“Any church program, no matter how impressive, if it is not supported by an adequate prayer program, is little more than an ecclesiastical treadmill. It is doing little or no damage to Satan's kingdom.” IfsLittlesMatterChurchPrayerProgramKingdomsSatanDamageAdequateImpressiveTreadmills Author:Paul Billheimer
“When a church is truly convinced that prayer is where the action is, that church will so construct its corporate activities that the prayer program will have the highest priority.” ActionChristianChurchPrayerActivityHighestProgramConvincedPrioritiesCorporateConstructs Author:Paul Billheimer
“I am also actively involved in my church and its community activities. We have programs to improve the lives of our congregation and programs of outreach in the community.” CommunityChurchInvolvedActivityProgramCongregationOutreach Author:Samuel Wilson
“I'm a pastor of a local church. I'm not a televangelist. I've never had a televised program. I'm a pastor. A pastor's role is to care and comfort, encourage, teach, and everything that I do, even when I meet with world leaders, is from a pastor's heart.” WorldHeartCareChurchLeaderRolesTeachComfortProgramLocalsPastorWorld LeaderLocal Church Author:Rick Warren
“As in 1925, creationists are not battling for religion. They have been disowned by leading church men of all persuasions, for they debase religion even more than they misconstrue science. They are a motley collection to be sure, but their core of practical support lies with the evangelical right, and creationism is a mere stalking horse or subsidiary issue in a political program...The enemy is not fundamentalism; it is intolerance. In this case, the intolerance is perverse since it masquerades under the 'liberal' rhetoric of 'equal time'.” MenHas BeensPoliticalLyingReligionChurchEnemyCasesSupportIssuesEqualProgramHorseMereCorePracticalsCollectionsIntoleranceRhetoricFundamentalismPersuasionStalkingEvangelicalCreationismMasquerade Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works best for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what is best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture. But it is not biblical Christianity.” WayLooksCultureHouseChurchChristianityCareersPlansCarFitClothesProgramMy FamilyVersionsBiblical Author:David Platt
“I have followed the Church in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected.” GivingYearsHas BeensCharacterChurchReligiousPartyHundredProgramCriticismLogicalAmendmentsCreedsFifteenRejectedSuggestionsFinality Author:Adolf Hitler
“Epic: A Journey Through Church History fills an urgent need for adult Catholics to recover their history as a believing community, debunk false criticisms of their Church, and understand the Christian underpinnings of the modern world. This is a vivid, thorough and engaging program. I heartily recommend it.” WorldNeedsBelieveChristianCommunityChurchJourneyModernAdultsProgramCriticismCatholicEpicEngagingVividModern WorldUrgentThoroughChurch History Author:Charles J. Chaput
“I come from a culture that embodies the need to convert others to "the truth." The Mormon Church has one of the largest missionary programs in the world. That does not interest me.” WorldNeedsDoeCultureInterestChurchProgramMissionary Author:Terry Tempest Williams
“I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups.” ThinkingWorldWellsSelfHelpingTodayAmericaFoundChurchNumbersSuccessfulGroupsSelf HelpProgramMirrorsPracticalsSatisfiedObsessedHelpfulRelevantSecularAmerica TodayPackagingChurch Today Book:Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church Source: Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
“Important thing about myth is that it's not just something that you believe, a myth is essentially a program for action. And unless you translate a mythical story, or a doctrine out of the church, into practical action, it just remains incomprehensible. Rather like the rules of a board game which seem very sort of dull and complicated and incomprehensible until you pick up the dice and start to play, when everything falls into place.” BelieveImportantPlayStoriesSeemsActionFallGamesChurchPicksProgramRemainsImportant ThingsComplicatedMythPracticalsDoctrineBoardsDullTranslateDiceFall Into PlaceBoard GamesEverything Falls Into Place Author:Karen Armstrong
“A few places are especially conducive to inspiration - automobiles, church - public places. I plotted Couples almost entirely in church - little shivers and urgencies I would note down on the program, and carry down to the office Monday.” LittlesInspirationChurchCoupleOfficeProgramNotesMondayAutomobileUrgencyShiver Author:John Updike
“When a leader in the Church inspires council members with vision, he helps them focus on their real mission so that they are ministering to people rather than merely administering programs.” PeopleRealHelpingChurchLeaderVisionFocusInspireMembersProgramMissionsCouncil Author:M. Russell Ballard
“Those who insist that a Church program exist for every contingency and need are as much in error as their counterparts who demand that government intervene in every aspect of our lives. In both instances the ideal balance is destroyed with a resultant detriment to human progress.” NeedsHumansGovernmentChurchOur LivesProgressBalanceDemandAspectIdealsProgramErrorsDestroyedInstanceCounterpartsHuman ProgressContingency Author:Dean L. Larsen
“The capitalist has this over the politician and the clergyman; he has in practice done more to raise the standard of living of the poor than all the government and church programs in history....Monsanto and the Archer Daniels Midland Company have fed more hungry people than all the...soup kitchens combined.” PeopleDoneGovernmentChurchPoorCompanyPracticePoliticianStandardsProgramRaisesHungryKitchenFedsCapitalistSoupStandards Of LivingClergymenArcherMonsantoSoup Kitchens Author:Dinesh D'Souza
“I'll give you a simple formula for straightening out the problems of the United States. First, you tax the churches. You take the tax off of capital gains and the tax off of savings. You decriminalize all and tax them same way as you do alcohol. You decriminalize . You make gambling legal. That will put the budget back on the road to recovery, and you'll have plenty of tax revenue coming in for all of your social programs, and to run the army.” WayGivingFirstsStatesProblemRunningSocialChurchSimpleUnitedUnited StatesTaxesGainsProgramArmyAlcoholRecoverySavingPlentyBudgetsGamblingFormulasRevenueSavingsCapital GainsSocial Programs Author:Frank Zappa
“I used to think, "I can't go to these meetings because they'll make me believe in God. Make me go to church." I knew it wasn't right for me before I ever tried it. I was suspicious of anything outside my realm of experience. That same kind of attitude carries over into 12-step programs, because they are programs. There's this feeling that you don't need this bullshit, you can quit on your own. People that don't know anything about it seem to have a better idea. They haven't even been.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsBelieveKindI CanIdeasFeelingsSeemsUsedChurchAttitudeStepsHavensProgramMeetingsQuittingRealmsCarrieBelieve In GodBullshitSuspicious12 Step Author:Bucky Sinister
“Organizer is kind of a grand term for what I was doing. I answered an ad that the Presbyterian Church of Chicago put up on college campuses. I was at the University of Kansas, and it's somewhat relevant to my life and work that I'm a Jew. But they weren't doing a religious litmus test. They wanted energetic, civil-rights-committed college students to come help them run some summer programs.” KindHelpingRunningWantedTermChurchReligiousRightsStudentsCollegeSummerProgramTestsUniversityCommittedJewCivil RightsChicagoRelevantAdsEnergeticCampusKansasOrganizerCollege StudentsPresbyteriansCollege Campus Author:Sara Paretsky
“There is a real hunger for spiritual things in today's culture; people are seeking something spiritual, something beyond themselves. That's the good news. The bad news is people are not getting it at church because the church is singing songs, preaching messages, doing programs, and taking offerings for itself.” PeopleRealTodaySpiritualSongCultureChurchMessagesNewsSingingProgramHungerSeekingOfferingPreachingGood NewsBad NewsSinging Songs Author:John C. Maxwell
“Twenty-four years ago I went through a profound conversion of heart and God led me to the Catholic Church. A few years later I felt Him calling me to start a Bible study program.” YearsHeartFeltChurchStudyFourCallingYears AgoProgramTwentiesCatholicProfoundConversionFour YearsCatholic ChurchBible Study Author:Gail Buckley
“By the time we got to Courageous, we were bringing in more outsiders, so any time we would bring in outsiders, we would offer to pay them, and [as for volunteers from] the church, because they were getting the benefit of the income to all the ministries of the church and the mission, the building program and all those things, they knew up-front that they were volunteering and gladly did so.” ChurchPayFrontsBuildingOffersBenefitsProgramMissionsIncomeCourageousMinistryOutsidersVolunteer Author:Stephen Kendrick
“One question I often ask is why the church doesn't set aside funds specifically to seed new ideas. A lot of our money tends to go into existing, literally physical buildings, or existing parishes, programs, and schools, and we have nothing that is very explicitly dedicated toward new ventures of all kinds that would help parishes, help education, help catechesis.” KindHelpingSchoolChurchBuildingProgramAll KindsFundDedicated Author:Chris Lowney
“Epidemic obesity is an enormous problem. It's a pendulum that's swung too far. We have to swing it back. So it should come as no surprise that solution must be built from the ground up on the banks of this flooding river and it must be raised to a height higher than flood waters. Now what does that look like? It looks like policies and programs that cultivate healthy levels of physical activity, healthy dietary patterns in homes, in schools, in supermarkets, in neighborhoods, in clinics, in churches, in workplaces, throughout our society, every place we can reach people.” PeopleProblemHomeSchoolWaterChurchPolicyHealthySolutionsProgramSurpriseNeighborhoodFloodWorkplaceObesityHealthy Diet Author:David Katz
“I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.” ThinkingBelieveTodayChurchWeaknessProgramEternityFocusedTechniqueScriptureLife ChangingMethodologyPower To ChangeAnything And EverythingChurch Today Author:R. C. Sproul
“To great sections of the church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the 'program.' This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.” Has BeensArtLostChurchStageStrangeTypeWorshipProgramSectionsPublic ServiceBorrowedWorship MusicWorship ServiceCorporate Worship Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer
“As the opportunity grows for unlimited growth and progress, the chances of failure increase. There is no such thing as a program that will provide security and growth and progress with no risk . . . even within the church. As freedom for unrestricted development is enhanced, the possibilities for failure are also increased. The risk factor is great.” OpportunityGrowsGrowthChurchChanceProgressRiskSecurityPossibilityFailureDevelopmentProgramIncreaseFactorsUnlimitedGreat Opportunity Author:Dean L. Larsen
“When you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosophy and a program that's designed to bring black people together and elevate black people, join that church. Join that church. If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing that which is designed to make black nationalism materialize, join the NAACP. Join any kind of organization, civic, religious, fraternal, political, or otherwise that's based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community.” PeopleIfsMenKindPhilosophyTogetherPastPoliticalBlackCommunityChurchReligiousMastersProgramOrganizationNationalismBlack PeoplePreachingPastorLiftingCivicsFraternalNaacpBlack Nationalism Author:Malcolm X