Administration in service
“Administration is the servant of the spiritual, never its master.”
“Rules and procedures are means in service of the spiritual life, never an end that smothers it.”
“The servant leads not only from his skyscraper, but also from the ground.”
“The moment the one who serves serves himself, service is already dead.”
“To govern for the pleasure of governing is already to stop serving.”
“To govern by the letter and not the spirit of the Law is to break the very relationship it was meant to protect.”
“To appoint your own so they appoint you is to build a clan; to appoint without bias is to serve the body of Christ.”
“To delegate everything empties the task of its weight; to delegate nothing keeps others from growing.”
“When an administration threatens, ask whether it acts out of fear or out of self-interest.”
Visiting and listening
“Visiting without the art of listening is an empty barrel: all noise, no water.”
“A church that no longer visits is a club, not a body.”
“Visitation is a church's pulse; where it stops, the body is already cold.”
“Leadership without ears is blind leadership.”
The test of reality
“Everyone knows how to govern, until they sit in the seat.”
“We know everything, until what we know is tested.”
“Who says that what I think I know is the truth?”
Giving and the heart
“Giving is an art; giving yourself is a destiny.”
“The art of leadership rises no higher than the heart of the leader.”
“Whatever fills a leader's heart will fill his service.”
“To give without giving yourself is an instrument that rings false.”
“The true servant is known by what he does when he has nothing to gain.”
“Giving your best smothers no one; doing other people's work weakens them.”
Busyness and depth
“The church's favourite sport is activism; yet it runs faster the day it pauses to think.”
Sight
“The day we put on God's glasses, our vision changes.”
Perception and truth
“When perception takes the place of reality, we judge before we listen.”
Inside and appearance
“Perfume makes us smell good; it cannot make us good.”
“Our easy road is to dress up our purpose beneath the veneer of our programs.”
The office and the person
“Do my attitude and my altitude depend on my position?”
“Whoever fails to grieve not being re-elected builds himself a portable prison.”
“A title lasts only a season; service makes a leader for life.”
The free mind
“A disabled body is not a disabled mind.”
“The only person who can imprison your mind is you.”
Change and character
“A transfer moves your post; God means to transform your character.”
“The computer says: copy-paste; God's tablets say: be transformed.”
“To be saved does not automatically mean to be transformed.”
The lesson of mistakes
“My mistakes remain my own; but the lesson I draw from them can spare the one who follows me.”
Past and becoming
“My past does not determine my present.”
Foresight
“A leader's wisdom is measured by what he foresees.”
“To govern without foresight is to walk blindfold.”
Identity and conformity
“To settle for mindless imitation is a descent; to become yourself, an ascent.”
Prayer and inner life
“Cut off from prayer, service withers like a severed branch.”
“The pharmacist guesses your illness by reading your prescription. God knows it before you speak: each time you come to him, it is to seek healing.”
Love, the engine of service
“When service divorces love, legalism takes a seat at the table.”
Patience and time
“Wanting to reap where you have not sown is a dangerous practice.”
Trial and storm
“What does the storm teach that fair weather never could?”
“My roots in Christ determine the impact of the crisis on me.”
Rest and exhaustion
“One can lie to others by saying 'all is well'; the body, though, tells the truth when it breaks down.”
“We dread prison; yet work can become one.”
Faithfulness in small things
“A hundred cents make a euro; in your Creator's eyes, no faithfulness is too small.”
Speech and silence
“The one who speaks loudly thinks he controls everything; his absence lets the silent voice emerge.”
Truth and its manner
“A tail-light is red to warn, not to dazzle; spoken in anger, truth dazzles but no longer warns.”
Those in the shadows
“What no one sees, Heaven alone keeps account of: the work moves forward by hands no one ever applauds.”
Ambition and pride
“Misdirected, the ambition that was meant to carry you poisons your mind.”
“What pride refuses to see, necessity sets before its eyes.”
Governing
“To govern is to do what is right, not what is popular.”
“The method matters little, as long as it faithfully serves the cause.”
Prayer and activity
“The administrative spirit allies itself with activism; prayer undoes the mechanism.”
“A leader's scanner is his prayer life: it reveals what activity hides.”
Stewardship of time
“To meet at length without preparing is to steal the very time you claim to manage.”
“An agenda finds its true worth only in what you do with it afterward.”
The servant's rest
“A worn-out servant keeps trotting; a wise one sits down to drink his fill at the source.”
What we behold
“What you follow with your eyes ends up shaping your heart.”
Succession
“To reject all my predecessor's work without having weighed it is to believe the Spirit was waiting for me to begin.”
Office and ministry
“Being appointed to a position of responsibility is validated only when the gift confirms itself in service.”
“Holding a position is not always having a ministry; but the position held with humility tends toward ministry.”
“Appointing someone for lack of a better choice weakens the whole functioning of the Church.”
The leader
“The leader's greatest obstacle is the leader.”
“Solitude, silence, the valley of decision, retreat: this is the other school of the leader.”
“A leader is revealed in his daily life, not only on his great days.”
“To respect the other's choice is already to lead.”
“The other PhD that makes a leader: Patience, Humility, Discipleship.”
“The true leader frees and grows others; he neither chains nor manipulates.”
“Handling the unexpected, digesting thwarted plans: these are the leader's vitamins.”
“Do not envy another's renown; stay faithful to your calling.”
“Making up for others' shortcomings without grumbling is leadership in action.”
“Listening to what matters to others before deciding is already leadership.”
“The leader connects people to one another; he erects no throne.”
“A leader looks at life with the eyes of faith, not those of the grasshopper.”
“A leader does not stay back criticizing like Ephraim: he is at the heart of the action.”
“Like the firefighter, the leader rushes toward danger: not to brave it, but to save.”
“To pass something on is not to have spoken: it is to have made sure you were understood.”