What if God showed up this Sunday?

If God guaranteed you that he would visit your church this Sunday, and bring a message to the congregation, direct from his own lips, speaking his life-changing truth to the spiritual needs of all, would you think about cutting one or two songs and giving God some extra time? Would you ask the drama team to postpone their 20-minute re-enactment of the Prodigal Son? Would you feel the need, if you were the minister, to put aside some time after God had spoken to tell some stories that made the divine message a bit more real and relevant to the people?
If God did turn up in all his blazing glory to deliver a message to your church, what would your reaction be? Hopefully you would scrap everything, fall trembling on your knees, and say, "Speak, Lord, your servants are listening."

-- Phillip Jensen, The Archer and the Arrow, p.19

Danger to the Church

The church's worst enemy is the man of little faith within its membership, not the faithless man of the world.

-- D.M. Lloyd-Jones, in Murray's biography, vol. 1, p.185

Why Many Churches are Weak

Ignorance of God -- ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with Him -- lies at the root of the church's weakness today.

-- J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 1973

When Pastors Compare Churches

I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small, in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ, at his judgment-seat, you will think you have had enough.

-- John Brown in a letter of paternal counsels to one of his pupils newly ordained over a small congregation, quoted by Mark Dever, in an interview with CJ Mahaney, Feb 3, 2009

Church can be like the Opera!

When people attend church, they may respond to the preacher like a novice at the opera.  They have never been told what a sermon is supposed to do.  Commonly the listener reacts to the emotional highs.  He enjoys the human interest stories, jots down a catchy sentence or two, and judges the sermon a success if the preacher quits on time.  Important matters, such as the subject of the sermon, may escape him completely.

 

-- Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching, p.32

Strategic Planning & Foolishness

“We depend on plans, programs, vision statements—but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning.”

-- D.A. Carson, quoted by Michael Haykin

Deadened Churches

A.W. Tozer surmised that if God decided to take the Holy Spirit out of the church, the church after twenty-five years would still be doing the same thing and not even notice the difference!

-- Greg Heisler, Spirit-Led Preaching, p.xii.