Quotes from Andy Stanley

right standing with God comes through faith in the promises of God.

According to Sports Illustrated, an amazing 78 percent of NFL players find themselves bankrupt or financially stressed within two years of retirement. And 60 percent of NBA players are broke within five years of walking off the court.

The generosity and compassion of Christians changed the world once. What would happen if the church became known for such behavior again?

Why does every relationship end the same way?" In most cases the answer is, "Because every relationship started the same way.

What are the two or three things that you and only you are responsible for? What, specifically, have you been hired to do? What is "success" for the person in your position? Now let's slice it even thinner. Of the two or three things that define success for you, which of those are in line with your giftedness? Of the tasks you have been assigned to do, which of them are you specifically gifted to do?

Identify the areas in which you are most likely to add unique value to your organization—something no one else can match—then leverage your skills to their absolute max. That's what your employer expected when he put you on the payroll! More importantly, leveraging yourself generates the greatest and most satisfying return on your God-given abilities.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)

Nothing hinders morale more than when team members with separate agendas are pulling against one another.

The health of your marriage tomorrow will be determined by the decisions you make today.

The truth is that church by its nature is a very general concept and most people are not looking for a church; otherwise, churches would be full of visitors every week. What people are looking for is something that works for them as individuals. And that is something specific, not general.

The first thing that sometimes keeps next generation leaders from playing to their strengths is that the idea of being a balanced or well-rounded leader looks good on paper and sounds compelling coming from behind a lectern, but in reality, it is an unworthy endeavor. Read the biographies of the achievers in any arena of life. You will find over and over that these were not "well-rounded" leaders. They were men and women of focus.

The teaching philosophy of most companies today is similar to that of the schools I went to – lots of people sitting in a classroom, with an expert up front telling you things. I've always thought that if that was the natural way for people to learn, we ought to see four-year-olds spontaneously forming themselves into rows.

When the point person in an organization strives for balance, he potentially robs other leaders of an opportunity to perform at the top of their game.

If you want your church to stand the test of time, then you have to be replaced.

Whenever a leader tries to build job security by making himself indispensable to the organization, he in fact does the organization a disservice. Job security is too often based on someone's insecurity.

When a leader attempts to become well-rounded, he brings down the average of the organization's leadership quotient—which brings down the level of the leaders around him. Don't strive to be a well-rounded leader. Instead, discover your zone and stay there. Then delegate everything else.

It's spiritually deforming because fear entices us to place our faith in the person, party, or platform that promises to protect us from whatever they've convinced us we should fear.

Every leader has authority over arenas in which he has little or no competence. When we exert our authority in an area where we lack competence, we can derail projects and demotivate those who have the skills we lack.

There's never any cumulative value to all the things we do instead of the things we know are truly important. What

I always end up where the road I've chosen takes me.

Whenever we have more than we need, our natural assumption will be that it's for our own consumption.

None of us plan--or intend--to get into trouble. The problem is, we don't plan not to.

Your past experience must be a grid through which you evaluate every decision. Chances are, there are places you have no business visiting because of your history—places that would have no impact on the average person, but the average person doesn't share your experience with those environments.

There is a cumulative value to investing small amounts of time in certain activities over a long period. • There are rarely any immediate consequences for neglecting single installments of time in any arena of life. • Neglect has a cumulative effect. • There is no cumulative value to the urgent things we allow to interfere with the important things. If all of this is true, and time equals life, what is the wise thing to do as it relates to your time? My