Quotes from Andy Stanley

Initially, your vision will exceed your competency.

you want me to follow you on a journey, you have to come get me. The journey must begin where I am, not where you are or where you think I should be.

Vision always precedes preparation. Initially, your vision will exceed your competency.

It's a shame that so many churches are married to a designed-by-Christians-for-Christians-only culture. A culture in which they talk about the Great Commission, sing about the Great Commission, but refuse to reorganize their churches around the Great Commission.

Several years ago I concluded that 80 percent of my professional productivity flowed from three activities: Corporate visioncasting Corporate communication Leadership development

patience is simply a way of putting the other person first. Patience is an expression of submission. Your

If you feed an appetite, it grows. Satisfying an appetite does not diminish it. It expands it. To diminish an appetite, you have to starve it.

But I'm not sitting around praying for revival either. I grew up in the "pray for revival" culture.

Whenever pastors assume people in their congregation know certain things, they miss opportunities to teach. If a pastor makes assumptions year after year, then a whole generation has never heard [that truth] for the first time. If we assume too much, we communicate too little.

As followers of Jesus, we should be known as people who like people who are nothing like us.

A sixty-hour workweek will not compensate for a poorly delivered sermon. People don't show up on Sunday morning because I am a good pastor (leader, shepherd, counselor). Ironically, my pastoring skills have almost nothing to do with my success as a pastor! In my world, it is my communication skills that make the difference. So that is where I focus my time.

Leaders must challenge the process precisely because any system will unconsciously conspire to maintain the status quo and prevent change."9 Organizations seek an equilibrium.

I will not trust in riches but in him who richly provides.

The leader is the one who has the courage to act on what he sees.

A leader is someone who has the courage to say publicly what everybody else is whispering privately.

Practical teaching that moves people to action is one of the primary things God uses to grow our faith.

To grow our congregants' faith, we must preach and teach for life change.

Once you've confessed to him that your root problem is that you're not getting your way and once you've completely thoroughly dumped your desires and anxiety on him you'll find it much easier to deal with the people in your life, regardless of whether they ever give you the recognition, love or credit you deserve, you'll find peace because you're no longer looking at these people to meet a need that only God can meet.

What do you want to do? How can I help you find greater satisfaction within this organization? Where are your skills not being put to good use? How can I help you focus more of your time and energy on the thing(s) that tap your core competencies as well as add value to this organization?

Christians start talking about forgiveness as if somehow forgiveness serves as an escape hatch from the outcome of bad decisions.

In 1522, William Tyndale began translating the Greek New Testament into English. Tyndale had the audacity to actually translate the term ekklesia rather than superimpose the widely accepted German term kirche. Instead of church, he used the term congregation. If that wasn't offensive enough, the Greek text led him to use elder instead of priest and repent instead of do penance.11

The law was given to reveal what real sin looked like. When God gave the 10 commandments to Moses, his purpose wasn't to show us how we can be perfect and make it into heaven. God knew we could never live up to it. He did it so we can could see how bad we really can be.

In this way, courage establishes leadership.

God sees your sin as a debt you can't pay. There is no point in asking you to. To think that being good will somehow makes you square with God would be like Allie promising to clean up her room after being confronted with the damage she did to my car. Cleaning up her room doesn't pay me back. It's a nice gesture, but it doesn't fix my car.