Jesus gave us a model for the work of the church at the Last Supper. While his disciples kept proposing more organization – Hey, let’s elect officers, establish hierarchy, set standards of professionalism – Jesus quietly picked up a towel and basin of water and began to wash their feet.
Leadership
Paul Carlisle
Brokenness forced me to change my frantic pace of life. If you could have seen how busy I was, you would have thought I believed the Bible said, “Be hyper and know that I am God.” I had replaced intimacy with God with frenzied activity. I had to learn to stop going mach IV speed in a camel body. Imitating Martha came natural but the ways of Mary were foreign.
Luc Niebergall
God saw the heart of a king in David long before he even had a crown on his head. God doesn’t build kings on the stage; He builds them in the cave.
Lysa TerKeurst
I would rev up my Christian to do list with all manner of serving, blessing and giving others that kind of love I was so desperate to have boomerang back on me. Those are all good things. Fabulous activities. Biblical instructions. But when given from a heart whose real motivation is what I’m hoping I’ll get in return is not really love at all. That’s not the answer. Giving with strings of secret expectations attached is the greatest invitation to heartbreak. That’s not love. That’s manipulation, and it’s also unrealistic. Only audiences are trained to applaud performances. People in everyday life can sniff out the neediness of a performer trying to earn love. Their instinct isn’t to clap, but rather to be repulsed by the fakeness of it all, and walk away. No soul can soar to the place of living loved when it’s a performance based endeavour. Living loved is sourced in your quiet daily surrender to the One who made you.
Dann Farrelly
Some people need to belong before they believe. Rather than judge people outside the church, we love, serve, and speak life to them, hoping that they will soon embrace the truth of Father’s love.\
Ed Silvoso
Competent leaders attract very committed people who at first are not necessarily the most competent ones. You should not be discouraged, much less be paralyzed, by this. In fact, there is biblical precedent for it. David’s mighty men were not members of the nobility. On the contrary, they were the ones who had gotten in trouble with the king and the law. But they were totally committed to David, and they became the ones who carried him to the throne. The good news is that you can always teach competence to committed people.
Danny Silk
If you heard someone described as a powerful person, you might assume he or she would be the loudest person in the room, the one telling everyone else what to do. But powerful does not mean dominating. In fact, a controlling, dominating person is the very opposite of a powerful person. Powerful people do not try to control other people. They know it doesn’t work, and that it’s not their job. Their job is to control themselves.
Dallas Willard
To manipulate, drive or manage people is not the same thing as to lead them.
Richard Wurmbrand
A pastor must be like a matchmaker who persuades a girl to marry someone else. He must be very careful the girl does not fall in love with him, the matchmaker. Likewise, the pastor must be a guide, enabling the believer to reach the Bridegroom. He must ignite a love for the Bridegroom in the hearts of the believers, so that after hearing one of his sermons, the congregation should not say, “How beautifully he has preached,” but “How wonderful Jesus is!” Remaining attached to the pastor and not passing through him to the Savior, about whom he preaches, can be a deadly danger for the believer.
Charles R Swindoll
To be used of God. Is there anything more encouraging, more fulfilling? Perhaps not, but there is something more basic: to meet with God. To linger in His presence, to shut out the noise of the city and, in quietness, give Him the praise He deserves. Before we engage ourselves in His work, let’s meet Him in His Word… in prayer… in worship.