Harold L. Senkbeil > Quotes

“Like the hub of a wheel, the church’s corporate life is an extension of the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“That's what it means to be a servant of Christ. You get your hands dirty among his earthly-and earthy-people. But you do it because you have life in your hands to give them. pg 25”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“Simply put, here amid the kingdoms of this world we have no continuing city. That’s why we dare not become attached to the passing values of any human culture.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“This love of Christ and for Christ impels us day after day, taking up our tasks one after another, in full knowledge that our work no matter how tiring and repetitive is really his own. We have nothing to give to others that we ourselves have not first received. His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation are inexhaustible.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“Don’t worry. When I come to church, I don’t come for intellectual stimulation. I come as a sinner to hear the word of God.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“The new Babylonian captivity is what we have done to ourselves, namely, the strange fascination with our contemporary culture evident across denominational and confessional lines.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“Impatient shepherds are their own worst enemy. We certainly don’t want pastors to be slackers. All the same”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“God really does care. His love is not just lip service. God’s love led him to give up his only-begotten Son to the death of the cross so that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“Though the Bible originated in multiple ancient cultures spread over thousands of years in widely diverse languages, one central thrust is woven through all its genres and literary forms: “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“Yet joy remains even when happiness fades. No matter the circumstance, Christians who plant their hope in God can harvest genuine joy in the rocky soil of adversity or in the deepest, darkest valley of pain.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“The frenzy with which much of the church busies herself with things peripheral to the kingdom in a frantic attempt by her own ingenuity and effort to make God’s name holy or make his kingdom come is a sign that something is radically wrong. The church has lost connection with Christ, her living head; she has listened to the siren calls of this world; she has succumbed to the prevailing culture instead of what Christ Jesus created her to be.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“He was the agent of the shepherd, working for a scheme which was not his own and the whole of which he could not grasp, and it was just that which was the source of the delightedness, the eagerness and also the discipline with which he worked. But he would not have kept that peculiar and intimate relation unless he had sat down and looked at the shepherd a good deal.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“In winning, you lose—but in losing for Jesus’ sake, you win. You’ll be humbled—but Jesus lifts up the lowly. In giving you receive; in pardoning you are pardoned. And in dying you are born to eternal life.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“God’s word does what it says. It transforms sinners into saints by the forgiveness of their sins. It changed meaningless chaos into order at creation, and his word can do the same for you.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“It is time to revive and recover the third article of the Creed; to live corporately and communally in a world of expressive individualism. . . . We need to show how the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies people one by one through the gospel, and then draws them into communion in his holy church.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“The Christian life is upside down. It follows the pattern of Jesus’ cross. As he won by losing, so we live by dying. In his cross and by his death he won life for us all. So upon his invitation we follow Jesus even though it may bring us suffering, misery, and loss.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“Cemeteries” were barracks for the dead in Christ, who waited to be awakened with Christ’s return.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“Reliable sources narrate how in his dotage the elderly apostle John, no longer able to ambulate or preach, was carried into Christian assemblies where his exhortation consisted of a mere five words which he simply repeated—the main theme of his first New Testament epistle: “Little children, love one another” (1 John 3:18).”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“The perennial error is to equate holiness with morality and good works. Whenever sanctification is equated with good works, spiritual mischief follows. Then people are directed to their own inner disposition and spiritual preparations in order to achieve the level of sanctity that God demands in his law.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“How catastrophic is it when the church herself becomes secularized and expressive individualism sits in the driver’s seat in the church’s life and mission. When the church has lost connection with Christ her living head, she loses her soul.”
― Harold Senkbeil

“Faith is the hand that grasps the promises of God. Faith is trust—faith is reliance on God and his word. It’s a two-party arrangement, a mutual bond, and while God remains steady and firm, we often falter”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“The gospel and the sacraments are not static entities—mere object lessons by which we advertise and promote the kingdom of God. Rather, the gospel and sacraments throb with vitality. They are filled to the brim with the energy and life of God’s own Spirit. The actual words that originated from the mouth of Jesus are the instruments and tools of the Holy Spirit to create and sustain faith. And just think: Jesus has given those very words to you. He has entrusted into your all too human and very flawed mouth and hands the gospel and the sacraments by which the Holy Spirit continues to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify his church on earth. You might fail; in fact, from my own bitter experience I have to say you most certainly will fail—repeatedly and spectacularly. But we believe in the forgiveness of sins also for pastors! So let me tell you this: Though you will falter and fail, God’s Spirit will not.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart

“Jesus defeated death by his own death. Satan sought to be the devourer, but he ended up being the one devoured—because God cannot die. As God, Jesus is life, and so death has no power over him. Jesus—who is both God and man—suffered and died and rose again in his human body. With his flesh and blood intact, he destroyed death and made captivity captive.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley

“Instead of whining, try lamenting.”
― Harold L. Senkbeil, Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley