Andy Stanley Quotes

There is an appropriate way to use your story, not as an excuse but as a testimony to God's ability to free you from the past.

You can't influence people you refuse to associate with.

If you're a Christian you can't have an "I'm better than" attitude toward anyone because everybody is somebody for whom Jesus died.

Let me take some pressure off. Your problem is not discipline. Your problem is not organization. Your problem is not that you have yet to stumble upon the perfect schedule. And your problem is not that the folks at home demand too much of your time. The problem is this: there’s not enough time to get everything done that you’re convinced—or others have convinced you—needs to get done.

Me and Sandra are thoroughly satisfied customers as parents of kids who came through this Orange model.

Two primary ways to keep volunteers motivated - Food and T-shirts.

You won't take risk without courage.

What people pray for will tell you more than anything else whether they are locked into the vision and priorities of the church.

The issue is: how do you engage the audience? And one of the things I talk to our communicators about is: The outline is great; the stories are great. But how do you engage them? How do you make it feel like we are on a journey, not you are just up there giving me information.

Don’t strive to be a well-rounded leader. Instead, discover your zone and stay there. Then delegate everything else.

Money comes, money goes. But your story stays with you the rest of your life.

Preaching on Sunday mornings is such a simple thing, and by complicating it, I think we all do ourselves and the audience a disservice. It is very simple. Here is the model: Make people feel like they need an answer to a question.

Every local church has a leader but it seems so few local churches are being led.

People do not plan to mess up their lives. They just don't plan not to.

It isn't about who is 'for' or 'against' you, it's about who you are for.

Stop looking for solutions to problems and start looking for the right path.

God doesn’t want to take your money. He just doesn’t want your money to take you.

Christianity teaches that when man sinned, God opted for forgiveness rather than fairness. He opted for grace and mercy rather than justice.

Two things make a relationship providential: when we hear from God through someone and when we see God in someone.

To be the best next-generation leader you can be, you must enlist the help of others. Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential. You need a leadership coach. Coaching enables a leader to go further faster.

Be who you are. But be the very best communicator you can possibly be. To do that you must be willing to sacrifice what's comfortable-what has become part of your style-for the sake of what is effective.

In leadership there are always problems to be solved and tensions to be managed. When you try to solve a tension, you create a problem.

Your response to opportunities, adversities and calling, determine the type of leader you become.

Designing and implementing a strategy for change is a waste of time until you have discovered and embraced the current reality. If you don't know where you really are, it is impossible to get where you need to be.

Every story of change there is always someone who didn't have the resources or the network they needed and did something anyway.

The leader who refuses to move until the fear is gone will never move. Consequently, he will never lead.

Resources follow vision.

Leadership isn't making all the decisions. It is making sure the right decisions are made.

If there is a perceived difference between what you expect from others and what you expect from yourself, it will eventually erode your influence.

Any fear associated with giving to God's kingdom is irrational. It's on par with a farmer who, out of fear of losing his seed, refuses to plant his fields.

No one ever has the resources they need.

Dreamers dream about things being different. Visionaries envision themselves making a difference.

What does it say about us that we are rarely perplexed by the good things that come our way, only the bad?

Grace is inviting to the unrighteous and threatening to the self-righteous

Here's a scary thought: What if God called you to give beyond your comfort level? Would you be afraid? Would you try to explain it away or dismiss it as impractical? And in the process, would you miss out on a harvest opportunity for which God had explicitly prospered you in the first place?

The God of Christianity never claims to be fair. He goes beyond fair. The Bible teaches that he decided not to give us what we deserve- that's mercy. In addition, God decided to give us exactly what we didn't deserve- we call that grace.

There is an inexorable correlation between leadership and change.

Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing.

It takes a habit to break a habit. You can pray every day for a generous heart, but until you start acting in that direction, nothing's going to change.

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.

What could be and should be can’t be until God is ready for it to be.

Leaders who refuse to listen, will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing helpful to say

If you're a preacher's kid, you see the church differently.

Not the one who knows the most, but the one who loves faithfully and consistently the most, is a true follower of Jesus.

Where there's no progress, there's no growth. If there's no growth, there's no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life.

Don't be fair, be engaged.

What you fear most will determine whether you merely save for the future or give for the future.

The more conscious I am of the work God has yet to do in me, the less critical I am about what he has yet to do in you