“For me, a big part of this is proximity. Like, I just know how easy it is to lose accessibility and to not be around and and then to justify that. And I just have found that that does pretty dangerous things to my heart as a pastor. And so I feel like that has to be fought for.”
“Names within the church, I think, is a great gauge for how we’re doing as ministry leaders, as pastors. Am I praying for people by name in my church community?”
“One of the things that we try to be really intentional with is just the stories we celebrate. For example, on an Easter weekend, it would be easy to kind of put the celebration and the emphasis on, you know, how many people came or maybe on a record attendance and how many services you had and how many decisions were made. But I would much rather celebrate Easter by telling one story.”
“The stories we tell, I think, can go a long way to setting this kind of tone…we didn’t have to push people to make an invitation or to make a decision because those stories were effectively accomplishing that.”
“That’s something we talk a lot about: How do we move from just having the emotion to having a story that we can share to putting it into practice?”
“That doesn’t happen by one person loving and caring for people. One at a time that happens when the church as a community decides that’s what we’re going to be about. That’s how we’re going to measure our mission.”
“I think this one at a time approach really begins with understanding that God, before he accomplishes something through us in the life of someone else, more often than not, there’s some things he wants to do in us first.”
“Jesus knew what to do because of his time with the Father. Otherwise he would have been dominated by the crowds. Otherwise he would have been controlled by expectations.”
“What I’ve discovered is that the more I give attention to what God is doing in me, the more likely it is that he’s going to put someone in my path that he trusts me with as his son or his daughter to have this one at a time moment with them.”
“I would just challenge pastors and ministry leaders with that question: What stories can you tell?”
Mentioned in the Show
“One at a Time: The Unexpected Way God Wants to Use You to Change the World” by Kyle Idleman
“Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus” by Kyle Idleman
Check out Kyle’s website
Follow Kyle on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
“To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World” by
