“This wasn’t just Bill [Hybels]. This was happening all around us in different pastors, different media moguls, different athletes, different business leaders.”
“it’s easier as a human to go, ‘Why did they do it,’ right? The harder question asked, ‘Why do I do it and why?’ Why do I say things I wish I didn’t say?”
“We all have to do work…let’s get ahead of it and let’s find the practices, the spiritual exercises and discovery of sanctifying grace that Wesley talks about that can really make us whole, spiritually healthy.”
“If there’s a moment you’re in a meeting and you’re like, you feel like vamped, like you are angry, you are defensive, you are just scared, it’s most likely historical. And I just would say, if you’re finding yourself having those level of feelings, you probably need some help to get you there. It might be a therapist, might be a spiritual director. It might be another pastor who’s maybe a decade down the road, who can just walk with you.”
“For the church and for the pastor, we have to be committed to our craft and our character. And if we don’t go back and get curious about those issues, that trauma, that pain, that people-pleasing tendency, it will be found out. It just will.”
“Every time I get in my car, I drive home from preaching on the weekend. I just kind of pray these little words: ‘Thanks be to God, I’m one weekend closer to finishing well.’”
“As leaders and as pastors, we have to go first. We have to model what we are saying and preaching and proclaiming that grace is the best thing, that we can be honest, that repentance is beautiful, that we can acknowledge truth about ourselves and go first. And if we can’t do it, our congregation is not going to be able to do it.”
“The truth is when we’re sinning or whenever we’re doing our thing, we don’t think about what our kids are going to have to carry, what our congregation is going to have to carry, what our staff is going to have to carry, what our staff’s kids are going to have to carry.”
“I got into the Bride of Christ, the church, and I realized every church culture has crazy. And I think sometimes younger leaders, they step into a church staff and they don’t know what questions to ask. They’re just excited about the opportunity. I want to know what the crazy is.”
“I think everyone has to have a vision for themselves.”
“For some of us, we might do the practice of Sabbath or might do the practice of silence or solitude, the practice of prayer. But I often wonder, is that actually connected to a trauma or a pain point or a pothole in our story? Or are we just doing it because we think we should do it? And so for me, what I’m realizing is that sanctifying grace has to go after those pain points.”
