Mike McKinley > Quotes

“When church leaders make decisions driven by fear of man, the true church disappears. The truth is frequently unpopular, and standing up for God's word and against sin will sometimes make people angry. We need church leaders who aren't directed by popularity polls, but whose decision-making is dominated by what is right.”
― Mike McKinley, Passion

“The cross of Christ makes demands of us. It will not allow us to love the world and love Christ. It will not permit half-hearted devotion. If Christ is to live in you, sin and selfishness must be put to death.”
― Mike McKinley, Passion

“The question isn't whether we're guilty; it's how we deal with that guilt. Do we seek to shift it; seek to work it off; carry it till it crushes us; or give it to Jesus, let Him deal with it, and know the burden lifting wonder of a clean slate?”
― Mike McKinley, Passion

“Churches gather in order to know God and to be in his presence. And nowhere does the Bible say that we should seek or expect to know God through ecstatic visions, impressions on the soul, a prophetic word, or dreams. God may sovereignly choose to use such methods of communication from time to time. But the normal way that God speaks to show us what he’s done, what he’s like, and what he wants from us is through his Word. And God’s church comes into contact with his Word through reading it, preaching it, and hearing it.”
― Mike McKinley, Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things

“It is true that we need to make a onetime decision to follow Jesus. But a true onetime decision is followed by the everyday decision tofollow Jesus.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?

“But we're not only like Pilate in being cowardly leaders. We can also be like him by being cowards when it comes to suffering for Christ. That's another way of describing Pilate's sin. He approves of Jesus, he marvels at Him, he proclaims His innocence, but he's not willing to suffer for Him any way. When Jesus becomes too inconvenient, Pilate is out.”
― Mike McKinley, Passion

“It is possible for you to honestly believe that you are a follower of Christ, but not actually be one. It is possible to say to him, “Lord, Lord,” but never enter the kingdom of heaven. Merely checking a box and calling yourself a Christian doesn’t mean that you really are a Christian.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?

“The Bible actually has a category for faithful anxiety (e.g. 2 Corinthians 11:28; 1 Corinthians 7:32-34): a passionate concern for good that doesn’t spiral into fear and bitterness, but rather, leads us to pray and trust in the Lord, giving thanks for what we do have even as we cry out to him about what we do not (Philippians 4:6-8). But when our anxiety is fueled by fear, the Bible talks about it less in terms of a weakness of constitution that needs to be overcome, and more as a sin to be avoided and repented of (1 Peter 5:5-7).”
― Mike McKinley, Luke 1-12 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading

“Self-improvement is not the solution to these kinds of problems. A radical overhaul is.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?

“Regeneration is a unilateral act of God. God does the merciful work. God makes us alive. We simply receive his gift.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?

“It is true that we need to make a one time decision to follow Jesus. But a true one time decision is followed by the every day decision to follow Jesus.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?