Some recent ministry one-liners

All of us are trying to prove to ourselves, using one method or another, the superiority of the ministry we are leading over all others.

The curse leveled upon work by God in Genesis 2 extends into the vocation we have in ministry; we may try to define ourselves there as readily as men do in any other vocation.

"If you harbor bitter envy or selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast about or deny the truth." So says James. Shouldn't we admit that we are often bitterly envious of other ministries, and that our ambitions for our ministries are often selfish?

The constant tendency of our heart towards self-justification is extremely dangerous in ministry. We must search our motives with the Scriptures!

What my sinful heart wants out of a discipleship relationship is often quite different from what the other person needs.

Are we really considering what will build up the individuals in our ministries? Can we honestly assess this and not simply justify existing practices?

Ministry deals with the deepest, most profound and important needs of people. Programs and systems will not address these! They just won't. Individual care is the only thing that will.

Do not criticize, to anyone, ever, the efforts of other ministries, unless they are clearly unBiblical. It is the easiest thing in the world to criticize, and it is almost never useful. Better to pray.

We must be constantly coming back to the pride that is in our hearts, all of us who minister, and searching for it, attacking it, killing it. Pride is there, in every decision we make.

We all pay lip service to prayer, but few of us make serious time for it.

Our heart in ministry must be authentic transformation. Know the quality of a ministry by the fruit it bears in the lives of individuals.