Quotes on Church & Congregation
Christian quotes on Church & Congregation — with author, dates and source, from two millennia of Christian thought.
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Tim Keller
The Church is not a cultural club, but the family of Jesus.
Pope Francis
The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.
John Charles Ryle
In essential unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all this charity.
Rupertus Meldenius
The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
Henry Ward Beecher
I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.
Philip Yancey
There is no perfect church. And besides, dear friend, if you ever found a perfect church, it would refuse to take you in. For as soon as it had taken you in, it would cease to be perfect. So your search is entirely useless.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
In a congregation, every person must be able to be as their heart truly is.
Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
C.S. Lewis
To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach quite another.
Richard Cecil
One hundred religious people knitted together with great precision into a perfect organization do not constitute a Church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requirement is that life exists, always.
A.W. Tozer
Not only do the weak need the strong, but the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When the church isn't for the suffering and broken, then the church isn't for Christ. Because Jesus, with His pierced side, is always on the side of the broken.
Ann Voskamp
We are a pilgrim church, exposed to misunderstanding and persecution, but we are a church that walks calmly because we carry within us this power of love.
Óscar Romero
Our task in the present is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.
N.T. Wright
If God’s kingdom had a “No Oddballs Allowed” sign posted, none of us could get in.
Philip Yancey
I yearn for a grace-abounding church that rewards rather than punishes honesty, and that, in Jesus’ words, exists for the sinners and not the righteous, the sick and not the healthy.
Philip Yancey
Revival is necessary because religion (“I obey; therefore I am accepted”) is so different from the gospel (“I am accepted by God through Christ; therefore I obey”) but is such an effective counterfeit.
Tim Keller
The church is only church when it exists for others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The devout person of the future will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will cease to be.
Karl Rahner
Whoever believes he is a Christian because he goes to church is mistaken. One does not become a car by going into a garage either.
Albert Schweitzer
In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, freedom; but in all things, love.
Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
Tradition means keeping the fire alive, not preserving the ashes.
Pope John XXIII
The church is an old woman with many wrinkles and folds. But she is my mother. And one does not beat one's mother.
Karl Rahner
We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.
G. Campbell Morgan
Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.
Francis Schaeffer
We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
The church remained silent when it should have cried out.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.
John Wesley
Christians don’t tell lies they just go to church and sing them.
A.W. Tozer
The glum, sour faces of many Christians. They rather give the impression that, instead of coming from the Father’s joyful banquet, they have just come from the Sheriff who has auctioned off their sins and now are sorry they can’t get them back again.
Helmut Thielicke
The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.
William Temple
It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the suffering of God in the secular life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The church is like manure. Pile it up, and it stinks up the neighborhood. Spread it out, and it enriches the world.
Luis Palau
Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living.
Jaroslav Pelikan
Many people are looking for an ear that will listen to them, and they do not find it among Christians because Christians speak even where they should listen.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian.
Augustine of Hippo
The first service one owes to another in the community is listening.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community; let him who is not in community beware of being alone.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I dream of a church that is famous for what fascinates it and what it burns for.
Johannes Hartl
People quoted here
Tim Keller, Pope Francis, John Charles Ryle, Rupertus Meldenius, Henry Ward Beecher, Philip Yancey, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, C.S. Lewis, Richard Cecil, A.W. Tozer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Related
God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Grace & Redemption, The Bible & the Word of God, Doubt & Hard Questions, Suffering & the Question of God, Eternity & Hope Beyond Death, Fear & Anxiety, Grief & Comfort, Illness & Weakness, Loneliness & Abandonment, Meaning & Identity, Time & Transience, Work & Vocation, Money & Possessions, Faith & Trust, Hope & Confidence, Joy & Gratitude, Peace & Rest, Humility & Pride, Patience & Waiting, Courage & Strength, Wisdom & Understanding, Freedom & Truth, Love, Relationships & Family, Guilt & Forgiveness, Service & Love of Neighbour, Justice & Commitment, Ethical Questions, Witness & Mission, Prayer & Silence, Discipleship, Growth & Character, Temptation & Struggle, Guidance & God's Will
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