Quotes about Church

True zeal is connected with a holy life. It is remarkable how often the greatest zealots for God, the Church, and sound doctrine (as they regard it), have been unholy and even immoral in their lives.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great British pulpiteer, had said in a sermon almost exactly a hundred years before: The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.

Instead of trying to bring men and women to Christ in the biblical way, we are consumed with the unbiblical concept of "church growth." The Bible does not say we should aim at numbers but rather urges us faithfully to proclaim God's message in the boldness of the Holy Spirit. This will build God's church God's way.

In the church today, we are falling prey to the appeal of "New!" The old truths of the gospel don't seem spectacular enough. We're restless for the latest, greatest, newest teaching or technique. We pastors in particular seem to search for a shortcut or some dynamic new strategy that will fire up our churches.

In too many churches today, people don't see manifestations of God's power in answer to fervent praying. Instead, they hear arguments about theological issues that few people care about. On Christian radio and television we are often merely talking to ourselves.

All changes — ?spiritual revivals, a turnaround in a church, a barren life now bearing fruit — ?begin when there is a discontentment that says, "I refuse to accept this.

When I am asked what my vision for the Brooklyn Tabernacle is, I always respond, "I don't have one. Last time I read my Bible, it said it was Christ's church, not mine.

Only turning God's house into a house of fervent prayer will reverse the power of evil so evident in the world today.

One of the ways the Spirit glorifies Christ is to build up his body for the common good. That is how God strengthens his church. Since the church is a spiritual organism, it needs spiritual ministry to build it up. Spiritual ministry can only come by the Holy Spirit showing himself through human beings. His power flows through human vessels.

As we open up our church meetings to God's power, they will not always follow a predetermined schedule or order. Who can outline what God might have in mind?

Even an undercurrent of division and strife will weaken that body of believers. The pastor of such a church ends up on a treadmill, expending a lot of effort and energy but making little progress.

All over America, churchgoers chafe at a Sunday morning service that runs an hour and ten minutes, but have no problem with three-hour football games on television.