Tim Keller on Idols

We never imagine that getting our heart?s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.

we know a good thing has become a counterfeit god when its demands on you exceed proper boundaries.

The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.

The secret to change is to identify and dismantle the counterfeit gods of your heart.

Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol.

Todd Wilken on Gospel Preaching

A sermon that mentions Jesus but still has you driving the verbs is still about you, not Jesus. The Gospel is all about what Jesus does for you. A sermon about what you do for Jesus isn?t the Gospel. For the Gospel to be preached, Jesus must be driving the verbs.? (Ask) ?Who is driving the verbs?? Is Jesus active or passive? Is Jesus doing the action or is He being acted upon? There is a difference between a sermon that says ?I love Jesus,? and a sermon that says ?Jesus love me.? One is talking about you, the other is talking about Jesus. There is a difference between, ?Give your life to Jesus,? and ?Jesus gave His life for you.

Mark Driscoll on Preaching

Hard words produce soft people, and soft words produce hard people.

Peter Brain on Leadership

Great quote from George Carey (in Peter Brain "Going the Distance" p16):

Churches die when leaders die. Churches die from the top downward. Show me a growing church and you will show me a visionary leadership. It is leaders who make growth. When you have spiritual leaders, men of prayer, women of prayer - imaginative, alert, intelligent - there we have growth



I have three questions to pose from that:

1. are the leaders in your church given the time, resources and freedom to lead (pray, bring vision, develop strategy) as opposed to manage or keep all the activities running?

2. are the leaders in your church given the time, resources and freedom to bring on the next generation of leaders? If they are too rushed off their feet it will never happen

3. what are the main reasons why your church and its leaders don't develop more new leaders than they do, if there are possible candidates to work with?

Marcus North on Discipleship

Does your church actively train people individually or in groups to do any or all of the following:

?pray
?read, understand and apply the Bible for themselves
?give joyfully
?forgive
?fast
?sacrifice
?seek God for grace
?worship that involves the whole person, affections as well as mind
I guess the answer is likely to be some but not all of those things. If the answer is no to most then you don't currently give a great deal of emphasis to discipleship

Marcus North on Leadership

authentic Christian leadership is closely linked to:

?The nature and person of God
?The worship of Christ
?The Work of the Holy Spirit
?The mission of the church
?The nature of mature discipleship
?The character of Christ
?The nature of the body of Christ

J.I. Packer on Ministry

?It has often been said that Christianity in North America is 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep. Something similar is true, by all accounts, in Africa and Asia, and (I can testify to this) in Britain also. Worshipers in evangelical churches, from the very young to the very old, and particularly the youth and the twenty- and thirty-somethings, know far less about the Bible and the faith than one would hope and than they themselves need to know for holy living. This is because the teaching mode of Christian communication is out of fashion, and all the emphasis in sermons and small groups is laid on experience in its various aspects. The result is a pietist form of piety, ardent and emotional, in which realizing the reality of fellowship with the Father and the Son is central while living one?s life with Spirit-given wisdom and discernment is neglected both as a topic and as a task. In the Western world in particular, where Christianity is marginalized and secular culture dismisses it as an ideological has-been, where daily we rub shoulders with persons of other faiths and of no faith, and where within the older Protestant churches tolerating the intolerable is advocated as a requirement of justice, versions of Christianity that care more for experiences of life than for principles of truth will neither strengthen churches nor glorify God.?

He goes on:

?The well-being of Christianity worldwide for this twenty-first century directly depends, I am convinced, on the recovery of what has historically been called catechesis?that is, the ministry of systematically teaching people in and coming into our churches the sinew-truths that Christians live by, and the faithful, practical, consistent way for Christians to live by them. During the past three centuries, catechesis as defined has shrunk, even in evangelical churches, from an all-age project to instruction for children and in some cases has vanished altogether. As one who for half a century has been attempting an essentially catechetical ministry by voice and pen, I long for the day when in all our churches systematic catechesis will come back into its own.?

He then speaks about the old Anglican dictum: ?There are three priorities in pastoral ministry: the first is, teach; the second is, teach; and the third is, teach.?