Your life is like a treasure box with unique blend: the good & bad, the success & failures, and through that, you have gained the most valuable. You have gained insights, perspectives, wisdom and experience . . . The value of a life is always determined by how much of it was given away, for the sake of the generations that are coming behind me .
-Andy Stanley
If you know your church history, you are painfully aware that once the church was legalized, it got organized. Excruciatingly organized. What began as unexplainable became institutional. Before long, the church was less movement and more establishment . . . One of the fundamental realities of organizational life is that systems fossilize with time. The church is no exception. your church and my church are no exceptions. It takes great effort, vigilant leadership, and at times good, old-fashioned goading to keep a movement moving.
-Andy Stanley (Deep & Wide)
Bold leaders refuse to be "cowed" by "how"
- don't "how" a great idea to dead
- when you hear a great idea, respond with "wow" not "how"
-Andy Stanley (Catalyst 2016)
When we leave this earth, many things that we are doing now will loss its significance. It is the people whom we spend time to invest that will carry on. That is our legacy. May we find time, seek ways to empty our cup in whichever context God put us in.
-Andy Stanley (Leadercast 2014)
Definition of Love: Giving someone what they need the most when they deserve it the least, at great personal sacrifice. - Chip Ingram
Bold leadership is "clarity around and unreasonable commitment to what should be. Andy StanleyThe obstacles--the distance, speed, and heat -- is not to dissuade, but to inspire . . . We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. President KennedyOur borders and our obstacles can only do two things: one, stop us in our tracks or two, force us to get creative. It’s believing in those dreams and facing your fears head-on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits . . . borders are where the actual ends but also where the imagination and the story begins . . . They are magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations, and help us go further than we ever knew we could go. It’s not about breaking down borders. It’s about pushing off of them and seeing what amazing places they might bring us. Amy PurdyTransformation does not mean perfection - transformation to me means, instead of running away from God, I now run to God. Regardless of my struggle, I run after him to be with him, to ask for his protection.
-Kirk Perry
"You don't think yourself into a new way of acting, you act yourself into a new way of thinking . . . we believed that thinking is paramount-that thoughts turn into action. But it's actually the opposite. When you act your way into a new habit, the habit becomes your opinion about how you should do things, and that opinion becomes your character as a person or as an organization."
-David Robertson (Brick by Brick)
Catalyst West 2016: “Ants create colony; bees create hive; humans create future. The question is not if you can create, it’s what kind of future will you create.”
-Erwin McManus
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
-Henry Ford
1. It is one the characteristic of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he is leading to realize whatever he is dreaming.
2. For me to join the B to E, I have to stop thinking about every single note along the way and start thinking about the long long line from B to E . . . This is about vision, this is about the long line, like the bird who flies over the field, and doesn't care about the fences underneath.
3. The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends his power on his ability to make other people powerful. My job is to awake possibility in other people.
4. It really makes a difference on what we say, the words that come out of our mouth. [A quote from a girl who lost her brother when he was 8. She vowed] "I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.” Now, can we do that? No, we will make ourselves wrong and others wrong. But it is a possibility to live into.
-Benjamin Zander (TED Talk)
"Success is succession"
-Mark Batterson
Passion and Positivity bring forth influence even when we are not in the driver's seat to lead.
-Clay Scroggins "Lead from Where You Are" (Catalyst Conference)
Beneath all of our kids' gifts and talents and abilities, each and every child is more than sum of their abilities and personality. At their core, each is the beloved child of God and the profound gift from God. We as parents are God's somewhat flawed dispenser of grace to our kids.
-Wisdom from Henri Nouwen and Philip Yancy
"It took me fifty years to realize I was lost. No one knew I was lost—my life had all the trapping of found-ness. I was a pastor, for heaven’s sake. I had spent twenty-five years in church-related ministry; and most of my days were consumed with writing or talking about Jesus. And yet I was lost, confused, soul weary, thirsty, and bone tired. I had succeed at mimicking aliveness, but I was nearly dead.”
-Michael Yaconelli (Dangerous Wonder)
- 屬靈的操練是沒有捷徑的, 要學習把自己縛在主面前
- 愛就是用心注視對方
每一個種子裏面都蘊含著一個森林。。。生命的突破永遠從你所有的開始，做你所能做的。水深之處是要邁步向前的。要勇敢前行。
-Pastor Tong (sermon 9/20/2015)
在高度投入的心靈中心，有抽離的字句；在行動之間有沈思。同時，在連串共聚之後，有獨處。
在那孤寂地，耶穌找到勇氣，
去跟隨上帝的旨意而非自己的旨意；
去傳講上帝的話語而非自己的話語；
去履行上帝的事工而非自己的事工。
從某處我們得知，沒有一個獨處的地方，我們的生命將處於危機中。從某處我們得知，沒有沈默，說話也失去其意義；沒有耹聽，說話再不能醫治；沒有距離，親蜜再不能救助。
從某處我們得知，沒有一處孤寂的地方，我們的行動很快就成了空洞的姿勢。
在沈黙與說話之間的平衡，
在抽離與投入之間的平衡，
在距離與親蜜之間的平衡，
在獨處與羣居之間的平衡，
形成了基督徒生命的基礎 . .
-Henri Nouwen (Out of Solitude - Chinese version)