Church

You know what your own country is like. I'm a visitor, and I wouldn't presume to speak about America.  But I know what Great Britain is like. I know something about the growing dishonesty, corruption, immorality, violence, pornography, the diminishing respect for human life, and the increase in abortion.  Whose fault is it? Let me put it like this: if the house is dark at night, there is no sense in blaming the house.  That's what happens when the sun goes down.  The question to ask is, “Where is the light?”  If meat goes bad, there is no sense in blaming the meat. That is what happens when the bacteria are allowed to breed unchecked.  The question to ask is, “Where is the salt?”  If society becomes corrupt like a dark night or stinking fish, there's no sense in blaming society.  That's what happens when fallen human society is left to itself and human evil is unrestrained and unchecked.  The question to ask is “Where is the church?”—John Stott, “Christians: Salt and Light,”Preaching Today, Tape No. 109.

“In our organic church movement we have come to understand church as this: the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.”—Neil Cole in Organic Church
           
“The “great, great” churches will be those that serve as training camps and base camps for lay men and women who hear Christ call them to climb their particular mountain and who respond to that call.”—Robert E. Slocum in Maximize Your Ministry

“You can be committed to Church but not committed to Christ, but you cannot be committed to Christ and not committed to church.”—Joel Osteen
           
“The Church does not lead the world nor echo it; she confronts it.  Her note is a supernatural note.”--Oswald Chambers in Approved Unto God 42

In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ.  Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy.  Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution.  Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture.  And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.—Richard Halverson

“The church of Jesus Christ is built on these two things:  the divine revelation of who Jesus Christ is, and the public confession of it (see Matthew 16:13-19).”—Oswald Chambers in The Psychology of Redemption 107
           
“When the world gets in a bad way, it refers to the church; when the world is prosperous, it hates the church.”—Oswald Chambers in Approved Unto God 42

“It is not because you enter a church and sit in a pew that you are before God . . .  The nearer we are to the church, sometimes, the farther we are from God.”—Charles Spurgeon in The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life

“The Church of God, let me repeat, never ceases to be dependent upon the life of God for its maintenance.”—Watchman Nee in Love Not the World

“Churches who keep their pastors for long periods fare better than those who are constantly turning them over.”—Ralph Neighbour, Jr. in Where Do We Go From Here

“But what if we were to change our standards?  Suppose we were to de-emphasize attendance statistics, square footage, and income figures in favor of a commitment to depth and authenticity in discipleship?”—George Barna in Growing True Disciples   
        
“The Christian church is failing to live up to its promise; we’re not even coming close to fulfilling it.  Our nation has a strong economy but a weak morality.”—George Barna in Growing True Disciples     

“Almost every church in our country has some type of discipleship program of set of activities, but stunningly few churches have a church of disciples.”—George Barna in Growing True Disciples 

“Specifically, the local church must have a philosophy of ministry that emphasizes the significance of discipleship and promotes a process for facilitating such maturity.”—George Barna in Growing True Disciples  
     
“The institutional church has become a wounder of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded.”—Brennan Manning in The Ragamuffin Gospel

“. . . to prepare properly for Heaven we must be part of a church now.”—Randy Alcorn in Heaven

“Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism.  Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering.”—A.W. Tozer

“The church meets real spiritual needs by serving the true God, not by catering to consumer preferences and reacting to the  most recent polling data.”—Douglas Groothuis in Truth Decay        

“I didn’t realize how boring church was until I sat at the back.”—Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“. . . history will reveal that the Church has gained or lost power exactly as she has moved toward or away from the inwardness of her faith.—"A.W. Tozer in God’s Pursuit of Man

“The church that Christ loves and sustains is the key feature of God’s plan for both time and eternity, and care for the church’s welfare, which is what love for the church means, is an aspect of Christlikeness that Christians must ever seek to cultivate.”—J.I. Packer in A Passion For Faithfulness

“A Church without missionary work is no Church.”—Richard Wurmbrand in If that were Christ, would you give him your blanket?

“A church that lives within its four walls is no church at all.”—Morgan Chilulu, African Pastor

“In the average church service the most real thing is the shadowy unreality of everything.”—A.W. Tozer in God’s Pursuit of Man

“. . . the church exists to promote the worship of God, the inner life of the spirit, the evangelization of the world and the molding of society according to the will of God.”—Stanley Greensdale

“The complaint that church is boring is never made by people in awe.”—RC Sproul in The Holiness of God

“The greatest danger to the Christian church today is that of pitching its message too low.”—Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines

The contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound.  So often it is an archdefender of the status quo.  Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Let me put it like this.  If the house is dark when nightfall comes, there is no sense in blaming the house; that is what happens when the sun goes down.  The question to ask is “Where is the light?” . . . Just so, if society deteriorates and its standards decline until it becomes like a dark night or a stinking fish, there is no sense in blaming society, that is what happens when fallen men and women are left to themselves, and human selfishness is unchecked.  The question to ask is, “Where is the Church?” . . . It is sheer hypocrisy on our part to raise our eyebrows, shrug our shoulders, or wring our hands.—John Stott

“In the American church we have become all about the privacy of our relationships.”—Larry Osborne

“The church is not despised because it is holy: it is despised because it is not holy enough. There is not enough difference between the people inside the church and those outside to be impressive.”—W.E. Sangster in Daily Readings

“The church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, ‘You can go to hell.’”—Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life.

The Christian church in America today is so full of spiritual “wimps” mainly because it is led by so many wimpy spiritual “parents”—leaders who are unwilling to hold growing Christians accountable, to rebuke them when they sin, to say what needs to be said despite the negative feedback.—Christopher Adsit in Personal Disciple-Making

“A church must develop “extra” leadership, or its quality will deteriorate.  Every successful corporation creates leader-managers faster than they’re usable.”—Carl George in Prepare Your Church for the Future

Paths to the Future
1.  Churches of the future will be committed to making more and better disciples.
2.  Churches of the future will be more concerned with the size of the harvest than with the capacity of their facilities.
3.  Churches will be known primarily as caring places rather than as teaching associations.
4.  Pastors will genuinely encourage ministry by the laity, despite centuries of modeling to the contrary.
5.  Lay-ministry assignments will involve leadership of a group.
6. Laity, given the opportunity, will invest time, energy, and money to learn the skills required to do a competent job of pastoring.
7.  Finally, in the church of the future, pastors and people will remain dependent on the Holy Spirit to make His gifts available for mutually edifying one-another ministry.—Carl George in Prepare Your Church for the Future

“One of the strengths of Meta-Church theory is its biblical conviction that the Holy Spirit officially commissions every believer into a ministry of caring for one another.”—Carl George in Prepare Your Church for the Future

“All churches have their own distinctive abuses.  Some churches are more prone to emotionalism, while others are more prone to a cold legalistic self-righteous pharisaism.  Both are seriously wrong.”—Jack Deere in Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit

“The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.”—Henry Ward Beecher

“Traditional church life robs the believer of being responsible.  The pastor does all the Bible study for the congregation, and shares his findings in the auditorium.”—Ralph Neighbour, Jr. in Where Do We Go From Here

“It is not the local church that will change the world; it is Jesus.”—Neil Cole in Organic Church

“The church is a group of people indwelt by the life of the risen Christ, raised in newness of life in him, controlled by him as head, coordinated into a cohesive body in which his Spirit moves in his ancient ways.”—Stuart Briscoe in Spiritual Stamina

“The church has allowed itself to get so swept up in political issues that it plays by the rules of power, which are rules of ungrace.  In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square.”—Philip Yancey in What’s So Amazing About Grace
           
“The way to see a true church multiplication movement is to multiply holy disciples, then leaders, then churches, and finally movements—in that order.”—Neil Cole in Organic Church
           
“The history of the church, from God’s perspective, is a history of the Holy Spirit using little people.”—Jim Peterson in Church Without Walls
           
“One of our contemporary weaknesses is the belief that a single local fellowship can be self-sufficient.”—Jim Peterson in Church Without Walls
           
“In the course of history, the church has tended to pattern its leadership style after the predominant power structure of a society.  That continues to be the rule today.”—Jim Peterson in Church Without Walls

Its white-hot convictions, poured into the hearts of the first adherents, cooled down and became crystallized codes, solidified institutions and petrified dogmas.  The prophet became a priest of the establishment, charisma became office, and love became routine.  The horizon was no longer the world but the boundaries of the local parish.—David Bosch in Transforming Mission
           
“The body is not complete where the traveling, itinerant functions are not being exercised.”—Jim Peterson in Church Without Walls
           
“Church growth conferences, as enlightening as they can be, will not make dead churches come alive.”—Dale Galloway in 20/20 Vision
           
“The greatest program a church can have both for outreach and ministry to each other, is for its members to learn to flow with the Spirit and do as the Spirit directs.”—Dale Galloway in 20/20 Vision
           
“It is utterly impossible for you to expect your church to grow without prayer . . . A characteristic that you will find in every growing church is that prayer has been given a central place in the life of the church.”—Dale Galloway in 20/20 Vision

It’s a brutal but true fact: most churches have become just one more of the kingdoms of this world.  We shall not deny they have a proper theology, but their ecclesiology violates the clear teachings of our Lord, and Satan gleefully imprisons them in their own kingdom structure.—Ralph Neighbour, Jr. in Where Do We Go From Here

The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing assembly.  The church is you who pray, not where you pray.  A structure of brick or marble can no more be the church than your clothes of serge or satin can be you.  There is in this world nothing sacred but man, no sanctuary of man but the soul.—John Havlik
           
“The Church is not an ethical society, therefore an ethical issue should not rend it.”--P.T. Forsyth in The Christian Ethic of War
           
“If God’s Spirit left your church, would anyone notice?” --Skye Jethani in with
           
“There is an enormous difference between sending a child to church and taking him.”—W.E. Sangster in Daily Readings
           
“The church must not become the object of its own affection.”—Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways
“Instead of being seeker-friendly, we should be finder-friendly, offering those who come to us a new and different way of life.”—Rod Dreher in The Benedict Option

“American Christians have a bad habit of treating church like a consumer experience.”—Rod Dreher in The Benedict Option

The church is the realm where forgiven saints live out the Gospel.—Jim Van Yperen in Making Peace: A Guide to Overcoming Church Conflict, p. 66
           
​“We are in uncharted terrain trying to lead dying churches into a post-Christian culture that now considers the church an optional, out of touch and irrelevant relic of the past.”—Tod Bolsinger in Canoeing The Mountains, p. 31