Church Quotes

• The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Mean, Men, Calling

  33 Copy quote

• The Church needs more people willing to wash feet, not just point out they're dirty or complain that they smell.

  Mark Hart

  Dirty, Smell, Feet

  6 Copy quote

• The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing than worshipping ... 'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.

  C. S. Lewis

  Military, War, Thinking

  21 Copy quote

• The best-run churches and organizations are masters of the midcourse correction. They plan in pencil.

  Larry Osborne

  Running, Organization, Masters

  Larry Osborne (2010). “Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page”, p.83, Harper Collins

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• If we think the main mission of the church is to improve life in Adam and add a little moral strength to this fading evil age, we have not yet understood the radical condition for which Christ is such a radical solution.

  Michael Horton

  Thinking, Evil, Age

  Michael Horton (2008). “Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church”, p.211, Baker Books

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• You plant the gospel. You don't plant churches.

  Alan Hirsch

  Leadership, Christian, Plant

  14 Copy quote

• Much of today’s church relies more on a book the early church didn't have, than the Holy Spirit they did.

  Bill Johnson

  Book, Today, Spirit

  70 Copy quote

• The church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples.

  John Wesley

  World, Changing The World, Disciple

  380 Copy quote

• God's church is not a stage for us to perform on but a garden for us to grow in.

  Michael Horton

  Garden, Stage, Grows

  27 Copy quote

• The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.

  Martyn Lloyd-Jones

  Different, World, Glory

  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1995). “Reflections: A Treasury of Daily Readings”, Nelson Bibles

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• I rejected the God that was portrayed as masculine and judgmental and cruel at times. The concept of us bring not worthy to receive him is something I used to say every Sunday in church, and eventually I just couldn't say it with any conviction.

  Alanis Morissette

  Sunday, Judgmental, Conviction

  "New Again: Alanis Morissette". Interview with Elizabeth Weitzman, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 15, 2015.

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• The church's job is to equip the saints for works of service in the world.

  Charles Colson

  Jobs, Saint, World

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• It is the attitude of some leaders of God's people; they continually scold others, hurl reproaches at them, tell them to be quiet. ... 'Madam, take your crying child out of the church as I am preaching.' As if the cries of a child were not a sublime homily.

  Pope Francis

  Children, Attitude, People

  Francis, Pope (2017). “With the Smell of the Sheep: Pope Francis Speaks to Priests, Bishops, and Other Shephards”, p.79, Orbis Books

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• I have repeatedly stressed that the selfish impulses of man constitute a much less historic danger than his integrative tendencies. To put it in the simplest way: the individual who indulges in an excess of aggressive self-assertiveness incurs the penalties of society-he outlaws himself, he contracts out of the hierarchy. The true believer, on the other hand, becomes more closely knit into it; he enters the womb of his church, or party, or whatever the social holon to which he surrenders his identity.

  Arthur Koestler

  Selfish, Party, Men

  8 Copy quote

• Search for the perfect church if you will; when you find it, join it, and realize that on that day it becomes something less than perfect.

  Andrew Greeley

  Perfect, Realizing, Ifs

  6 Copy quote

• The Bible contains all the extant revelations of God, which He designed to be the rule of faith and practice for his Church; so that nothing can rightfully be imposed on the consciences of men as truth or duty which is not taught directly or by necessary implication in the Holy Scriptures.

  Charles Hodge

  Men, Practice, Scripture

  CHARLES HODGE (1873). “SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.”, p.183

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• I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible church; that is his
  plain duty, according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, else they might go
  about one by one; but they are sheep, and therefore they should be in flocks.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Christian, Dog, Believe

  6 Copy quote

• A Church without Youth is a Church without a future. Moreover, Youth without a Church is Youth without a future.

  Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

  Youth

  46 Copy quote

• The doctrine of hell is not "mediaeval priestcraft" for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ's deliberate judgment on sin.... We cannot repudiate hell without altogether repudiating Christ.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Giving Money, People, Doctrine

  6 Copy quote

• There is no record in the Bible of a weak man falling.

  Johnny Hunt

  Leadership, Christian, Fall

  10 Copy quote

• Every story of change there is always someone who didn't have the resources or the network they needed and did something anyway.

  Andy Stanley

  Leadership, Christian, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• Two primary ways to keep volunteers motivated - Food and T-shirts.

  Andy Stanley

  Leadership, Christian, Two

  4 Copy quote

• T-shirts create a sense of "We". Food says, "We don't mind spending money on you."

  Andy Stanley

  Leadership, Christian, Mind

  17 Copy quote

• Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, “Take my life and let it be” when you haven't given Him one ounce?

  Leonard Ravenhill

  Christian, Lying, Given

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• I believe that there are too many practitioners in the church, who are not believers.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Believe, I Believe

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.293, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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