Discipleship Quotes

“Jesus, Willard says, “does not call us to do what he did, but to be as he was, permeated with love. Then the doing of what he did and said becomes the natural expression of who we are in him.”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God

“The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said.”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God

“Those who are not true leaders will just affirm people at their own immature level.”
― Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

“It never cost a disciple anything to follow Jesus; to talk about cost when you are in love with anyone is an insult.”
― Oswald Chambers

“The nobility of England would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount. But you'll labor like scholars over a bulldog's pedigree.”
― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts

“Jesus said his disciples would be known for their love, not for their placards of protest and angry letters to the editor.”
― Brian Zahnd, Radical Forgiveness: God's Call to Unconditional Love

“If we are cut loose from the anchor of God's Word, we will not be free. We will be slaves of personal passions and popular trends.”
― John Piper, Jesus: The Only Way to God: Must You Hear The Gospel To Be Saved?

“The figure of the crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

“The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.”
― Oswald Chambers

“You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to “clear the numberless ascensions”* in about two minutes.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“Evangelism cant be our focus! We must not stop sharing the good news, but here’s the deal, here’s the wonderful thing, it gets done along the way as you do discipleship. Great commission is just about going to disciple the nations and you know what happens... as you disciple them evangelism takes place, because it’s done in the context of discipleship.
Here’s the issue: We have to reframe evangelism within the context of discipleship”
― Alan Hirsch

“God's word tells us that righteousness is a gift; it cannot be earned. But godliness is not a gift. We must pay a price to touch godliness through a daily decision to die to self and embrace the cross. God calls us to learn godliness in the classroom of life among people as we sit on airplanes and buses, walk among our neighbors and labor at our factories or desks.”
― K.P. Yohannan, Touching Godliness

“Because I am not yet living up to what Jesus expects me to be in those red letters in the Bible, I always define myself as somebody who is saved by God's grace and is on his way to becoming a Christian. (...) Being saved is trusting in what Christ did for us, but being Christian is dependent on the way we respond to what he did for us.”
― Tony Campolo, Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics

“We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.”
― Oswald Chambers

“Last words of his mother to his father: "Keep eternity before the children.”
― Dallas Willard

“Being a “Christian” – a word used only three times in the New Testament – is not Jesus’ goal for his people. But the making of a community of revolutionary followers or “disciples” – a word used nearly three hundred times in the New Testament – seems to be exactly the goal. The church must return to these roots. The church must become a way of life, an alternative lifestyle, a counter-community of Christ-followers. Church must once again become a people who are on “The Way” formed by the words and way of Jesus.”
― Ronnie McBrayer, The Jesus Tribe: Following Christ in the Land of the Empire

“Let us live not only to serve God ourselves; let us live to help our children and their children live for God.”
― Dillon Burroughs, Thirst No More: A One-Year Devotional Journey

“The test of mountain-top experiences, of mysticism, of visions of God and of solitariness is when you are “in the soup” of actual circumstances.”
― Oswald Chambers, Shade of His Hand

“Religious leaders who continue mechanically to expound the Scriptures without regard to the current religious situation are no better than the scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day who faithfully parroted the Law without the remotest notion of what was going on around them spiritually,” wrote Tozer. “They fed the same diet to all and seemed wholly unaware that there was such a thing as meat in due season.”
― a.w. tozer

“God's way leads always into trial, so far as sight and sense are concerned. Nature always will be tried in God's ways.”
― George Mueller, Answers To Prayer

“I do not politicize Christianity nor my discipleship as Jesus did not politicize either His divinity nor his humanity.”
― R. Alan Woods, The Humanity of Jesus Christ: Wholly God, Holy Man

“What kind of ministry is that, just talking to people?" Criticism directed at Francis Schaeffer's plan to open an obscure spot in the Swiss Alps to those who came with questions.”
― Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity

“My understanding from the Word of God is that I am supposed to preach for the maturation of the believer with a view that lost people are there.”
― Matt Chandler

“Not only did Jesus purposefully enter the wilderness on a regular basis but historically, God seems to prefer meeting with man in these desert regions.”
― Amy Layne Litzelman

“Don't get me wrong, I like NASCAR and shopping at Nordstrom's, but discipleship is intrinsic as a lifestyle."

~R. Alan Woods [2013]”
― R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries

“Being that 'reason is not antithetical to faith' (Woods) and that Pentecost established the Reality of super-nature (Lewis) and that 'theology matters' (Wimber), then 'empowered evangelicalism' (Nathan) is the natural expression of discipleship."

~R. Alan Woods [2013]”
― R. Alan Woods, Kingdom Come: The Already But Not Yet

“In every historical period, the religious groups that grow most rapidly are those that set believers at odds with the surrounding culture.”
― Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity

“We need both reverence and obedience. If we worship but do not walk in obedience and discipline, we are emotional, lacking self-control and godly character. If we obey God’s commandments but are not true worshipers, we become religious and judgmental. As the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, we may miss the real meaning and purpose, even God Himself.”
― Amy Layne Litzelman, This Beloved Road: A Journey of Revelation and Worship

“There are no shortcuts to maturity in discipleship; it was, is, and always will be learned over time and under pressure walking in union with Christ."

~R. Alan Woods [2013]”
― R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries

“To love with expectations is, in the end, an oppressive, driven thing, and people know it when they receive it.”
― Mark Galli, Chaos and Grace: Discovering the Liberating Work of the Holy Spirit