Best Congregation Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“So the tradition from Europe is that you're supposed to emphasize the mind over the body, so you sing from a very kind of staid perspective. Again, there are charismatic white congregations all over, and they don't sing that way. But, you know, on the average.”

Knows Way Mind Kind Body White Perspective Europe Tradition Average Congregation Charismatic

Author:Michael Emerson

“I see this in the way that sermons are preached. How would you give a Black Nationalist speech or campaign for the Republicans when you're an integrated congregation? It doesn't happen.”

Way Giving Happens Black Republican Speech Campaigns Sermons Integrated Congregation

Author:Michael Emerson

“I see it happen in uniracial congregations all the time. But people - when they're in mixed company, we speak differently.”

People Happens Speak Company Congregation

Author:Michael Emerson

“So one of the profound things we found when studying these congregations, the mixed ones, is just how much overlap and interracial ties that develop not only with the people in the congregation, but they start meeting each other's families, and their friends, and they go to each other's neighborhoods if they live in different neighborhoods, and at work they meet people they wouldn't otherwise met, and so it creates a whole new definition of what the group is.”

People Ifs Different Whole Found Study Groups Mets Meetings Profound Definitions Ties Neighborhood Congregation

Author:Michael Emerson

“Then of course there are bigger things that matter, like who do I see up there in the congregation? Do I see myself up there? Well, I don't.”

Wells Matter Courses Bigger Congregation Things That Matter

Author:Michael Emerson

“There's one denomination in particular, though, that has pushed very hard to be multiracial in its denomination - not only its denomination but, I mean, in its congregations, and it's called the Evangelical Covenant Church, http://www.covchurch.org/ which is headquartered in Chicago. Their whole goal is that's the kind of churches they start, multiracial, and I think they say now 20 percent of their churches are that.”

Thinking Kind Mean Hard Whole Goal Church Particular Percent Chicago Covenant Evangelical Congregation Multiracial Denominations

Author:Michael Emerson

“So these are the kind of things that now when people are trying to move towards multiracial congregations that they're stressing. They're talking about these scriptures that say we ought to come together, and that at Pentecost, when that the Holy Spirit is said to have come upon the first Christians, they were given the ability to speak in different languages, and so that no matter who the people were, they could all worship together.”

“The trouble with being a secular humanist is that we don't have a congregation. We don't meet so it's a very flimsy tribe, but there's a wonderful quotation from Nietzsche. Nietzsche said, Only a person of deep faith can afford the luxury of skepticism. Something perfectly is going on. I do not doubt it, but the explanations I hear do not satisfy me.”

Persons Said Doubt Wonderful Trouble Luxury Explanation Humanist Skepticism Secular Quotations Tribes Congregation

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“I've chronicled the experience of the mother of a transgender child who got attacked by the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, and that of a transgender woman who was asked to deliver a sermon at her Montana church and got a standing ovation from her congregation. The idea that Christianity is a blanket term that encompasses both of those attitudes seems ludicrous to me.”

Children Ideas Seems Mother Term Church Attitude Christianity Standing Sermons Transgender Blanket Congregation Montana Tennessee Ku Klux Klan Ovation

Author:Andrew Solomon

“There is real value in these local congregations. For me, a lot of it is the value of the sacraments we share. In neighborhoods like ours, the churches provide stability.”

Real Values Church Share Locals Neighborhood Stability Sacraments Congregation Real Value

Author:Shane Claiborne

“If my life is any example, the work that youth workers are doing is very, very important. It tends to get marginalized in the church or seen as less important than being a senior minister in a large, prosperous congregation; but I don't believe that for a minute. I think this is absolutely critical work in the life of the church; and I think my path in life would have been much different if it hadn't been for my youth minister, Burt Randle, and a series of campus ministers in both college and graduate school.”

“When I had something I thought God was talking to me about, the first thing I did, before I ever talked to the congregation, was to sit down with the major influencers of the church and share with them what I thought God was speaking to me. I gave them time for input or questions. Many times they would ask questions and I would reply, "I need to spend more time on this. I'm not sure I'm thinking clearly there." Other times they added value and helped make this vision better or more accessible to the people.”

People Thinking Needs Firsts Values Asks Church Talking Vision Share Majors Not Sure More Time Input Congregation Added Value Thinking Clearly

Author:John C. Maxwell

“By the time I went to the pulpit, the vision was never on the same level as when God first gave it to me; it was clearer and bigger. It was better because the body of Christ complemented what God had given me. So when I gave the vision to the congregation, the influencers already bought it. Then after the people have heard my message, and migrate to the influencers, these influencers are already my allies and help me communicate the vision to the congregation.”

People Firsts Helping Body Given Christ Levels Vision Heard Messages Bigger Communicate Help Me Allies Congregation Pulpit Body Of Christ God First Migrate

Author:John C. Maxwell

“What happens at the average church or synagogue or mosque is that I don't know many priests or ministers or rabbis who say to their congregation, 'go home and talk about the religion at the kitchen table with your kids...talk about God, talk about what this is all about.' They say in general, come back on the weekend, we'll talk to you about it.”

Knows Home Happens Kids Church Tables Average Ministers Kitchen Priests Weekend Congregation Mosques Rabbi Synagogue Kitchen Table

Author:Norman Lear

“It's time to start bringing the congregations down to City Hall and to ask the mayors, the city councils and the school boards, "What's the plan? What's the local government going to do for us?"”

Government School Asks Cities Plans Locals Boards Halls Council Mayors Congregation Local Government School Board City Council City Hall

Author:Van Jones

“In certain ways, I think the work in the Evangelical community has been the most interesting and the most promising. Partly because Evangelical congregations may be harder to convince about issues but, on the other hand, are more likely to do something about it.”

Thinking Way May Has Beens Hands Certain Community Interesting Issues Harder Convince Most Interesting Evangelical Congregation

Author:Bill McKibben

“Collections of books and other documents, either printed or electronic, are a form of congregation.”

Book Form Collections Documents Printed Congregation

Author:Tom Peters

“The congregation that I was raised in was one that sang and a non-instrumental fashion. It was all a cappella singing, and so that had a major influence on me.”

Influence Fashion Majors Singing Raised Congregation

Author:Dwight Yoakam

“I go to a church here in New Jersey that is just a very exciting place, and I just love to be there on Sunday morning - I just sit there in a pew with my wife, that's all I do, but I'm very much a part of that congregation. We've got a fantastic rector,she brings in people from places like the United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota, where you've got good teaching, and our people are being introduced to great material and they really respond. They're able to believe without crossing their fingers. And I think that's a real step forward.”

“I don't have any complaints about homosexuals being married in a civil ceremony. But I don't think that the government ought to require religious organizations, churches, should perform marriages between homosexuals if a local congregation decides otherwise. I believe in the autonomy of individual churches.”

“I believe in the separation of church and state. The government has the right to say what happens in a civil case, like in a court house. And religious people have a right to say what happens in a church congregation. They are two completely separate things.”

People Believe Two States Government Happens House I Believe Church Religious Cases Court I Believe In Separation Church And State Separation Of Church And State Congregation

Author:Jimmy Carter

“[Joseph Ratzinger] is a man who as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had everything in his hands. He conducted all the investigations, and went on, went on, went on, until he couldn't go any further in the execution.”

Men Hands Doctrine Execution Investigation Congregation

Author:Pope Francis

“My wife and I are affiliated with a temple here in Los Angeles. We feel very close to the congregation and to the rabbi, who happens to be my wife's cousin and who I admire greatly. I talk to him regularly but I consider myself more spiritual than religious.”

Feels Inspiration Happens Spiritual Religious Wife My Wife Admire Temples Los Angeles Cousin Congregation My Cousin Rabbi

Author:Leonard Nimoy

“If people don't know their pastor, it's easy to put the pastor on a pedestal and depersonalize him or her. It's also easy for pastors, who don't know their congregations, simply to classify congregants as saved or unsaved, involved or not involved, tithers or non-tithers.”

People Ifs Knows Easy Involved Saved Pastor Congregation Pedestal

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.”

“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

“I have a hundred-year-old aunt who aspires to sainthood, and whose only wish has been to go into the convent, but no congregation, not even the Little Sisters of Charity, could tolerate her for more than a few weeks, so the family has had to look after her. Believe me, there is nothing so insufferable as a saint, I wouldn't sic one on my worst enemy.”

Source: My invented country: a memoir

“ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”

“Not one of the orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows that he is not expected to search after the truth, but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Hands Church Justice Brain Members Majority Dare Clubs Expected Ministers Orthodox Creeds Employed Imprisonment Congregation Pulpit Culprit

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“They will be like shadows, they will be like wraiths, gray members of a congregation of nightmare; hark! his long wavering howl . . . an aria of fear made audible. The wolfsong is the sound of the rending you will suffer, in itself a murdering.”

Long Made Suffering Sound Members Shadow Nightmare Gray Howl Congregation Wavering Aria Wraith

Book:Burning your boats: the collected short stories

Source: Burning your boats: the collected short stories

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated....As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Knows Men Book Dies Language Mankind Involved Rings Thee Islands One Man Bells Preacher Chapters Volume Torn Diminish Sermons Tolls Congregation Whom The Bell Tolls

Author:John Donne

“A good church is a Bible-centered church. Nothing is as important as this--not a large congregation, a witty pastor, or tangible experiences of the Holy Spirit.”

Important Spirit Church Holy Witty Holy Spirit Biblical Pastor Tangible Congregation

Author:Alistair Begg

“I do not like a high-organized church. I think that as soon as the congregation reaches a level of one hundred or so people, it is time to build a new church. As soon as the congregation gets to the point where you are not on fairly intimate terms with every other person in that church, then you have become a theater where people can attend services. I do not think you can attend a church service. Service is not something which is there to be viewed as if it were a play or a movie.”

People Ifs Thinking Persons Play Term Church Levels Hundred Theater Intimate Organized Where You Are Congregation Church Service

Author:Charles M. Schulz

“He was one of those men who, even in the years of peace, would have advised his congregation that while God may well be honored by the inflexibility of the pious, he might also be honored by the flexibility of the sensible.”

Men Years Wells May Might Sensible Honored Flexibility Pious Congregation

Book:Schindler's List

Source: Schindler's List

“A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.”

People Men Should Order Complaining Pastor Congregation Accusers

Book:Life Together

Source: Life Together

“Church always seemed the same. Jess could tune it out the same way he tuned out school, with his body standing up and sitting down in unison with the rest of the congregation but his mind numb and floating, not really thinking or dreaming but at least free.”

Thinking Way Mind Dream Body School Church Sitting Standing Tunes Floating Numb Sitting Down Congregation Unison

Book:Bridge to Terabithia

Source: Bridge to Terabithia

“Theology is not a private subject for theologians only. Nor is it a private subject for professors. Fortunately, there have always been pastors who have understood more about theology than most professors. Nor is theology a private subject of study for pastors. Fortunately, there have repeatedly been congregation members, and often whole congregations, who have pursued theology energetically while their pastors were theological infants or barbarians. Theology is a matter for the Church.”

Matter Whole Church Study Subjects Members Understood Theology Professors Pastor Theologian Infant Pursued Theological Barbarians Congregation

Book:God In Action: Theological Addresses

Source: God In Action: Theological Addresses

“I give money for church organs in the hope the organ music will distract the congregation's attention from the rest of the service.”

Giving Religion Church Attention Atheism Atheist Organs Congregation

Author:Andrew Carnegie

“When you put biblical truth to the songs used in churches, you'll have the congregation leave singing the sermon. You'll have God's thoughts, things that are God-breathed, stuck in their heads. It's sad to think about a really catchy tune paired up with bad theology because that could, honestly, do a lot of damage in church.”

Thinking Used Song Church Worship Singing Honestly Stuck Theology Damage Tunes Biblical Sermons Congregation Catchy Biblical Truth

Author:Laura Story

“When the rest of the congregation rose at the entrance of the choir he kept his seat. He argued that rising to one's feet at such a time tended to make the choir-boys conceited.”

Time Boys Feet Rose Rising Seats Entrances Choir Congregation Conceited

Book:The Story of Lewis Carroll: Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland, Miss Isa Bowman

Source: The Story of Lewis Carroll: Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland, Miss Isa Bowman

“When we are going to enter the water ... in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, his pomp, and his angels. After this we are immersed three times, making a somewhat larger pledge than the Lord appointed in the Gospel. Then we are taken up [a reference to the Roman tradition of recognizing a newborn baby as a member of the family]. We first taste a mixture of milk and honey and from that day we refrain from the daily bath for a whole week.”

“The pastors and ministry leaders came away energized to have voter registration drives at their churches and motivated to encourage their congregations to "vote their values."”

Past Values Opportunity Growth Church Leader Vote Voters Motivated Ministry Pastor Congregation Registration Voter Registration

Author:Paul Smith

“The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think. You may preach to a congregation by the year and not affect its thought because it is not called upon for definite action. But throw your subject into a campaign and it becomes a challenge.”

Thinking Men Years May Facts Action Force Challenges Subjects Vote Campaigns Voting Definite Congregation Not Voting

Book:Practical Agitation

Source: Practical Agitation

“Fonny and I just sat there... while the voices of the congregation rose and rose around us, without mercy... Teddy had the tambourine, and gave the cue to the piano player-I never got to know him: a long dark, evil-looking brother, with hands made for strangling; and with these hands he attacked the keyboard like he was beating the brains out of someone he remembered. No doubt the congregation had their memories, too, and they went to pieces. The church began to rock.”

Knows Long Made Hands Evil Voice Church Memories Dark Brain Music Doubt Pieces Player Rocks Brother Mercy Rose Remembered Piano Sat No Doubt Rock Music Keyboards Congregation Teddy Strangling

Author:James A. Baldwin

“In social institutions, the whole is always less than the sum of its parts. There will never be a state as good as its people, or a church worthy of its congregation, or a university equal to its faculty and students.”

People States Whole Social Church Students Equal Institutions University Worthy Faculty Congregation Social Institutions

Book:A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

“Wherever God erects a house of prayer the Devil always builds a chapel there; And 't will be found, upon examination, the latter has the largest congregation.”

Found House Prayer Atheism Devil Positive Atheism Latter Examination Congregation Chapel

Author:Daniel Defoe

“I am accounted by some people as a good man. How cheap that character is acquired! Pay your debts, don't borrow money, nor twist your kitten's neck off, nor disturb a congregation, etc., your business is done. I know things of myself, which would make every friend I have fly me as a plague patient.”

People Knows Men Done Character Business Pay Patient Debt Necks Etc Good Man Twists Plague Kitten Congregation

Book:Little essays, sketches and characters, by C. Lamb, selected from his letters by P. Fitzgerald

Source: Little essays, sketches and characters, by C. Lamb, selected from his letters by P. Fitzgerald

“A congregation that is not deeply and earnestly involved in the worldwide proclamation of the gospel does not understand the nature of salvation.”

Doe Christian Religion Prayer Involved Salvation Missions Christian Inspirational Missionary Congregation Proclamation Missions In Life Great Missionary

Author:Theodore Wilhelm Engstrom

“The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not "What a lovely sermon!" but "I will do something."”

Life Inspirational Action Christian Tests Christian Inspirational Lovely Preacher Preaching Sermons Congregation

Author:Saint Francis de Sales

“People with mental problems are our neighbors. They are members of our congregations, members of our families; they are everywhere in this country. If we ignore their cries for help, we will be continuing to participate in the anguish from which those cries for help come. A problem of this magnitude will not go away. Because it will not go away, and because of our spiritual commitments, we are compelled to take action.”

People Ifs Country Helping Problem Action Spiritual Cry Members Commitment Mental Health Neighbor Our Family Going Away Continuing Anguish Compelled Magnitude Congregation

Author:Rosalynn Carter

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Congregation Quotes