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" Tithing is like training wheels when it comes to giving. It's intended to help you get started, but not recommended for the Tour de France. "

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" I need an inspiration that is grounded in reality while thoroughly transcendent. "

" The church is in the hope business. "

" Better to be a loving person without knowing how you got there, than an expert no one can stand to be around. "

" People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller. "

" Normally, if someone's legacy will outlast their life, it's apparent when they die. On the day when Alexander the Great, or Caesar Augustus, or Napoleon, or Socrates, or Muhammad died, their reputations were immense. When Jesus died, his tiny, failed movement appeared clearly at an end. "

" The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because... he was a single man. "

" Evil exists. Evil is real. One of the hallmarks of evil is that it seeks to convince its victims that it exists 'out there.' "

" A simple way to address hidden curriculum issues is to spend time talking with staff and key leaders about their spiritual lives. "

" We call an obsession with having someone's approval 'co-dependency;' the Bible's word for it is idolatry. A country can be an idol. A family can be an idol. "

" Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader. "

" Far more books get written about how to get more people in your church than how to get the people already in your church to have more humility and sincere love. "

" The only true and lasting inspiration for life is genuine love for God, and submitted gratitude that I get to be a part of the redemptive quest. "

" Prudence is not hesitation, procrastination, or moderation. It is not driving in the middle of the road. It is not the way of ambivalence, indecision, or safety. "

Procrastination

" From ancient times, the core idea of the soul is the soul is the capacity to integrate different functions into a single being or into a single person. The soul is what holds us all together: what connects our will and our minds and our bodies and connects us to God. "

" When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate. "

" I have always heard that you need to give yourself a long time to unplug when you do a sabbatical. I unplugged so fast I was a little concerned that I was losing brain capacity. "

" Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like it or not, by accident or on purpose, so there is an 'inner you.' You have a spirit. And it's constantly being shaped and tugged at: by what you hear and watch and say and read and think and experience. "

" There are no clear boundary lines between what is physiological, what is psychological, and what is spiritual. Those are language domains that make sense and have integrity but overlap significantly. "

" A bad sermon is like a car wreck - everyone slows down to see what happened. "

" We do not need answers or formulas to minister in crisis. "

" Sin is, somehow, at the root of all human misery. Sin is what keeps us from God and from life. It is in the face of every battered woman, the cry of every neglected child, the despair of every addict, the death of every victim of every war. "

" In community, we discover who we really are and how much transformation we still require. This is why I am irrevocably committed to small groups. Through them, we can accomplish our God-entrusted work to transform human beings. "

" The hurried can become unhurried. But it will not happen by trying alone, nor will it happen instantly. You will have to enter a life of training. "

" I have given up the idea that there is an opposition-free church out there. But I have gained something else - an appreciation for the gift of opposition. When it comes, I learn something about my motives. When it comes, I get to test my courage. "

" When I teach the formal curriculum, I have the chance to think about it ahead of time. I can rehearse it. I can illustrate it with self-deprecating humor and humble-sounding personal disclosure. I can try to make it comes out just right. "

" Tithing is a bad ceiling but an excellent floor. "

" My wife is one of the most extroverted people I know. She could out-talk Oprah and Joyce Meyer simultaneously. "

" Pastors have historically understood their primary battle to be not the battle to build a big church, but the battle against the power of sin. "

" Opposition is an inevitable reality of pastoral life. "

" When preaching is done right, it can change lives. When it's done badly, my failure goes beyond the merely human. "