“If it’s the last thing I do, I will give every ounce of the rest of my life to helping leaders and churches get better.”

Jesus took what I deserved so I could get what He deserved.

More than anything, people want the reality of the discussion at hand. If what is going on in that building is the real thing, if the transforming love and power of Jesus Christ is being experienced, you can sit on a metal folding chair or in a plush theater seat.

I remember being young in the 1960s. We had a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is what is missing in the youth today. This being able to dream and to change the world.

Authentic Christians are persons who stand apart from others. Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine and their convictions more concrete.

God led Jesus to a cross, not a crown, and yet that cross ultimately proved to be the gateway to freedom and forgiveness for every sinner in the world.

Your culture will only ever be as healthy as the senior leader wants it to be.

Life is too short and the world too compassion-starved for you to keep subsisting in situations that drag you down and curtail your potential to help advance the Kingdom. There’s just too much at stake.

Most of us are far too busy for our own spiritual good.

Everyone wins when a leader gets better

For a marriage relationship to flourish, there must be intimacy. It takes an enormous amount of courage to say to your spouse, ‘This is me. I’m not proud of it – in fact, I’m a little embarrassed by it – but this is who I am.

Most people feel best about themselves when they have given their very best.

Is the ambient noise level of my life low enough for me to hear the whispers of the Lord?

There isn’t a single motivation, thought, act, or word that has slipped out of your being and escaped the full, undivided attention of God.

It helps certain church leaders identify the fact that they have the spiritual gift of leadership that the Bible talks about in Romans 12:8.

God wants to father all of us until we’re dead sure of his approval, his guiding power and his promise of heaven.

If you lower the ambient noise of your life and listen expectantly for those whispers of God, your ears will hear them. And when you follow their lead, your world will be rocked.

Being the church that Jesus intended means that we must participate in God’s eternal purposes for his world.

They’re just regular people who live in small towns. They grow up and try to raise families and have a job and go to church and play softball. It’s that way everywhere.

Pull out the stopper! Let’s have a whopper! / But get me to the church on time!.

I grew up in the church, with traditional hymns, but at the same time I was beginning to listen to pop music, the mid-60s.

I promise to look after everyone in the community, not just those who come to church, not just white people, not just the Christians.

Go among the people. Don’t assume you know what church looks like.

In your country club, your church, and business, about fifteen percent of the people are screwballs, lightweights, and boobs, and you would not want those people unrepresented in Congress.

That’s good news and the church should offer it wholeheartedly to anyone.