Quotes about Churches

Many times when people leave churches we think it's a doctrinal issue, but most of the time it's a leadership issue.

It was while I was pastoring that I began to realize that pastors were not growing churches because they didn't understand leadership because they were not trained, adequate leaders.

In missional churches, the baby birds have been pushed out of the nest and are learning to fly for themselves.

Our churches are filled with "leaking" Christians who have not treated their emotions as a discipleship issue.

If anything, things are even more difficult for Christian artists. Some churches do not consider art a serious way to serve God. Others deny that Christians in the arts have a legitimate calling. As a result, Christian artists often feel like they have to justify their existence. Rather than providing a community of support, some churches surround them with a climate of suspicion.

Sadly, when pastors choose to neglect controversial issues, they do great damage to the spiritual growth of their congregates. We have generations of young people in our churches who simply believe what the world believes on social and moral issues, and they don't think biblically on these matters.

The required cheerfulness that characterizes many of our churches produces a suffocating environment of pat, religious answers to the painful, complex questions that riddle the lives of hurting people.

Jesus spoke of miracles because he saw all of life as miraculous. Miracles appear to us as the eyes of our hearts are opened, and we see clearly. But, as defined by the churches, a miracle is a monstrosity—something contrary to nature, rather than in harmony with it.  Jesus respected Moses and the Hebrew prophets, but didn't limit himself to repeating their insights. He spoke from the heart, not from a book, and brought forth a new revelation: the divinity of the soul.

Unless we learn how to humbly tell each other our giving stories, our churches will not learn to give.

Suppose churches taught that God is happy and that he is the source of all happiness. Suppose Christians believed that God calls them to view work, play, music, food, and drink as gracious gifts from God's hand to be responsibly enjoyed within the parameters of his commands.

Imagine if our churches were known for being communities of Jesus-centered happiness, overflowing with the sheer gladness of what it means to live out the good news of great joy. Imagine if our children brought their friends to church and their comment was, "Those people seem so nice . . . and happy.

Nothing is more poisonous than the spirit of entitlement that permeates our culture and sometimes, sadly, our churches.