Quotes About Pastoral Ministry

#1. The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine might be the most helpful and profound book I've read in years. If you're in pastoral ministry grab a copy.

Matt Chandler

#2. The best and the most talented in the pastoral ministry and in denominational hierarchies harm themselves and harm the church most through their unrestrained ego and unwillingness to step off the high places. Sexual sin gets the press, but ego sin kills the church.

David Hansen

#3. The main task of pastoral ministry, according to Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, is not the quantitative growth of the church, but the maturity of the believers.

Eckhard J. Schnabel

#4. The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

Pope Francis

#5. Over four decades of pastoral ministry - I got started early - you make mistakes. But the mistakes you most regret are the ones that obscure the gospel and hurt the people you love, by saying in effect, "You do not belong," to those for whom Christ died to provide a place of belonging.

Ken Wilson

#6. The task of pastoral ministry, above all else, is to arrange contingencies for an encounter with the divine.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#7. Preparation for marriage is very important. It's very, very important because I believe it is something that in the Church, in common pastoral ministry, at least in my country, in South America, the Church it has not valued much.

Pope Francis

#8. I want you to see persecution and opposition and slander and misunderstanding and disappointment and self-recrimination and weakness and danger as the normal portion of faithful pastoral ministry.

John Piper

#9. Pastoral ministry is a sacrificial call with unique challenges. We are called to take the Gospel to those with hard hearts and blind eyes.

C.J. Mahaney

#10. My life often feels like a whirling dervish of kids, writing, speaking, and pastoral ministry.

Kevin DeYoung

#11. Pastoral ministry is about an ongoing confrontation with the god of this world, with blindness, hardness of heart, remaining sin.

C.J. Mahaney

#12. Mark this down if you can. Silences, not just sentences, form the work of pastoral ministry. Wise pastors are listening preachers.

Zack Eswine

#13. My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives.

Eugene H. Peterson

#14. Missional leaders know that their church will only grow as large as its capacity to provide ongoing care through a network of small groups and ministry teams.

Gary Rohrmayer

#15. When a leader is at their limit the last thing they want to hear is that they need to change even more. Maintaining good rhythms of rest, exercise and fun create more energy for a leader to be willing and open for change.

Gary Rohrmayer

#16. One trains the eye of confession most closely on what is hurting. If sin is present it will be aching. Confession begins where the raw anguish of conscience is rubbing against the primordial awareness of God's holiness.

Thomas C. Oden

#17. The aim and the result of faithful, fruitful, and fulfilling service is to make God famous.

Don Cousins

#18. We don't forget that we are Christians. We forget that we are human, and that one oversight alone can debilitate the potential of our future.

Wayne Cordeiro

#19. An angry leader is a scared leader or a hurt leader or a frustrated leader but most of all they are a vulnerable leader.

Gary Rohrmayer

#20. Our enemy attacks the conscience little by little seeking to wear us down and then wears out a leader's resolve to fight the good fight.

Gary Rohrmayer

#21. The deeper irony is that the evidence of sin that are always found in and around the body of Christ may become indirect intimations of its holiness. It could not be a holy church if it had clean hands, as if severed from its task of saving sinners and healing human hurt.

Thomas C. Oden

#22. If a church is good at making disciples it will be good at making leaders because in the end, a good spiritual formation plan will lead to an accelerated spiritual multiplication.

Gary Rohrmayer

#23. Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first.

Wayne Cordeiro

#24. Vision is capturing God's assignment

Gary Rohrmayer

#25. There is nothing worse for a young convert than to be thrust into leadership without mentoring and ongoing coaching because the devil relishes these vulnerable souls.

Gary Rohrmayer

#26. The prayer level of a church never rises any higher than the personal example and passion of the leaders. The quantity and quality of prayer in leadership meetings is the essential indicator of the amount of prayer that will eventually arise among the congregation.

Daniel Henderson

#27. Whereas the public means of grace (such as church services) will do a lot of good to other Christians, those of us who are pastors have to rely a lot more on the private means of grace.

Thomas K. Ascol

#28. Great leaders are teachable leaders.

Gary Rohrmayer

#29. I am not an 'elder', 'deacon', nor a 'pastor', and I do not have any ambitions to become one!".

~R. Alan Woods {2012]

R. Alan Woods

#30. You must read to lead. Reading feeds. It opens our souls to a long line of counselors.

Dave Harvey

#31. There is a long and well-documented tradition of wisdom in the Christian faith that any venture into leadership, whether by laity or clergy, is hazardous. it is necessary that there be leaders, but woe to those who become leaders.

Eugene H. Peterson

#32. For every Gospel action, there is an opposite and devious demonic reaction. We see this in the book of Acts. It appears in church history. We experience it in our personal journeys.

Daniel Henderson

#33. A prayer culture is fueled by experience not explanation. A passion to seek the Lord in prayer is more caught than taught.

Daniel Henderson

#34. [R]eal prayer is not an excuse for laziness but, in fact, is one of the most arduous engagements I know of in ministry. Prayer is not a replacement for hard work but, in most cases, empowerment for even more fruitful work.

Daniel Henderson

#35. Put this in your 'pastoral' pipe and smoke it!!!"

~R. Alan Woods [2012]

R. Alan Woods

#36. The confessor can nullify the exquisitely seasonable moment of confession by talking instead of listening. When he sees pedagogy and advice as more important than simple listening, he diverts the stream of confession.

Thomas C. Oden

#37. Pastors and Bible teachers go about their work in communal settings, where they listen to as well as deliver sermons, hear as well as speak, and gain biblical insights from their parishioners as much as they pass them on.

Peter J. Leithart

#38. Leaders are passionate learners. Leaders are always seeking ways to improve themselves by sharpening their skills. They fully embrace the fact that growing leaders lead growing organizations.

Gary Rohrmayer

#39. Missional leaders are comfortable in the own skin.

Gary Rohrmayer

#40. I don't want to end up a bureaucrat in the time-management business for God or a librarian cataloguing timeless truths. Salvation is kicking in the womb of creation right now, any time now. Pay attention.

Eugene H. Peterson