Church Identity Quotes

In my leadership conferences, pastors ask, "Do you have a vision for my church?" Many times they want me to give them a picture of where they should go and what their church should look like. When these pastors do this, I always feel bad.

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hated.

There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what our Church teaches... We are living in a world saturated with all kinds of voices. Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us.

The church is in trouble-that's what they say anyways. The problem is most of what they call the church is not the church, and the church is not quite as in trouble as everybody thinks. As a matter of fact, the church today is absolutely beautiful-she's glorious, she's humble, she's broken, and she's confessing her sin. The problem is what everybody's calling the church today isn't the church. Basically, by and large, what's called the church today is nothing more than a bunch of unconverted church people with unconverted pastors.

But when one identifies the Church with a cultural and political bloc, there is the danger of making difficult the Church's contact with all those outside the bloc.

The freedom to be able to offer education, human services, and health care in accordance with our own identity as a church should not be denied us simply because there may be the perception of a political majority who favors a new understanding of the American tradition of pluralism.

I love the church, the church that God is establishing, that Jesus died for, so I'll never have any negative things to say about His church.

There is something to be said about a pastor and a church that develop a missions statement and the people take ownership of it. They get their identity, purpose, and energy from the unique place their church is to be in that community.

Does the church have all kinds of problems? You bet, because it's made up of people like me, so I get that part too. But all I need to know about the church is that Jesus picked her.

You must match your music to the kind of people God wants your church to reach.... The music you use 'positions' your church in your community. It defines who you are.... It will determine the kind of people you attract, the kind of people you keep, and the kind of people you lose.

We must cease to think of the church as a gathering of institutions and organizations, and we must get back to the notion that we are the people of God.

The Reformation did not directly touch the question of the true character of God's church.

The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.

I believe alot of churches in America are not churches.

I think it's super important for the church itself to rediscover the gospel.

I think we are all trying to figure out what it means to be the Church as opposed to just doing church.

I think it is going to be very difficult for any church that still calls itself a church, never to try and convince someone that their religion is the best one.

We are not the Westboro Baptist Church. We are a church that embraces the tenants of historic Christianity - there's nothing hateful about our members at all.

I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups.

Proclaiming the gospel to a lost world cannot be just another activity to add to the church's crowded agenda. It must be central to who we are. It forms our identity.

If real churches exist, such persons are not called on to make them.

We're not opposed to Catholics having pride in their church, but that doesn't mean that every church that doesn't join them isn't a church.

If churches would take ownership of a vision, the next pastor who is thinking about coming to that church can see what their vision is and then determine if their vision fits with his or her ministry. If it doesn't, then it would be wrong for that pastor to come to that church.

I think there is tribalism is a big deal inside of the church, that the church thinks of themselves as a tribe and not a mission.

The Church in England is the Church of England.