Best 3954 quotes in «church quotes» category

Closed systems that thrive on control that is managed with sticks and carrots can't help but fail the people they claim to protect.

Closing one’s eyes when praying doesn’t increase the odds of the prayer being answered. It merely decreases the odds of being distracted.

Coco Chanel is said to have said that a girl should be two things: who and what she is. I say a girl should do two things: what and who she wants.

Come to Church right.

Coming to the END of MYSELF and all SELF effort...seems to be the very point that God steps in and shows HIMSELF to be more than ENOUGH.

Confession is a difficult discipline for us, because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin.

Consistently, [Yves] Congar emphasized the distinction between Tradition and traditionalism. The latter was an unyielding commitment to the past. The former was a living principle of commitment to the Beginning, a process that required creativity, inspiration, and a spirit of openness to the present as well as respect for the past. Two of Congar's works, on reform in the church and on the theology of the laity, proved especially controversial...Congar believed that reform was a vital and necessary dimension of the church. This was rooted in the distinction between the church and the kingdom of God and in the intermingling in the church of both divine and human elements. In light of the church's constant temptation to revert to institutionalism, it was always necessary to allow room for the prophetic voice, issuing from the margins, even though this might mean attending to uncomfortable truths.

Contemporary Christian church would normally think that things are impossible

Cooperate expression of your church life means a lot

Cream always rises to the top...so do good leaders".

Cultivating spiritual intimacy is essential for leaders to live a vibrant missional life.

Culture cannot be a monolithically universal phenomenon without some kind of demonic imposition of one culture over the rest of cultures. Nor is it possible to dream of a universal "Christian culture" without denying the dialectic between history and eschatology which is so central, among other things, to the eucharist itself. Thus, if there is a transcendence of cultural divisions on a universal level - which indeed must be constantly aimed at by the Church - it can only take place via the local situations expressed in and through the particular local Churches and not through universalistic structures which imply a universal Church.

Dear God, if one day I lose my hope and purpose, give me confidence that your destiny is better than anything I ever dreamed.

Dear God, save us from The Church!

Dear Church, everyone is broken, stop pretending like you're not.

Deb and I were married on a snowy night - wind cross-wove a veil of snow for her then threw confetti at us as we left the lighted church...

Deception is nowhere more common than in religion. And the persons most easily and damningly deceived are the leaders. Those who deceive others are first themselves deceived, for not many, I think, begin with evil intent. The devil, after all, is a spiritual being. His usual mode of temptation is not an obvious evil but to an apparent good. The commonest forms of devil-inspired worship do not take place furtively at black masses with decapitated cats but flourish under the bright lights of acclaim and glory, in a swirl of organ music.

Don't compare yourself to other Christians. Compare yourself to Christ. He is the one you follow. He is the one other Christians too follow".

Don't ask God to show you the way if you're not willing to get moving.

Don’t just be a church goer, find God

Don’t ever forget you are beautiful, although your life, your past and your present situation may be ugly. You are beautiful.

Don’t feed your body and keep your spirit starving. Butter bread for your body and living bread for your spirit. Read the Bible every day and keep your spirit away from hunger.

Don't ever marry a person you don't truly love. Don't believe what people often say, that the love will develop in future. Those whose love develop in future are very few. If after a period of time you've been dating and the love doesn't seem to grow, I strongly advise you have to re-think.

Don't just bring people to church; bring them to Christ. Churches are filled with church goers but not Christ followers.

Don't just cry over your 10 or 20 member church. Sometimes, God gives you your future first. The ones you call little carry in them every possibility you desire of the future. God would send you leaders but they may come as weak men and women first. Don't be so 'gift' conscious that you fail to realize that certain things are results of growth.

Don't let hard lessons harden your heart.

Don't make prayer a consistent battle, but rather constantly pray against life's battles.

Don't worry , when everyone looks down on you. God will lift you up to the level they think you don't deserve. 1 Samuel 16:6-7

Dost thou renounce Satan, and all his Angels, and all his works, and all his services, and all his pride?" ... The first act of the Christian life is a renunciation, a challenge. No one can be Christ's until he has, first, faced evil, and then become ready to fight it. How far is this spirit from the way in which we often proclaim, or to use a more modern term, "sell" Christianity today! ... How could we then speak of "fight" when the very set-up of our churches must, by definition, convey the idea of softness, comfort, peace? ... One does not see very well where and how "fight" would fit into the weekly bulletin of a suburban parish, among all kings of counseling sessions, bake sales, and "young adult" get-togethers. ... "Dost thou unite thyself unto Christ?

Do you think God truly meant for us to keep Him locked in the church? Is He our Sunday pocket watch we only pull out for weddings and funerals and church services? He wishes for us to think about Him wherever we are. And a voice singing His praises at a ball is far less irreverent than a stone-cold heart sitting in a pew on Sunday morning.

Down through the centuries the church has contributed more than any other single agency in lifting social standards to new heights.

Duke If you are poor, Are you not blessed in that? Why, poverty Is one of the Christian virtues, [Turns to the Cardinal.] Is it not? I know, Lord Cardinal, you have great revenues, Rich abbey-lands, and tithes, and large estates For preaching voluntary poverty.

During these hard times in the world we should always remember to keep our families and friends close.

Dysfunction comes when we intertwine the church and God and view them as one.

Dvě události zasluhují zvláštní zmínky. Předně, že naši katolíci postupovali svorně se svobodomyslnými a se socialisty; kdo zná poměr obou směrů v době dřívější, uzná s radostí jednotící sílu osvobozenského hnutí. Katolíci už rok před tím (18. listopadu) usnesli se v Chicagu na memorandu, které bylo určeno papeži Benediktu XV. ; bylo odevzdáno papežskému delegátovi, který počin 'Národního Svazu Českých Katolíků' schválil a slíbil doručit memorandum papeži. V memorandu žádána samostatnost Čechoslovanů a osvobození národa československého v zemích historických a na Slovensku. Sám jsem se zúčastnil katolického sjezdu ve Washingtoně dne 20. června. Objasnil jsem proti starým výtkám své náboženské stanovisko, zejména, jak a proč jsem se stal příkrým odpůrcem toho katolicismu politického, jaký se p%usobením Habsburků vyvinul v Rakousku a Uhersku. Vyslovil jsem se pro rozluku státu a církve podle vzoru amerického. Právě američní katolíci chápali, že nezávislost církve na státu nijak není církvi na závadu. Slíbil jsem, že se přičiním o rozluku bez boje; pokud by při této rozluce šlo o úpravu církevních statků, odmítl jsem konfiskaci. Když se výkonný výbor Národního Svazu Českých Katolíků v Americe usnesl 25. října 1918 vyslat své zástupce do Československé republiky, aby o podstatě rozluky poučili duchovenstvo i katolický lid, uvítal jsem tento ämysl velmi rád (dopisem z 15. listopadu). Dodávám ještě, že také Sdruženie Slovenských Katolíkov v Amerike doporučilo úpravu poměru církve k státu ve smyslu rozluky americké, ovšem se zřetelem na poměry slovenské (ve Wilkes Barre 27. listopadu).

España daba vueltas en círculos desde los días de los Reyes Católicos: guerras, dictaduras, reyes engendrando hijos idiotas con primas, tías y medio hermanas, la Iglesia, el perpetuo anclaje en el pasado, los militares, más guerras, más curas, más incultura...

Emotional pain is a terrible thing to endure, but the solution is not anything unbiblical.

Each of us ought to be so happy that Jesus found us and saved us, that we are running to find the next person who needs to be introduced to Him. That's what church is, a community of rescued people celebrating grace, eager to spread the good news of grace and bring other people to the party.

Election has nothing to do with the eternal salvation of individuals but refers instead to God's way of saving nations. It was a major mistake of the Reformation to have decided to follow Augustine in this matter, taking election to refer to grace and salvation. It manages to make bad news out of good news. It casts a deep shadow over the character of God. At it worst, it can lead to awful consequences in terms of pride, arrogance, superiority, and intolerance as the ideology of election takes hold. It causes the church to become, not a sign of the unity of humanity in the love of God, but the sign of favorites in the midst of the enemies of God.

Even as a man just recovering from illness walks only so far as he is obliged to go, with a slow and weary step, so the converted sinner journeys along as far as God commands him but slowly and wearily, until he attains a spirit of true devotion, and then, like a sound man, he not only gets along, but he runs and leaps in the way of God's Commands, and hastens gladly along the paths of heavenly counsels and inspirations.

Even in way we function as a church in the way we approach success, it is often driven by notion of pagan agendas. The bride of Christ has been affected for the stands that she takes and we have taken the consumeristic culture influencing the mind of the redeem.

Even if you are completely busy at work, you should still have a constant ministry in the church

Even those who want to go to heaven would rather kill than be killed.

Everybody gets to play.

Faith UP! Your purpose is GREATER than all your PROBLEMS.

Except... what Jesus said was: "I will build My church," not you. The verse is not a prediction, it is a proclamation of the Lord of the Earth, who never once talked of "children in subjection." or "wives be grave... sober, faithful in all things." In fact, reading the New Testament from the Gospels into Paul's letters, is like watching the Wizard of Oz backwards -- going from a world of color and amazement, into a land of black-and-white with insane devout women trying to kill your dog. -- editorial 2014

Family is the one human institution we have no choice over. We get in simply by being born, and as a result we are involuntarily thrown together with a menagerie of strange and unlike people. Church calls for another step: to voluntarily choose to band together with a strange menagerie because of a common bond in Jesus Christ. I have found that such a community more resembles a family than any other human institution. Henri Nouwen once defined a community as “a place where the person you least want to live with always lives.” His definition applies equally to the group that gathers each Thanksgiving and the group that congregates each Sunday morning. (p. 64-65, Church: Why Bother?)

Fat Charlie wondered what Rosie's mother would usually hear in a church. Probably just cries of "Back! Foul best of Hell!" followed by gasps of "Is it alive?" and a nervous inquiry as to whether anybody had remembered to bring the stakes and hammers.

Every Sunday behind bibles, virgins, soldiers tight against me, longing, and my pelvis rubbing gods' to the big black woman voices. Soldiers tight against me, longing, all that rising, sitting, kneeling to the big black woman voices, spirits warming, tensing, folding, then all that rising, sitting, kneeling like some kind of dance, a mating, spirits warming, tensing, folding and god went “Shhhhh” between my thighs –

Father, help me focus on my strengths and trust others to fill the gaps of my weaknesses” Every leader knows the skills in which they excel. They also are aware of those tasks that they maintain a certain level of competence along with those duties they struggle in accomplishing. In my experience there are "want to’s" and the "have to’s" of leadership. The "want to’s" energize a leader and the "have to’s" zap the leader’s creativity and time. The quicker a leader can find those around them that will fill the gaps of their weaknesses, the more effective they will be in achieving God’s mission.