Stan Rieb

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:44). By the way, it is dreadful to see this recommended as only another technique for succeeding in leadership. Jesus wasn’t giving techniques for successful leadership. He was telling us who the great person is. He or she is the one who is servant of all. Being a servant shifts one’s relationship to everyone. What do you think it would do to sexual temptation if you thought of yourself as a servant? What do you think it would do to covetousness? What do you think it would do to the feeling of resentment because you didn’t get what you thought you deserved? I’ll tell you. It will lift the burden.”
― Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

“But spirituality in many Christian circles has simply become another dimension of Christian consumerism. We have generated a body of people who consume Christian services and think that that is Christian faith. Consumption of Christian services replaces obedience to Christ. And spirituality is one more thing to consume. I go to many, many conferences and talk about these things, and so often I see these people who are just consuming more Christian services.”
― Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

“Union in action with the triune God is Christian spirituality. That is where the life is drawing its substance from God.”
― Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

“Prayerful Commitment 1 God, open my eyes that I might see my church as You see it. Let me see where change needs to take place, even if it is painful to me. And use me, I pray, to be an instrument of that change whatever the cost.”
― Thom S. Rainer, Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive