Heather Zempel > Quotes

“We should be in the business of serving God’s purposes and not our own.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“We need God to redefine our suffering against the background of eternity because eternity puts things into perspective.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“When we worship God, it causes our strength to increase.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“Likewise, unless our passion is in the will of God and for His glory and our craving is for the fruit of the Spirit, we, too, will be destroyed by uncontrolled appetites.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“walking through relational mess forces us to grow in our obedience of the “one another” commands. There are about fifty of these in Scripture, and they can’t be obeyed outside the context of community—love one another, serve one another, honor one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, confess to one another. These commands move us past small talk and illusions of friendship to the messiness of biblical community.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“Your job as a leader is to create an environment in which people can best see, respond to and engage in the work of the Holy Spirit.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“Stop reading the Bible like a yearbook and start reading it like the autobiography of God.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“Failures processed well lead to a better experiment the next time.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“Henry Cloud offers this perspective on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness: “Think of what the devil did in the temptation (Luke 4). He offered Jesus instant relief from His hunger, but Jesus said no. He offered Jesus instant glory, but He refused. The devil offered Him instant safety, but Jesus rebuked him. Jesus knew that to gain those things, He had to go through a process that was God’s way. And He learned obedience through the suffering.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“The way to combat greed is generosity. The more you give away, the less your possessions will possess you.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“When we come to a dead end, we must realize that perhaps God just needs to get us to a place where we can look around the corner, make a turn, and step into a greater place of blessing than we would have ever dared to look.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“While the Egyptians were plagued with lice and locusts, the Hebrews were plagued with attention deficit disorder.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“When the body of Christ lives as it should, the whole group suffers when one member suffers.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“The kingdom of God has been built on a series of daring and divine experiments.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry

“Covetousness hits us from all directions. It comes in the form of possessions to be grasped, opportunities to be seized, and relationships to be manipulated.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“It’s the little stuff that reveals just how little I really trust God’s character.”
― Heather Zempel, Amazed and Confused: When God's Actions Collide With Our Expectations

“Mess means that change is happening, is right around the corner or will happen if we engage it correctly.”
― Heather Zempel, Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry