Every church has a flock and a fringe. The secret to church growth is to feed the flock and foster the fringe, and seek to bring the two together as often as possible.
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Mother Teresa said, ‘Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.’
Pastor Mark Batterson writes: “The kingdom of God has survived every threat against it. And it has not just survived – it has thrived. It’s advancing faster than ever before. By the most conservative estimates, a hundred thousand people around the globe put their faith in Jesus Christ every single day. That’s more people than there are seconds in a day, which means there is rejoicing in heaven every single second or every single day!”
Mark Batterson, Play The Man, 2017, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, p.152
A sign seen outside a church read: CH??CH (what’s missing?)… do come and join us this Sunday.
Nothing makes God happier than when we use our God-given gifts to glorify Him. The word ‘glorify’ means to show off. We’re supposed to show God off.
If your church was to close; if it no longer existed, would the community notice?
We are not to sit on our bums sucking our thumbs until Jesus comes!
Smile and Dial. Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.
Smile and treat yourself to a free facelift.
It’s all right to hold a conversation as long as you remember to let go of it once in a while.
Talk is cheap until you hire a lawyer.
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
There is nothing quite so infuriating than to have someone continue talking when you are trying to interrupt!
“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can break my heart.”
Robert Fulghum (clergyman and author)
The most important conversations you have all day long and the ones you have with yourself.
When it comes to communication: Women are complex and subtle. Men are simple and direct.
One of the most complimentary things you can give to another person is your attention.
“Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.”
Ann Landers, U.S. syndicated columnist
“A pregnant silence beats an empty noise any day.”
Tom Morris, author
“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), French general and statesman
“There are times when silence is golden, other times it is just plain yellow.”
Edwin Louis Cole
“If we ever know the feeling of being rather pleased when we hear something unpleasant about another, that is the wrong spirit.”
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1898-1981), Christian minister and theologian
“There you were, a pesky wasp about to be squashed flat, helpless under the wrath of the person you had stung time and time again. And He not only shows mercy, He gives His own Son to die instead of you.”
Explore Bible notes 06/11/2008
If you knew that in 20 minutes time you would stand before God, how would you react? Would you be nervous and pace up and down anxiously or would you say to yourself, “I can’t wait?” – Get right with God.
Dale Carnegie wrote: “There are as many atoms in one drop of water as there are drops of water in the Mediterranean Sea – and, there are as many atoms in one drop of water as there are blades of grass in all the world. And the atoms that make this paper are composed of what? Still smaller things called electrons and protons. These electrons are all rotating around the central proton of the atom, as far from it, relatively speaking, as the moon is from the earth. And they are swinging through their orbits, these electrons of this tiny universe, at the inconceivable speed of approximately ten thousand miles a second. So the electrons that compose this sheet of paper [in this book] you are holding have moved, since you began reading this very sentence, a distance equal to that which stretches between New York and Tokyo.”
Dale Carnegie (1927), How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking”, Verillion: p.214
“People who try to rain on your parade do so because they have no parade of their own.”
Jeffrey Gitomer
Don’t fix the blame; fix the problem!
There are usually two sides to every story; just as long as it doesn’t concern us personally.
“It’s easier to make a paying audience laugh. An audience that doesn’t pay is very critical.”
George Burns
Before you criticise, reprimand or offer your opinion to others, THINK; is it Truthful, is it Helpful, is it Important, is it Needed, is it Kindly?
“What kind of a world would this world be, if everyone in it were just like me?”
William James (1842-1910), American Psychologist and Philosopher
Remove the ‘specky-poo’ from your own eyes before you look to criticise others!
“Clean your finger before you point at my spots.”
Benjamin Franklin
When you point a finger at someone else, notice how there are three fingers, on the same hand, pointing straight back at you!
You cannot carve out a rewarding career with cutting remarks.
When a person blames others for their failure, it’s a good idea to credit others with their success.
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticised anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), first lady and wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
The best way to handle your critics is to simply do ‘it’ anyway. Then you can smile, turn around and say, “Nerh, nerh, nerh-nerh-nerh!”
If I die I shall be with God; if I live, He will be with me.
Never before has there been so much choice in life. Try asking for a painkiller from your chemist! Aspirin or paracetamol? Tablet, capsule or liquid? Brand name or chemist’s own? Regular or extra strength? Small or large packet? It’s enough to give you a headache!
Stephen Gaukroger
Source: Stephen Gaukroger, It Makes Sense, p.36
Ken Costa shares this advice: In the theatre of war, when an officer has to make a snap decision, it is made using the “go-no-go” formula; in an instant, the factors for and against are calculated. If two-thirds align positively, it’s “go,” and if not, it’s “no-go.” Ken says: This may seem a crude calculation, but I have found it a useful tool.
Ken Costa, Know Your Why, 2016, Nashville, Tennessee: W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, p.157
“The idea of a life in which the inward voice of the Holy Spirit decides and directs everything sounds most attractive, for it seems to exalt the Spirit’s ministry and to promise the closest intimacy with God; but in practice this quest for super-spirituality leads only to frantic bewilderment or lunacy… The fundamental mode whereby our rational Creator guides his rational creatures is by rational understanding and application of his written Word [the Bible].
J.I. Packer, theologian, lecturer and author.
“Once I make up my mind, I’m full of indecision.”
Oscar Levant, entertainer
When you make a real decision, you draw a line, and it’s not in the sand but in cement.
Anthony Robbins, author, trainer and motivational speaker
Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you. Tell me what you are committed to, and I will tell you what you will be in twenty years. We become whatever we are committed to.
Rick Warren
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan Publishing, p.180
“When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything.”
General George S. Patton (1885-1945), US military commander
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Those who have gone through the door have completed half their journey.
Italian Proverb.
Follow your inner compass and trust your gut.
“A commitment is like your signature on a contract: it binds you to a course of action.”
Nido Qubein, writer and motivational speaker
“One of man’s greatest desires is to find meaningful purpose in life and to know that his work is worthwhile.”
R. Ian Seymour
“If you don’t get what you want, it’s a sign that you either didn’t want it seriously enough or that you tried to bargain over the price.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), English poet and novelist
The key to will power is WANT-POWER.
INVITATION: Misery requests the pleasure of your company. RSVP.
“Let thy discontents be thy secret; – if the world knows them ’twill despise thee and increase them.”
Benjamin Franklin.
“The most selfish man in the world is the one who is most unselfish with his sorrows. He does not leave a single misery untold to you, or un-suffered by you. He gives you all of them. The world becomes to him a dumping ground of his private cares, worries and trials.”
William George Jordan (1864-1928), writer
“When you bend to help lift another to their feet, you can’t help but lift yourself at the same time.”
R. Ian Seymour
Our disappointments are God’s appointments. How, then, should we deal with them?
Days of darkness still come o’er me;
Sorrow’s path I often tread:
But the Saviour still is with me,
By His hand I’m safely led.
Francis H. Rawley (1854-1952), from ‘I Will Sing The Wondrous Story’
“The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Things have become that bad where I live that even the Samaritans have gone ex-directory!
“Why are thou disquieted; because it happeneth not to thee according to thy wishes and desires? Who is he that hath everything according to his will? Neither I, nor thou, nor any man upon the earth.”
Thomas á Kempis (?1380-1471), German Augustine monk
“U-turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”
Margaret Thatcher (from a speech given at the Conservative Party Conference, 1980.)
Fulfilment in life can be summarised with a simple slogan, ‘Bloom where you are planted.’
The ultimate question is not who you are but whose you are!
Where these four things intersect – experience, opportunity, passion and ability – that’s when your purpose starts.
It is discipline, drive and determination that determines success.
R. Ian Seymour
Pay now and play later or play now and pay later. The choice is up to you.
Do the tough stuff first.
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practised every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.
Jim Rohn, writer and motivational speaker
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘it might have been’.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
“Do the hard jobs first. The easy ones will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), writer and lecturer
“There are some things in life that would be good to have; like a raise, a better boss, or a Ph.D. Then there are things that you must have, such as food, water and air. Discipline ranks in the must have category, right beside food, water and air!”
Paul J. Meyer
Don’t be sad that it’s over; be happy that it happened.
“When you’re down in the mouth, consider Jonah – he came out of it all right!”
Thomas Edison (1847-1931), inventor
Be like Jonah, who proved that you can’t keep a good man down.
“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”
Attributed to Charles Browner
Behind every shadow there’s a light shining. (Think about it.)
“I shall come out of all trials as gold purified by fire.”
William Carey
Christianity is a verb before it’s a noun. Let’s not get confused: there are times when a human being should be a human doing!
“There are few things harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”
Mark Twain (1835-1910), novelist and humourist
“The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do, but the absence of doing it!”
Peter F. Drucker, author and management expert
Sometimes the best policy is Ready – Fire – Aim
“Do what you have to do as quickly as you can so that you can do what you want to do as long as you can.” – Jim Rohn
Some people daydream of achieving success others stay awake and do it.
The rooster crows but it’s the hen that actually delivers the goods.
When it was trendy for people to say, “May the force be with you,” I would say, “The force is within you. Force yourself!”
Harrison Ford, actor
Stop stewing and start doing. Stop yakking and start cracking!
There ain’t no such thing as coulda, shoulda and woulda because if you shoulda and coulda you woulda already done it.
Pat Riley, US basketball coach and author
Too much analysis causes paralysis.
The hardest part of doing anything is actually getting started!
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) ancient Chinese philosopher and teacher
“The best start for a good day’s work is to be up and at it with the first hours of the morning.”
John Wanamaker (1838-1922), pioneer of the department store
You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.
It’s the start that stops most people.
“I am only one. I cannot do everything; but I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
Edward Everette Hale (1822-1909), clergyman and author
If you don’t make dust, you eat dust!
“Call on God, but row away from the rocks.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American poet and essayist.
Someday is not a day of the week.
“Things that are easy to do are also easy not to do.”
Jim Rohn