Andy Stanley Quotes & Sayings

Geographically speaking, you can't get to where you want to be unless you know where you are the begin with. You need a reference point. Similarly, you can't get to where you want to be in life until you are willing to admit where you are to begin with. Self-deception makes that next to impossible. — Andy Stanley

Theology isn't what drove them to their ... theology. author writes on dealing with the embittering experience of those who protect a wounded place with abstract arguments. — Andy Stanley

If you're not looking forward to church this morning perhaps it's time to look for a church. — Andy Stanley

As your organizational authority increases, your organizational IQ decreases. — Andy Stanley

For reasons known only to him, God has chosen to work through men and women who are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the "thing" he has placed in their hearts to do. If God bas birthed a vision in you, it is only a matter of time until you will come upon the precipice of sacrifice. — Andy Stanley

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

Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, not the byproduct of accumulated wealth. — Andy Stanley

Life is filled with problems to be solved and tensions to be managed. Sometimes it helps to know which is which. — Andy Stanley

One never accomplishes the will of God by breaking the law of God, violating the principles of God, or ignoring the wisdom of God. — Andy Stanley

Your character is who you really are. — Andy Stanley

There are some rich people who, no matter how much God sends their way, never seem to put their hope in their riches. — Andy Stanley

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6) — Andy Stanley

Your greatest accomplishment may not be something you do but someone you raise. — Andy Stanley

What have we fallen in love with that's not as effective as it used to be? What do we love doing that's not really working? What's off limits for discussion? Do we have any "old couches" that need to be thrown out? — Andy Stanley

There is no cramming for a test of character. It always comes as a pop quiz. — Andy Stanley

When Nehemiah's heart was broken he paid attention to his broken heart. — Andy Stanley

We always have more ideas than we can fund. — Andy Stanley

The Church is a family expecting guests. — Andy Stanley

If we start to dumb down what has been made clear, where does that stop? — Andy Stanley

Christians are viewed as being "judgmental, homophobic, moralists" who think they are the only ones going to heaven and who "secretly relish the fact that everyone else is going to hell. — Andy Stanley

No matter how much money we have or make, we will probably never consider ourselves rich. The biggest challenge facing rich people is that they've lost they're ability to recognize that they're rich. — Andy Stanley

Rich people have the potential to reach a point where they see money as the source of their safety and security. — Andy Stanley

Leaders, if you allow wonder to shut down in you, you will shut it down in everyone around you. — Andy Stanley

Churches are notorious for creating competing systems, wherein unclear direction and conflicting information threaten to cause a breakdown and paralyze the ministry. Instead of replacing old systems, we tend to just download and add whatever is new to what already exists. Soon our capacity becomes fragmented and we find ourselves confronted with the signs of ineffectiveness: some ministries seem routine and irrelevant; the teaching feels too academic; calendars are saturated with mediocre programs; staff members pull in opposite directions; volunteers lack motivation; departments viciously compete for resources; and it becomes harder and harder to figure out if we are really being successful. Too many churches desperately need an upgrade. They need to reformat their hard drives and install a clean system. They need to rewrite their code so everyone is clear about what is important and how they should function. — Andy Stanley

Yes, God uses the uneducated to confound the wise. But that doesn't make ignorance a virtue. — Andy Stanley

Will I allow my fear to bind me to mediocrity? — Andy Stanley

My hope is not in riches but in him who richly provides. — Andy Stanley

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people. CHINESE PROVERB — Andy Stanley

Kindness is love's response to weakness — Andy Stanley

My high school science teacher once told me that much of Genesis is false. But since my high school teacher did not prove he was God by rising from the dead, I'm going to believe Jesus instead. — Andy Stanley

Is Christianity fair? It is certainly not fair to God. Christians believe that God sent His Son to die for your sins and mine. Fairness would demand that we die for our own sins. — Andy Stanley

Think about this for a moment. What would happen if you were to begin speaking to people's potential rather than their performance? What if you made it a habit to dispense the same type of grace to others as has been poured out on you? What would happen if you intentionally laced your conversations with notions of what could be true of the people around you? — Andy Stanley

If you want to know what Jesus meant by what Jesus said, pay attention to that Jesus did. — Andy Stanley

If you want your church to stand the test of time, then you have to be replaced. — Andy Stanley

The first thing that sometimes keeps next generation leaders from playing to their strengths is that the idea of being a balanced or well-rounded leader looks good on paper and sounds compelling coming from behind a lectern, but in reality, it is an unworthy endeavor. Read the biographies of the achievers in any arena of life. You will find over and over that these were not "well-rounded" leaders. They were men and women of focus. — Andy Stanley

While generosity may be the antidote for the dizzying effects of wealth, your appetite for more may function as an antidote against God-honoring generosity. Your appetite for more stuff, status, and security has the potential to quash your efforts to be generous. And that's a problem. — Andy Stanley

You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information. — Andy Stanley

If a volunteer can help us with an immediate need, we can put them in a place to make their greatest contribution. — Andy Stanley

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

There's never any cumulative value to all the things we do instead of the things we know are truly important. What — Andy Stanley

There is something insincere about a man or woman who repeatedly tells God how much he or she loves Him while refusing to obey Him. — Andy Stanley

Whenever pastors assume people in their congregation know certain things, they miss opportunities to teach. If a pastor makes assumptions year after year, then a whole generation has never heard [that truth] for the first time. If we assume too much, we communicate too little. — Andy Stanley

No matter how rich or poor you might feel, right now is the time to be generous. — Andy Stanley

Forgiveness is simply a decision to cancel a debt. — Andy Stanley

If you don't conquer your fear, you are going to miss out on some great things in life. — Andy Stanley

Too many church leaders have bought into the myth that to clarify the win means establishing attendance goals and raising a lot of money. — Andy Stanley

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

Grace is the offer of exactly what we do not deserve. Thus, it cannot be recognized or received until we are aware of precisely how undeserving we really are. It is the knowledge of what we do not deserve that allows us to receive grace for what it is. Unmerited. Unearned. Undeserved. For that reason, grace can only be experienced by those who acknowledge they are undeserving. — Andy Stanley

Our fear of not mattering much has the potential to draw us away from what matters most. — Andy Stanley

Make a list of your key people and write down what you perceive as their primary value to the organization. Having done that, evaluate their job descriptions, asking yourself this question: "How can I free up more of their time to do the things that add the most value to this organization?" Encourage your staff to rewrite their current job descriptions with the goal of refocusing their time on the things they do best. Lead your key people through a discussion of the principles discussed in these three chapters. Create opportunities for your staff to discuss ways to better leverage their abilities. — Andy Stanley

As counterintuitive as it seems, generosity begins wherever you are. It is important to make generosity a priority. — Andy Stanley

You have no idea what hangs in the balance of your decision on what to do with the burden God put in your heart. — Andy Stanley

As a leader it is your job to protect the missional integrity of the Jesus gathering to which you have been called. It is your responsibility to see to it that the church under your care continues as a gathering of people in process; a place where the curious,the unconvinced, the sceptical, the used-to-believe and the broken, as well as the committed, informed and sold-out come together around Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. — Andy Stanley

Authority does not equal competency. Pass decisions down to those who can best handle them. — Andy Stanley

You have not been called to change the world, but you have been called to change something. — Andy Stanley

Serving people we don't see eye to eye with is the essence of Christianity. Jesus died for a world with which he didn't see eye to eye. If a bakery doesn't want to sell its products to a gay couple, it's their business. Literally. But leave Jesus out of it. — Andy Stanley

We don't drift in good directions. We discipline and prioritize ourselves there. — Andy Stanley

When you acknowledge your weaknesses to the rest of the team, it is never new information. — Andy Stanley

Why? Why did God provide me with more than I need? — Andy Stanley

Guilt rarely results in positive behavior. But gratitude? Great things flow from a heart of gratitude. — Andy Stanley

If it suddenly became impossible for us to cover up all the junk we normally hide from the rest of humanity, I have a feeling we would all get real motivated to deal with the source of what ails us. — Andy Stanley

When you try to exercise authority within a department that is outside your core competencies, you will hinder everything and everyone under your watch. If you fail to distinguish between authority and competence, you will exert your influence in ways that damage projects and people. To put it bluntly, there are things you are responsible for that you should keep your nose out of. — Andy Stanley

Grace is not reserved for good people; grace underscores the goodness of God. — Andy Stanley

Acknowledging weakness doesn't make a leader less effective. On the contrary, in most cases it is simply a way of expressing that he understands what everyone else has known for some time. When you acknowledge your weaknesses to the rest of your team, it is never new information. — Andy Stanley

But in the areas that matter most, a burst of energy and activity cannot reverse the consequences that accompany a season of neglect. — Andy Stanley

In our minds, rich is always the other person, the other family. Rich is having more than you currently have. If that is the case, you can be rich and not feel it. You can be rich and not know it. — Andy Stanley

Whenever there is fear, there is opportunity. When there is great fear, there is great opportunity. — Andy Stanley

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. — Andy Stanley

When I count other people's blessings I lose sight of mine. — Andy Stanley

The value of a life is determined by what we give away. — Andy Stanley

If you want to know if I'm a Godly man, follow me home. — Andy Stanley

Nothing hinders morale more than when team members with separate agendas are pulling against one another. — Andy Stanley

If your desires be endless, your cares and fears will be so too. Thomas Fuller — Andy Stanley

If a teenage guy tends to overreact when he fails, there is a pretty good chance he thinks his significance is based on success. — Andy Stanley

Vions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. — Andy Stanley

Jealous leaders measure their success by the failure of others. — Andy Stanley

Generous giving will break the grip of greed on your life. So whether or not you think you have extra, give and give generously. You've got to give to the point that it forces you to adjust your lifestyle. If you're not willing to give to the point that it impacts your lifestyle, then according to Jesus you're greedy. If you're consuming to the point of having little or nothing left to give, you're greedy. If you're consuming and saving to the point that there's little or nothing to give, you're greedy. I know, that's strong. Actually, it's harsh. But it's true. — Andy Stanley

Creating breathing room financially may lower your standard of living but raise your quality of life. — Andy Stanley

I tell the girls in our student ministry, You don't really want sex. What you want is intimacy. You want to meet a guy, fall in love, and know you can trust him completely. You want somebody with whom you can share everything there is to know about you without fear of betrayal or rejection. You want to be fully known and to know him fully. Purity now paves the way to intimacy later. — Andy Stanley

The direction you are currently traveling - relationally, financially, spiritually, and the list goes on and on - will determine where you end up in each of those respective arenas. — Andy Stanley

Saying a prayer won't make you a Christian. Placing your faith in Christ as your savior makes you a Christian. — Andy Stanley

I want people to help me reanchor the church to undeniable, mind-boggling, culture-shifting demonstration of compassion and generosity. Because, generosity was the hallmark of the early church. — Andy Stanley

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3:6) — Andy Stanley

I WILL NOT TRUST IN RICHES Wealth has some pretty powerful side effects. If wealth were an over-the-counter medicine, there would be bold warnings printed on the packaging. Warning: May cause arrogance. While taking this medicine, extra precaution should be taken not to offend people. If taken for prolonged periods, may impair perception, causing hope to migrate. If you saw a commercial for wealth on TV, it would show pictures of happy people holding hands in the park. Meanwhile, the announcer would be listing all the ways it can ruin your kidneys, rot your stomach, cause sudden heart failure, and destroy your life. — Andy Stanley

We begin selling ourselves on what we want to do rather than what we ought to do. We listen to ourselves until we believe our own lies, and the we opt for happiness. — Andy Stanley

Who are you and what breaks your heart? — Andy Stanley

Leaders who carry unresolved guilt are forced to hide a part of themselves from those to whom they are closest. They have a secret. They are forced to expend time and energy to ensure that no one finds them out. They know they are not completely trustworthy. Often they assume no one else is either. Guilty leaders have a difficult time trusting. Consequently, guilty leaders have a difficult time building teams. — Andy Stanley

When you make giving a priority, something happens inside of you. Especially when it's financially challenging to do so. It's like you loosen your grip on a value system whose motto says, "Money is the key to life and happiness and safety." — Andy Stanley

Actions don't only speak louder than words; actions should be used to interpret words. — Andy Stanley

Every arena of life intersects with what's going on in our hearts. Everything passes through on its way to wherever it's going. Everything. — Andy Stanley

It is when our hearts are stirred that we become most aware of what they contain. — Andy Stanley

People who blame things rarely change things. Blame is an unassailable change-avoidance strategy. — Andy Stanley

The followers of Jesus did not die for what they believed - they died for what they claim to have seen. — Andy Stanley

Jesus doesn't take sides; He takes over. — Andy Stanley

Jesus did not predict a place. Jesus predicted a people. — Andy Stanley

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

Imagine a world where unbelievers were critical of what we believed but envious of how well we treated one another. — Andy Stanley

If you devote yourself to more than yourself ... you will have more than yourself to show for yourself. — Andy Stanley

People without clear vision are easily distracted, have a tendency to drift from one idea to another and often make foolish decisions that rob them of their dreams. — Andy Stanley

A coach, on the other hand [when compared to counseling], helps us assess the present so that we can operate more effectively in the future. — Andy Stanley