WISDOM COMES THROUGH WORSHIP

'The best way to guard your heart for wisdom is worship, in which the mouth, the mind, the imagination, and even the body are all orientated to God.'

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.85.

SELF-DECEPTION

'Self-deception is not the worst thing you can do, but its the means by which we do the worst things. The sin that is most distorting your life right now is the one you can't see.'

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.84.

TRUE LEADERSHIP

'...leadership is, at its purest, concerned with truth. In its highest calling, it's not concerned with pragmatic solutions, with getting the job done: it is a matter of seeing something more truly than others around you.'

Simon P Walker, Leading out of Who You Are, p.124.

LEADER, KNOW THYSELF

'...all of us create worlds in our own image, but the difference for leaders is that they have the positional authority to do so. If I am right in this, then it is vital for leaders to appreciate that they have the mandate and the power to impose their personality on the community around them. Within the environment over which we have authority and for which we have responsibility (be it a family, a classroom, an office, a voluntary society or the boardroom of a global multinational), we impose our own personal strategy on those around us and seek to create a world that meets our own needs. The community becomes an extension of us, and our followers become performers on our stage, using our script to tell our story. There is an identification of the person of the leader with the performance of the organization they lead.

For us, therefore, there is a moral responsibility and ethical imperative to know ourselves, not for our own benefit but for the benefit of our followers. And not only to know ourselves but to be free from ourselves. It is freedom that is the critical factor: freedom to make decisions and choose courses of action that in the end may lead to personal loss rather than personal gain.'

Simon P Walker, Leading out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership, p.47. 

PREACHING INTO THE RIGHT LIVES

'If you're a church leader...prepare your people for the week they will be having, not the the week you will be having.'

Stephen McAlpine, Being the Bad Guys, p.115.

AN AUTHENTIC APOLOGY

'How can you tell the difference between an apology and a simple concession? An authentic apology, especially when it is offered in response to significant and long-term harm, will be so clearly distinct from every prior experience that it will be unquestionably received. It will appear like a flash of light in a darkened room, like an exploding clap of thunder in the dead of night, like the unveiling of a hidden treasure, like a resurrection from the dead - not because of any of the apologizer's qualities but because of the innate power of truth.'

Wade Mullen, Something's Not Right, p.131.

WHY CHURCHES ARE SO SUSPECTIBLE TO ABUSERS

'The danger of environments that are structured around sacred roles is this: communities need someone to fulfil their keystone roles, and narcissistic individuals eagerly search for opportunities to occupy them. We look for charismatic leaders who promise us a grand future. But, once found, we often discover these leaders were looking for us before we were looking for them. We willingly provide them with the power they desire because they provide us with something we want in return. And over time, narcissistic leaders slowly turn their organizations into monuments to themselves. The role becomes their identity, and success means proving through performance their right to occupy the role. Exposure, then, isn't just a threat to the role; it's a threat to who these leaders are. And for systems structured around keystone personalities, exposure threatens the entire system. So together, a narcissistic leader and a system that fuels and enables narcissism cooperate to maintain the performance to keep the structure intact. The show must go on.'

Wade Mullen, Something's not right: Decoding the hidden tactics of abuse and freeing yourself from its power, p.27.

WHAT IS BLESSEDNESS?

'The Bible is filled with promises of "blessedness." The Hebrew word means far more then mere happiness. It means multidimensional flourishing. In Genesis 3 we see that sin puts us in a condition where we are in contradiction with God, our true selves, other human beings, and even nature itself. We are out of alignment with the creation order in all its dimensions, and so our normal human state consists of spiritual emptiness, inner anxiety and crises of identity, conflicts between nations, classes, and races, and the destruction of our natural environment.

To be blessed, then, is to know partial but substantial healing of each of these areas as God's salvation repairs our hearts and out behavior. Spiritually we reconcile with and grow closer to God. Psychologically we come to understand ourselves and find our feelings and actions coming more more under the Spirit's control. Relationally we discover the added depth and dimension that common faith can add to human friendship. Socially we find ways to serve neighbors and the broader civic community, no longer captive to political ideologies. Salvation is not merely forgiveness and admission to heaven. It means life is healed, slowly but surely, in all its dimensions.'

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.58.

PACIFISM NEEDS A JUST GOD?

'...the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance.'
Miroslav Volf in Timothy with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.54.

CHRISTIAN LEADERS ARE SHEEP FIRST

'Have you been called to shepherd the lambs of God in some fashion? You may shepherd as a pastor, a teacher, a counselor, or a parent. Do not forget that long before God called you to shepherd, he called you first and foremost to be his lamb - a silly, stupid lamb who does stupid things, follows others into ravines, and allows themselves to get devoured. You are a lamb who must stay very close to the Great Shepherd. That is the best and wisest way to lead other lambs. They will follow you there. Your value as a shepherd depends on your life as a lamb, a weak, foolish lamb utterly dependent on the Shepherd. How will you know anything about shepherding if you do not stay close to the Good Shepherd?'

Diane Langberg, Redeeming Power, p.150.