Quotes of Notes: God’s Grand Vision for the Church

The following “Quotes of Note” are from the Introduction and Chapter One of Equipping Counselors for Your Church. This section of the book focuses on God’s grand vision for His church. 

• If pastors fail to focus on equipping, then we selfishly treat God’s people like children who have never grown up spiritually. 
• When pastors focus on equipping, we leave an other-centered legacy of loving leaders.
• My goal is the promotion of a congregation-saturated mindset of every-member ministry with an entire congregation passionate about and equipped to make disciples. 
• Pastoral care is not just what the pastor does, but what every member is equipped to offer to one another.  
• Biblical counseling is not simply a ministry of a few in one corner of the church, but a mindset of an entire congregation that the Bible is sufficient for every life issue. 
• Biblical counseling is focused one-another ministry designed to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. 
• Gospel-centered biblical counseling involves communicating Gospel truth about grace-focused sanctification in word, thought, and action through one-another relationships that have integrity, genuineness, authenticity, transparency, and reliability, done in love to promote the unity and maturity of the Body of Christ for the ultimate purpose of displaying the glory of Christ’s grace. 
• God’s end goal is for every member to be a disciple-maker who speaks and lives Gospel truth in love to help one another to grow in Christ. 
• We don’t want to create the ministry mindset where the only way people can relate to one another is by discussing their problems. The goal is to move people forward in Christlikeness whether or not they are facing specific crisis problems. 
• If pastoral search committees desired in a pastor what Christ desires, they would throw out every résumé that failed to emphasize experience in and passion for equipping the saints. 
• Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for pastors/teachers to focus on equipping every member to do the work of the ministry. 
• These eight words must be every church leader’s reason for existence: “To prepare God’s people for works of service.” 
• The leader’s calling is to help God’s people to fulfill their calling. 
• Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for every member to be a disciple-maker by speaking and living Gospel truth to one another in love. 
• Sadly, in far too many churches, the people of God are second-class citizens when it comes to the work of the ministry. 
• Pastors and teachers serve the people so God’s people can serve the congregation and community.
• The normal agenda and priority of every Christian is to make disciple-makers. 
• Christ’s training strategy for disciple-making involves pastors and teachers equipping every member to embody the truth in love through the personal ministry of the Word—biblical counseling.            

Join the Conversation

Which quote about God’s vision for His church resonates with you the most? Why?