposed to be more, almost, than we can handle. It was meant to be a lifelong encounter that would be much more rigorous and demanding than anything human beings ever could have chosen, dreamed of, desired, or invented on their own.... For that is its very purpose: to get us out beyond our depth, out of the shallows of our own secure egocentricity and into the dangerous and unpredictable depths of a real interpersonal encounter.30
To be indwelled by our spouse like this often means having them too close for comfort! The more we are drawn to them, the more the truth about our broken, egocentric self is exposed. Each day they call us to painful, practical expressions of self-denial and self-sacrifice.
When a husband and wife stay committed to one another in the face of each other's brokenness and sin, their intimacy grows and deepens. It is the fruit of their repentance as they confront the truth about themselves and the forgiveness they extend to each other.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service

“The trinitarian circle of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is therefore an open, not a closed, circle.”
― Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service