Quotes from Ed Stetzer

Prayer: outputting spiritual/gospel concern.

If Satan can get us to interpret our mission task as populating heaven with as many people as possible, we will resort to going only to those places of receptivity and harvest and neglect doing what is needed to reach the unreached and penetrate the dominions of darkness with the light of the gospel.

In prayer, we bring to Jesus those anxieties and insecurities that would otherwise fuel our outrage. The discipline of prayer prevents us from venting, flaming, or savaging others, either in person or online. I've never seen people go after someone they're praying for.

The discipline of prayer actually guards our hearts and minds in Christ.

In essence, we cannot hope to engage the age of outrage unless we are properly devoted to the habit of prayer. Without it, we will inevitably succumb to the temptations and pressures that give rise to outrage rather than proclaim the victory and peace of Christ.

Fasting: disciplining spiritual/gospel reliance.

Almost all comeback churches identified their mood of worship as celebrative and orderly (96% and 95%, respectively) with a significant emphasis on being informal and contemporary (81% and 69%, respectively).

Fasting is by far the most neglected spiritual discipline, with roughly 80 percent of churchgoing Protestants saying they have not fasted in the past six months.

Fasting is designed to reorient our hearts to God and to reveal our dependency upon him and the complete insufficiency of this world to meet our needs.

God does not bless us so we can enjoy a prosperous lifestyle but to make His way known throughout the earth.

The impetus for our mission task is to understand that everything we are—everything that happens to us and everything that we do—is to align us with the kingdom purpose for God to be exalted among the nations.

Jesus did not say "make converts" or "teach them to pray a particular prayer." Rather, this is about people who are born again through the power of the Savior who died and rose again. You and I are to participate in the work of multiplying the number of surrendered learners and followers of Christ. We are to lead people into the kingdom by way of the Cross.