Quotes from Andy Stanley

I once heard John Maxwell say, "You are most valuable where you add the most value." It is vital to the health and success of our organizations that we as leaders discover that task, that narrow arena of responsibility where we add the most value. And once we find it, it's even more vital that we stay there.

If anything has kept me on track all these years, it's being skewered to this principle of central focus. There are many things I can do, but I have to narrow it down to the one thing I must do. The secret of concentration is elimination. (emphasis added) As you evaluate your current leadership environment and responsibilities, what do you see that needs to be eliminated? What needs to be delegated? What would it "not be right" for you to continue doing?

The reason our evangelistic endeavors result in more recycling than actual conversion is that our methods and approaches assume non-Christian rather than post-Christian.

Patience is the decision to move at someone else's pace rather than pressure him or her to match yours.

Are you willing to follow Jesus regardless of where he leads you politically?

The Old Testament does not tell us everything God was doing everywhere in the world. It's not a biography of God's early years. The Jewish Scriptures describe God's activity in connection to one particular people group.

Initially, your vision will exceed your competency.

You want me to follow you on a journey, you have to come get me. The journey must begin where I am, not where you are or where you think I should be.

Vision always precedes preparation. Initially, your vision will exceed your competency.

It's a shame that so many churches are married to a designed-by-Christians-for-Christians-only culture. A culture in which they talk about the Great Commission, sing about the Great Commission, but refuse to reorganize their churches around the Great Commission.

Patience is simply a way of putting the other person first. Patience is an expression of submission.

If you feed an appetite, it grows. Satisfying an appetite does not diminish it. It expands it. To diminish an appetite, you have to starve it.