Tag Archives for quotes

UNITY & “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and, in all things, charity.” The real source of the quote often attributed to John Wesley. #NotAugustine #NotWesley

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: This popular quote above has oft been attributed to John Wesley, while others attribute it to Saint Augustine. Actually, as the following articles point out, it may have been the German pietist movement that first coined the term during the violently divisive years of church conflict. Wars were being fought over theology and church history. But this phrase emerged and was popularized when embraced by John Wesley, who may have heard it while residing among the Moravians in Germany early in his ministerial career. Read these articles for an interesting history.

Regardless of its genesis, this motto provides a helpful reminder for today’s divided culture and church.

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and, in all things, charity.”

Enthusiast! Finding a Faith That Fills
(Wesleyan Publishing House,
2018: pp. 201-202, 252.

Though the quote above is attributed to John Wesley and though this sums up John’s thinking and writing, it cannot be traced back to John’s pen.  For more see Kevin Watson’s article here: https://vitalpiety.com/2010/09/02/wesley-didnt-say-it-unity-liberty-charity/

Also read the Moravian History account below (followed by a discussion started by a Georgetown University scholar on the origin).

Read more here … http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/thismonth/12_05%20In%20Essentials.pdf

And for a discussion started by a professor at Georgetown University read more here … https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/quote.html

SMALL WINS & “A good many are kept out of service for Christ because they are trying to do some great thing. Let us be willing to do little things. And let us remember that nothing is small in which God is the source.” Attributed to D. L. Moody

“A good many are kept out of service for Christ because they are trying to do some great thing. Let us be willing to do little things. And let us remember that nothing is small in which God is the source.” D. L. Moody, quoted in The Berean Call, Bend, Oregon, March, 1997.

Find more quotes by D. L. Moody at https://moodycenter.org/the-quotable-moody-d-l-moody-quotes/

LEADERSHIP & Inspiring Presidential Quotes on Leadership for #PresidentsDay

by Marissa Levin, the founder and CEO of “Successful Culture,” and author of “Built to Scale: How Top Companies Create Breakthrough Growth Through Exceptional Advisory Boards,” Inc. Magazine, 3/19/18.

On Mindset:

“If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” ~Calvin Coolidge

“Pessimism never won any battle.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” ~John F. Kennedy

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” ~Abraham Lincoln

On Community & Circles of Influence:

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.” ~George Washington

“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader.” ~John Quincy Adams

On Persistence & Resilience:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” ~Calvin Coolidge

“In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.” ~General Ulysses S. Grant

“In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.” ~William McKinley…

“The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” ~George Washington

On Ethics & Taking a Stand:

“An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory;” ~Millard Fillmore…

“Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement.” ~Grover Cleveland

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power” ~Abraham Lincoln

“Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met – obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.” ~John F. Kennedy

Read more at … https://www.inc.com/marissa-levin/22-presidential-quotes-on-most-important-aspects-of-great-leadership.html

NEED-MEETING & Quote: “Christianity… is a willingness to selflessly serve others, rather than an insistence on being served” www.Enthusiast.life p.42

“John (Wesley) saw most religion as self-seeking, designed to focus on the Christian’s needs, comfort, and pleasure. He began to realize the New Testament Christianity (which he sometimes called ‘primitive’ Christianity) was more about restoring purity in the church and a willingness to selflessly serve others, rather than an insistence on being served.”

Enthusiast! Finding a Faith That Fills (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2018), p. 42.

#TransformationalLeadershipConference

MULTIETHNIC & “It’s… impossible to grow a multiethnic church without having multiethnic leadership in place first”

“(Bob) Whitesel agrees that diverse leadership is a crucial point,

‘Oftentimes, the dominant culture will have a tendency to try and run a multicultural church,’ he said. ‘We teach in this book about shared leadership. It’s almost impossible to grow a multiethnic church without having multiethnic leadership in place first. You have to include these people and their voices in the decision-making process before you make structural change’.”

From “Move to multiethnicity is not easy, but worth it” by Emily Snell, United Methodist Interpreter Magazine (n.d.), retrieved from http://www.interpretermagazine.org/topics/move-to-multiethnicity-is-not-easy-but-worth-it

TIPPING POINT & We try to force the organization to tip early w/ strategies not proven or vented enough to succeed.

Quote by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 11/26/17 in a response to Jon Hunter in LEAD 600 discussing the tipping point principles of Malcom Gladwell, (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston: Little, Brown.

# diffusion of innovation Malcom Gladwell early adopters innovators laggards

WESLEY & Dr. Elmer Towns thinks he is the greatest world changer since the Apostle Paul

John Wesley: The Greatest World Changer Since the Apostle Paul

“John Wesley was the most influential Christian leader since the apostle Paul because he carried out the Great Commission in its entirety. When Wesley died in 1791, there were 243 Methodist churches in the United States. By the War of 1812, there were 5,000 Methodist churches. John Wesley not only preached the gospel to lost people but also raised up an army of circuit-riding preachers, each one of them planting some fifty to one hundred churches. Within one generation after the death of John Wesley, the Methodist Church became the largest Protestant movement in the world.”

—Elmer L. Towns. co-founder and vice president of Liberty University, dean of Liberty University School of Theology. Excerpted from the “Foreword” of the devotional guide titled: Enthusiast! Finding a Faith that Fills [Wesleyan Publishing House, 2017]).

Read an excerpt of Enthusiast! Finding a Faith that Fills at Enthusiast.life

RECONCILIATION & It is not going to take place in the limited conversations of a church foyer. #Quote

by Bob Whitesel D.Min. Ph.D., Church Central, 4/10/17.

…Reconciliation begins with dialogue.

Reconciliation is not going to take place in the limited conversations of a fellowship foyer, fellowship hall, etc. But it needs to start somewhere, and it can be fostered there. What if people who enjoyed different musical genres could attend the same church, hear the same sermon (perhaps by different culturally relevant preachers) and then exit into a “fellowship hall/foyer” to meet with people of other cultures and learn how the sermon impacts each culture similarly and differently. This can begin a dialogue that can then branch out from Sunday morning to the rest of the week.

Here I think is the reason the quote that “10:30 is the most segregated time of the week” was utilized by Martin Luther King Jr. That is because our churches are segregated on Sunday mornings. This may be because most churches offer only one musical genre style of worship and therefore those who come to worship are primarily people attracted to one musical genre. I recently wrote a book with a colleague titled: re:MIX: Transitioning Your Church to Living Color (Abingdon Press).

I pray fervently for churches to develop a ministry of reconciliation to God and one another (2 Corinthians 5:11-21)…

Read more at … https://www.churchcentral.com/blogs/why-i-dont-have-a-problem-with-segregated-worship-services/?utm_source=Email_marketing&utm_campaign=emnaCCC04112017&cmp=1&utm_medium=html_email

Wesley & the Poor: You cannot help only at a distance

“But is there need of visiting them in person?

May we not relieve them at a distance?

Does it not answer the same purpose if we send them help as if we carry it ourselves?’

… But this is not properly ‘visiting the sick’; it is another thing. The word which we render ‘visit’ in its literal acceptation means to ‘look upon’. And this, you well know, cannot be done unless you are present with them.

Wesley, J. (2013). “On Visiting the Sick,” in The sermons of John Wesley: A collection for the Christian journey. K.J. Collins & J.E. Vickers (Eds.). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, Kindle Edition.  (The above was cited by Barb R. in LEAD 600.  Good sleuthing Barb.)

ORGANIC OUTREACH & The Importance of Cultural Bridges w/ Believers Living on the Other Side

“By means of the ‘Gentile on the bridge’ there came to be in town after town within a comparatively short time a considerable number of Gentile converts who remained in close organic connection with large numbers of unconverted relatives.” – Donald McGavran

  • The above quote is from p. 34 of The Bridges of God, by Donald A. McGavran.
  • Secure your copy of McGavran’s biography by Gary McIntosh by clicking the link.

FAILURES & Quotes That Will Remind You About Their Teaching Value

“I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.”— Omar Bradley

“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.”— Don Wilder

“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”— Winston Churchill

“I’ve failed over and over and over again. And that is why I succeed.”— Michael Jordan

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. It is delay, not defeat. “It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street.”— Denis Waitley

“It’s not your circumstances that shape you, it’s how you react to your circumstances.”— Anne Ortlund

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”— Thomas A. Edison

“Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.”― John Wooden

“I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail, than to attempt nothing and succeed.”— Robert H. Schuller

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”— Leonardo da Vinci

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”— Ben Okri

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.”— Mary Anne Radmacher

“Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.”— Billy Graham

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”― Albert Einstein

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”— C.S. Lewis

Read more at … http://lmt-lss.com/40-motivational-quotes-that-will-inspire-you-to-make-something-of-your-life/

OUTREACH & Quotes About Balancing Distant w/ Nearby Outreach

“A conglocal church is a congregation that has a balanced three-fold heart for foreign missions, local missions, and congregants.”

– Bob Whitesel, The Healthy Church: Practical Ways to Strengthen A Church’s Heart (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2013), p. 120.

“So many churches inadvertently create an imbalance by focusing on needs in exotic locales and ignoring the needs next door.”

– Bob Whitesel, ibid., p. 118.

TRINITY & Wesley Quote on Understanding God

Regarding the Trinity, John Wesley said, “Bring me … a worm that can comprehend a man, and I will show you a man that can comprehend God.”

Quoted by Henry Moore in The Life Of Mrs. Mary Fletcher: Consort And Relict Of The Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar Of Madely (Published and sold by J. Kershaw, 1824), p. 239.

Wesley on Worms & Trinity copy

Available for free download at https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=d5wHAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-d5wHAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1

 

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QUOTES & John Wesley’s Quote of War (as evidence of original sin)

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel:  This is an ongoing series of quotes from the Wesleyan Movement with citations to the original sources.

Here are forty thousand men gathered together on this plain. What they going to do? See, there are thirty or forty thousand more at a great distance. And these are going to shoot them through the head or body, to stab them, or split their skulls, and send most of their souls into everlasting fire, as fast as they possibly can. Why so? What harm have they done to them? O, none at all! They do not so much as know them. But a man, who is king of France has a quarrel with another man, who is king of England. So these Frenchmen are to kill as many of these Englishmen as they can, to prove the king of France is in the right. Now, what an argument is this? What a method of proof? What an amazing way of deciding controversies! What must mankind be, before such a thing as war could ever be known or thought of upon earth? How shocking, how inconceivable a want must there have been of common understanding, as well as common humanity, before any two governors, or any two nations in the universe could once think of such a method of decision! If then, all nations, Pagan, Mohammedan, and Christian, do, in fact, make this their last resort, what farther proof of do we need of the utter degeneracy of all nations from the plainest principles of reason and virtue? Of the absolute want, both of common sense and common humanity, which runs through the whole race of mankind?

Works (Jackson) 9:221 The Doctrine of Original Sin (part 1)

For more such quotes see: The United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society, http://www.kintera.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.4452011/k.7E8E/Quotations_by_John_Wesley.htm

QUOTES & John Wesley’s Quote on Racism & the Legal System

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel:  This is an ongoing series of quotes from the Wesleyan Movement with citations to the original sources.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a “law’ in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?

Letter to William Wilberforce, February 24, 1791 (the last letter John Wesley ever wrote)

For more such quotes see: The United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society, http://www.kintera.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.4452011/k.7E8E/Quotations_by_John_Wesley.htm