I decided to put this online so I could add to it easily.
You’re the highest risk that God has taken. The safaris of Africa or the deep oceans of the Atlantic are wild, but they could never be a rebel or curse their creator. We, on the other hand, could and did. When God chose to create us, He knew that we would spit in His face, profane the sacred and laugh at His laws. But he also know that if He didn’t take the risk of rejection, the risk of watching His son brutally die on the cross, he would have never gotten love.
Risk, it seems, is woven into every cell of our bodies. And if we don’t give in, are bodies get weak, minds depressed and spirits broken. Risk comes in different packages for each one of us. You know what I’m taking about, when your at the church picnic and you eye that person, of the opposite sex, that catches your imagination, but are to fearful to do anything about it. When you feel that nudge, from the Holy Spirit, to tell someone about your love story with God, yet you shy away. And when you hear the gentle whisper of our Father leading you to unfamiliar ground, out of your comfort zone.
Risk is a funny thing. If you fail to do it you might regret it for the rest of your life. But if you do take on the challenge and let your inhibitions go, it could be the scariest and the most Christ-like thing you ever do. - John Eldredge
Anyone can devise a plan by which good people go to heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, which are His enemies, can go to heaven. -Lewis Sperry Chafer
It is God and God alone who determines absolute truth. Truth is objective because God exists outside ourselves; it is universal because God is above all; it is constant because God is eternal. -Josh McDowell
'For the first few days after the September attack, it looked like the W philosophy was to speak incoherently and carry a big stick. That changed, and maybe his presidency did as well, during an un-scripted moment at Ground Zero. Bush was speaking through a megaphone with his arm around a retired fireman when some called out "We can't hear you." Without missing a beat, W responded, "Well I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon." And thus, a presidency.' - Dave Pell, NextDraft
Jesus did not intend His church merely to provide bigger and better amusement for bigger and more upscale audiences. His vision was of a church that would inject His light and life into a dark and dying world. So we had better take the vision of Jesus seriously, or we won't just be amusing ourselves to death. We'll be amusing people to hell. -Leighton Ford, author and speaker
Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and schools combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke words of life such as never were spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of any orator or poet; without writing a single line, He has set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and sweet songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire, which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe. There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man. -Philip Schaff (1819-1893)
'Of one hundred men, one will read the bible, the 99 will read the christian' - Dwight Moody
"Today's shocks are tomorrow's conventions."
"The strategy was flawed because it had an assumption. The assumption was that the people in leadership are actually leaders. [I thought] all I need to do is give them the right information and they can draw the right conclusions….Most people who are in positions of leadership in local churches aren't leaders. They're great people, but they're not really leaders." - George Barna
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Noted Christian author and speaker Tony Campolo tells a story of his visit to Honolulu for a
Christian conference several years ago. His first night there, Tony awoke sometime after three (a six-hour time difference had confused his sleep pattern) and left the hotel in search of a place to get something to eat.
Eventually he found a tiny coffee shop, with one man behind the counter who served him coffee and a doughnut. Tony was the only customer until, quite suddenly, the coffee shop was overrun with women. Some sat at small tables; others sat at the counter near Tony.
From their conversation, Tony learned an astonishing amount about Honolulu's night life, for the
girls were discussing their night's work and their male clients. The girls were prostitutes.
Here's the rest of the story in Tony's own words:
I overheard the woman sitting beside me say, "Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm going to be
thirty-nine."
Her "friend" responded in a nasty tone, "So what do you want from me? A birthday party? What do you want? Ya want me to get you a cake and sing 'Happy Birthday'?"
"Come on!" said the woman sitting next to me. "Why do you have to be so mean? I was just telling you, that's all. Why do you have to put me down? I was just telling you it was my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should you give me a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?"
When I heard that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women had left. Then I called
over the fat guy behind the counter and I asked him, "Do they come in here every night?"
"Yeah!" he answered.
"The one right next to me, does she come here every night?"
"Yeah," he said. "That's Agnes. Yeah, she comes in here every night. Why d'ya wanta know?"
"Because I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday," I told him. "What do you say you and I do something about that? What do you think about us throwing a birthday party for her--right
here--tomorrow night?"
A cute smile slowly crossed his chubby cheeks and he answered with measured delight, "That's
great!"
"Look," I told him, "if it's okay with you, I'll get back here tomorrow morning about 2:30 and
decorate the place. I'll even get a birthday cake!"
"No way," said Harry (that was his name). "The birthday cake's my thing. I'll make the cake."
At 2:30 the next morning, I was back at the diner. I had picked up some crepe-paper decorations at the store and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" I decorated the diner from one end to the other. I had that diner looking good. The woman who did the cooking must have gotten the word out on the street, because by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. It was wall-to-wall prostitutes ... and me!
At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. I had
everybody ready (after all I was kind of the emcee of the affair), and when they came in we all
screamed, "Happy birthday!"
Never have I seen a person so flabbergasted ... so stunned ... so shaken. Her mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
As we came to the end of our singing with "Happy birthday, dear Agnes, happy birthday to you," her eyes moistened. When the birthday cake with all the candles on it was carried out, she lost it and just openly cried.
Harry gruffly mumbled, "Blow out the candles, Agnes! Come on! Blow out the candles! If you don't blow out the candles, I'm gonna hafta blow out the candles." And, after an endless few seconds, he did. Then he handed her a knife and told her, "Cut the cake, Agnes. Yo, Agnes, we all want some cake."
Agnes looked down at the cake. Then without taking her eyes off it, she slowly and softly said,
"Look, Harry, is it all right with you if I ...I mean, is it okay if I kind of ... want I want to
ask you is ... is it OK if keep the cake a little while? I mean, is it all right if we don't eat it
right away?"
Harry shrugged and answered, "Sure! It's okay. If you want to keep the cake, keep the cake. Take it home if you want to."
"Can I?" she asked. Then, looking at me, she said, "I live just down the street a couple of doors.
I want to take the cake home, OK? I'll be right back. Honest!" She got off the stool, picked up
the cake, and, carrying it like it was the Holy Grail, walked slowly toward the door.
As we all just stood there motionless, she left. When the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what else to do, I broke the silence by saying, "What do you say we pray?"
Looking back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a prayer
meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning. But then it just felt like the right thing to do. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for her salvation. I prayed that her life would be changed and that God would be good to her.
When I finished, Harry leaned over the counter and, with a trace of hostility in his voice, said,
"Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?"
In one of those moments when just the right words came, I answered, "I belong to a church that
throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."
Harry waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, "No, you don't. There's no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. I'd join a church like that!"
May our churches become the type of churches that would throw a birthday party for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning, and may we all become the kind of Christian who would bring the cake!
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"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." --Jim Elliot
Ministry is what we leave in our wake as we follow Jesus - Gerald Hartis
The soul dies a bit every time it is involved in a lifestyle that competes. - Gordon McDonald
Corporate Lesson 3
A sales rep, an administration clerk and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out in a puff of smoke. The Genie says, "I usually only grant three wishes, so I'll give each of you just one."
"Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world."
Poof! She's gone.
In astonishment, "Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina coladas and the love of my life."
Poof! He's gone.
"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."
Moral of story: always let your boss have the first say.
Jesus promised his disciples three things--that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble. -G.K. Chesterton
The day people stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them." - Colin Powell
"argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours" - jerry weast
How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? - Philip Yancey
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. - Albert Schweitzer
The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. - Frederick Buechner
When the church becomes an end to itself, it acts pious and begins to turn sour. Anyone with a sensitive nose will smell that and find it dreadful. - Karl Barth
It's easier to count bottles than describe the wine. -- Thomas Stewart, writing in Fortune magazine
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. - G.K. Chesterton
Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders. - Tom Peters
"In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It's called Karoshi. I don't want that to happen to anybody in my department. The trick is to take a break as soon as you see a bright light and hear dead relatives beckon."-- Scott Adams, Dilbert
"This is the American Dream. Work. Buy. Display. Repeat." C. S. Lewis
We need to clear in our heads about what discipleship is. My definition: A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. – Dallas Williard
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all." - Michelangelo (1475-1564)
"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."-- Indira Gandhi
"The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish. To you, as the trusted family counselor, the father will come with his anxieties, the mother with her hidden grief, the daughter with her trials, and the son with his follies. Fully one-third of the work you do will be entered in other books than yours" - Sir William Osler
"If Jesus loved people like we do, he would have lived a long, prosperous life."
--- a quote by someone I don't know
C.S.Lewis
"If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them." MERE CHRISTIANITY, p.82.
Yet, you and I have no rights. We are dead. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. We’ve been purchased with a price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. To surrender yourself totally, irrevocably, without reservations to the living Christ is the greatest privilege man can know in this life. To live the self-centered life is to live in self-imposed spiritual poverty. I'm eighty-one years old, and even though I've preached for many years, I'm just now beginning to truly understand the importance of being dead to Bill Bright. Bill Bright has no rights in my life. Christ has purchased me. I belong to Him. Now every morning you and I must get on our knees and acknowledge we belong to Jesus Christ. Only then can true revival begin. – Bill Bright
Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. - Washington Irving
"Integrity is the unwillingness to violate one's own identity."-- Erich Fromm, psychiatrist and author
It has also been "well said" that "a fish rots from the head down". First rate people hire first rate people. Second rate people hire third rate people.
The fact of the matter is that it is the leaders who set the ethical standards. The followers will follow, because that`s what followers do...they follow.
The most enlightening part of Ron Martoia's session for me was his observation that there are 67 dialogs in the gospels between Jesus and someone else. In 50 of those dialogs, Jesus asks a question he doesn't answer. We aren't called to be walking encyclopedias. We are stewards of mysteries. Colossians 4:3 says we're called to "proclaim the mystery of Christ." Translation: we talk about unanswerable and unfathomable questions.
Mark Batterson, Pastor of National Community Church
"Optimism is the truest form of moral courage"-- Ernest Shackleton
It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause. - H.L. Mencken
Every organization has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does. -- Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review
Awkwardness is natural. If people aren’t feeling awkward doing something new, they’re not doing something new. -- Ken Blanchard
Don’t punish a learner. If you do, you’ll immobilize him. -- Ken Blanchard
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. --Chinese Proverb
John Chancellor said, "If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans."
"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army
"The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed"—William Gibson
"A man without a smiling face must not open a shop." —Chinese Proverb
Robert Bellah, a sociologist who teaches at the Univesity of California, Berkely, is very interested in the influence of religion on the community. In an interview in Psychology Today he said, “We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when 2 percent of its people have a new vision.” – John Stott
It seems to me that the Christian life, when properly lived, is a rhythmic alternation between turning toward God in worship and running toward the world in love and with a passion for justice, between congregation and disperal, liturgy and labor, worship and work, adoration and obedience. – Nicholas Wolterstorff
"You aren't wealthy until you have something that money can't buy" - Garth Brooks
"An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it" - William Bernbach
"The two most powerful words in any language are: What If" - Kraig Kramers
"The quality of your leadership is reflected in the caliber of people choosing to follow you" - Dennis Pear
CNN: Nazi hunter Wiesenthal dead at 96. In his book "Justice, Not Vengeance," Wiesenthal wrote: "Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams
"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe." —Winston Churchill
"The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B." —James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist
I love the story of the night Michael Jordan scored 69 points in one game. It was a blow-out and at the end of the game the coach pulled M.J. out and put in a little known sub who scored two meaningless points in the closing seconds of play. A few weeks later a reporter asked the sub, "What is the highlight of your professional career?" He said, "The night Michael Jordan and I scored 71 points together." This is how I feel about what Jesus is building at Trinity Church. He is doing the work and it is a privilege to partner with Him in His Kingdom.
Mike Sprague
Walt Disney's widow was being interviewed after the completion of Disney World in Florida. The reporter remarked, "Isn't it a shame that your husband never got to see this?" Mrs. Disney quickly corrected him. "He did see it. That is why it is here!"
"Design is treated like a religion at BMW."
"Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation." Steve Jobs
"Every Starbucks store is carefully designed to enhance the quality of everything the customers see, touch, hear, smell or taste," writes CEO Howard Schultz.
"The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others."Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
"I have always believed that the purpose of the corporation is to be a blessing to the employees." —Boyd Clarke
"People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they're really proud of, that they'll fight for, sacrifice for, trust." —Howard Schultz, Starbucks
"The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it." - Abbie Hoffman
"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The most important thing about education is appetite." - Winston Churchill
"an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered." -gk chesterton
"When life gives you lemons, cleanse your palate with lemon sorbet.
Passion isn't the frosting on top. It's the whole damn entree."- Sally Hogshead
"It is still God's policy to work through the embarrasingly insignificant to change his world and create his future" - Tom Sine
"On my door there's a cartoon of two turtles. One says, 'Sometimes I'd like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it.' The other turtle says, 'I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.' Those who have Jesus' heart toward hurting people need to live out their faith by alleviating suffering where they can, by making a difference, by embodying his love in practical ways."
--Peter John Kreeft
"Poverty, at its very core is a mindset. It’s the cruel message whispered by Satan himself: 'You don’t matter. Nobody cares about you. Give up!' More than anything else, the poor feel overwhelmed. Without money, shelter, food, education, justice, or skills to address their plight, they succumb to a downward spiral that leads to despair, then apathy, and ultimately to fatalism." Wess Stafford, President, Compassion Int’l.
Robert F. Kennedy, borrowing from George Bernard Shaw: 'Some people see things as they are and say: "why" I dream things that never were and say "why not?"'
"First step in leadership development -- buy a mirror." - author unidentified
"Don't skate to where the puck is; skate to where the puck will be."- Wayne Gretzsky
"Certainty is the death of imagination." Milton Glaser, ABC Corporation
"When it comes to leadership, the crazy are those who don't hear voices." - Alex McManus.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom - George Patton
"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"A church that is centered on itself is not a church." - Deitrich Bonhoffer, The Cost of Discipleship
"Explode through the hole. Don't be timid. If you're going to make a mistake, make it at full speed." - Charlie Weis, Notre Dame
"Measure self-worth not by what others think of you but by what you think of them." Phillip Yancy, Reaching for the Invisible God, p. 92
"Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both and keeping them bot furious." GK Chesterton, quoted in Reaching for the Invisible God, p. 92
"Occasionally we talk of our Christianity as something that solves problems, and there is a sense in which it does. Long before it does,so, however, it increases both the number and the intensity of the problems. Even our intellectual questions are increased by the acceptance of a strong religious faith...If a man wishes to avoid the disturbing effect of paradoxes, the best advise is for him to leave the Christian faith alone." Elton Trueblood, quoted in Reaching for the Invisible God, p. 94
"We may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us." - Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century
"A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon
"If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill
Inches make champions. - Vince Lombardi
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. - Seneca
Do first things first, and second things not at all. - Peter Drucker
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti
"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Money can't buy you happiness, but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery." - Donald Trump
"Any movement which has benefited society in the long haul has at its core a group of people committed to a cause that they consider greater than themselves and to one another as friends." - James McGregor Burns
"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you & I make every day are of such infinite importance." - CS Lewis
"If you simply aim at doing the right thing, you will never get where you need to be. You need to aim at being the kind of person who does the right thing." - John Ortberg
"There is no heavier burden than a great potential" - Charles Schulz
"Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward." - Kierkegaard
"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come" - Victor Hugo
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it." - Winston Churchill
"The language of business is not the language of the soul or the language of humanity. It's a language of indifference; it's a language of separation, of secrecy, of hierarchy." - Anita Roddick
"Without risk, there is no faith, and the greater the risk, the greater the faith" - Kierkegaard
"When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong - or absolutely right." - Albert Guinon
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." -Voltaire
"One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative but revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo and the status quo no longer belongs to us.If we want to be fair we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo" - Francis Schaeffer
"If your church is full of members, you get an occasional missionary. If your church is full of missionaries, the rest is geography". - Erwin McManus
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo
"You can't behave in a calm, rational manner. You've got to be out there on the lunatic fringe." - Jack Welch
"I don't use the word 'evangelism' because if you're not a Christian, it sounds like a disease...and if you are a Christian, it is one." - Rob Bell, "The Revolutionary Voice", YS Convention ATL 2004
"It is a shame children must die for you to live as you wish" - Mother T.
"Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten." - Motto of the Gucci family
"Never let us negotiate out of fear but never let us fear to negotiate." - John F Kennedy in his inaugural address
"Let others complain that this age is evil. My complaint is that this age is paltry. It lacks passion. " - Soren Kierkegaard
"To become an 'admirer of Jesus' is much easier than to become a follower." - Soren Kierkegaard
"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats." - Howard Aiken
"The people around us are not interested in our Christology, but from time to time they show interest in our neighborology." - Japanese Theologian, Kosuke Koyama
"Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust." - Stephen M.R. Covey (son of Stephen Covey)
"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more." - Woody Allen
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein
"You are not obliged to finish the task, nor are you released from undertaking it." - Rabbi Tarfon
"Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly." - Voltaire
"Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes." - D Bonhoeffer
"No leader sets out to be a leader per se, but rather to express him- or herself freely and fully. That is leaders have no interest in proving themselves, but an abiding interest in expressing themselves." - Warren Bennis
"Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you." - Fran Lebowitz
"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great." - G. K. Chesterton
"The church is at its most false when it seeks to preserve a separation from the world." - D Bonhoeffer
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein
"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." - Andre Gide
"Do not be afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still." - Chinese Proverb
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver
"A year from now you may wish you had started today." - Karen Lamb
"Let me write the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws." - Plato
"If you want to make enemies, try to change something." - Woodrow Wilson
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler
"It is generally much easier to kill an organization than change it substantially." - Kevin Kelly
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that he didn't trust me so much." - Mother Teresa
"That which we would change, we must first love." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world." - author unidentified
"Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal" - Nathaniel Hawthrone
"Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all you could have done, should have done, would have done but did not do." - Johann Wolfgang Goethe
"I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose." - Ludwig van Beethoven
"The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." - G.K. Chesterton
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." - Winston Churchill
"Your enemies will define you so make them interesting." - Bono
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point." - C.S. Lewis
"Most of us prefer the hell of a predictable situation rather than risk the joy of an unpredictable one." - Maxie Dunnam
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean." - Antoine de Saint Extupery
"The evidence for Jesus' resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live." - Wolfhart Pannenberg
"He who has a why can endure any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"God never pulls you in without sending you out." - Tim Keller
"Orville Wright never had a pilot's license" - Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter
A volunteer is someone who executes someone else’s vision. A leader is someone with a vision of his or her own. - Mike Breen
Talk doesn't cook rice. - Chinese Proverb
"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." -J.K. Rowling
"If what I do has no consequences it doesn't make me free. It makes me meaningless." -Dick Foth
A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other. - Simon Sinek
Don't let your budget determine your vision. Faith is having vision beyond your resources - Mark Batterson
"The world doesn’t need better leaders, the world needs better people who lead." - Erwin McManus
Here's the question: If you left your leaders by themselves, would they know what to do? - Mike Breen
Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing - its disciples. Your church is only as good as her disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs, or property are; if your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not radically obedient, your church is not good. - Neil Cole
"The bold adventurer succeeds the best." - Ovid
“We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop.” - Peter Drucker
Somehow, and I have no idea how, K has this crazy motivation and knack for getting us to do family activities. There was the time when she had us do a Christmas play (in the comfort of our own home of course) and over Thanksgiving she had everyone write down what they were thankful for on the back of a cardboard leaf.
A power strip with lots of different electrical plugs for different parts of the world. Made by a company called Zhong *Sheng*. How cool is that? HT - 
One of the comments in another post (a long time ago) asked me to jot down some thoughts about retreats. The exact quote from my post that started it was something like this, "And I'm beginning to be philosophically opposed to retreats..."
Our youth ministry actually has two other students doing internships. One of them is 
The other intern is JF, who is working with our youth ministry administrator, dealing with back office administrative tasks. JF has been helping out in the office, especially of late with retreat paperwork. She is also putting together a scrapbook about her time in the ministry.
My friend 
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