Dave Harvey on Mimicking Heroes

Very important advice for SGM - a family of churches that perhaps have been guilty in the past of particularly copying C J Mahaney's mannerisms, vocabulary, hair cut etc.

"A pastor is not called to be a template ... we have to be careful not to create a culture where people feel obligated to mimic their pastors or any leader in the church. In the past there has been some of that - certainly not explicitly taught by any pastors that I am aware of but has somehow been assumed".

Dave Harvey - "Answering Your Questions" - SGM Blog - 28th August 2011.

Sir Winston Churchill on Totalitarian Leadership

Sir Winston Churchill was making this statement against government - but it could just as easily apply to wrong and legalistic church leadership;

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

Sir Winston Churchill - "Quotes from Sir Winston Churchill" - Date: November 21, 1943

C H Spurgeon on Hebrews 12 & God's "Punishment"

"God's people can never by any possibility be punished for their sins. God has punished them already in the person of Christ, Christ, their substitute, has endured the full penalty for all their guilt, and neither the justice nor the love of God can ever exact again that which Christ has paid. Punishment can never happen to a child of God in the judicial sense".

C H Spurgeon - "Chastisement" - New Park Street Pulpit - delivered on Sabbath Morning, October 28, 1855

Dudley Daniel on Transitioning Leadership

"It shouldn't be a shock to the people that this is the man that will lead us into the future".

Dudley Daniel - "Dudley Daniel - The Transition" - NCMI TV "Equipping All Nations".

Justin Taylor on Good Advice for Controlling Leaders

"'Because I said so' is not very persuasive to five-year old children throwing a temper tantrum and 'because I said so' is not very effective with twenty-five year old college students in bed with one another. What is needed in it's place is a worldview built around the proposition that God said so. Our calling is not merely to parrot those words, but to sert forth a biblical theology that takes seriously the gracious prescriptions and the gracious prohibitions of our holy, loving Creator".

Justin Taylor - "Introduction" in "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" (Piper, John and Taylor, Justin - editors) - Crossway Books (2006) - (p15).

Peter Day on True Christian Unity

"When it says "Be of one mind" - it doesn't mean that we are all clones ... we are set free from human regulation and we haven't all got to look the same, sing the same, speak the same and be exactly the same in every single aspect of our lives. That's not what it means! "Being of one mind" does not mean we become narrow clones of each other.

You will even find that sometimes the men of the church begin to dress and speak like the preacher. You go to churches where if the preacher's head is shaved, the men start shaving their heads. It happens! They become clones! Yes there are godly standards but we are not all meant to look the same ... God has created us all different so His gracious, glorious character shines through your life!".

Peter Day - "Sunday Morning Sermon" - Lansdowne Evangelical Free Church - Sunday 6th April 2008.

Rob Rufus on Right Leadership Perspectives

"I don't fear people leaving this Church - I fear God leaving this Church!".

Rob Rufus - "Do Your Diaries Reflect the Priorities of Heaven?" - City Church International, Hong Kong - Sunday 22nd July 2007.

Rob Rufus on True Leadership

"I want to build myself into redundancy in this church; because that is the purpose of the five-fold ministries - is to equip and train the believers so that we become redundant in the locality."

Rob Rufus - The Joy of God - City Church International Hong Kong - 14/07/2004

Andrew Walker on Terry Virgo's Leadership Style

"Looking at the uniformity of belief and practice within Terry (Virgo's) churches prevents us from being lulled into a false sense that Terry is a soft man. He tends to get what he wants. But his public persona is courteous, friendly and open".

Andrew Walker - "Restoring the Kingdom" - Eagle Publication (1998) - (p333).

Andrew Walker on Leadership Personality

"The more insecure leaders were, the more they would invoke heavenly backing for their advice".

Andrew Walker - "Restoring the Kingdom" - Eagle Publication (1998) - (p187).

Andrew Walker on Leadership Abuse and Personality

"He is a mature, secure person who does not feel the need to use his apostolic authority to get his own way, ride roughshod over others or make impossible demands on members ... in the fact file I have collected on discipleship abuses, authoritarianism and insecure personalities is a dominant theme".

Andrew Walker - "Restoring the Kingdom" - Eagle Publication (1998) - (p187).

Albus Dumbledore on Leadership and Authority

"Those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it".

J K Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - Bloomsbury, London (2007) - (p575).

R T Kendall on Worship Leaders

"Leadership in worship must be a leadership that keeps out of the way as much as possible and enables the people to see and follow Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit".

Dr R T Kendall - "Worshipping God" - Hodders, St Ives (2004) - (p117).

R T Kendall on Worship Leaders

"What I mean by "lead worship" is to lead the congregation to worship and adore God".

Dr R T Kendall - "Worshipping God" - Hodders, St Ives (2004) - (p114).

David Stroud on Discipling Christian Leaders

"One of the roles of every generation of Christians is that they must hand on the baton to the next generation in due course".

David Stroud - "Handing on the Baton" - NFI Magazine May-July 2002 - (p7).

Rob Rufus on Christian Leadership

"Most of our leadership should not so much be taught as caught. We need the impartation of the rhema Word of God".

Rob Rufus at TOAM '07 - 10th July 2007.

Simon Pettit on Christian Leadership

"Christian leadership is the gift of being able to influence people in a God-given direction that they weren't initially willing to take ... the most motivating thing you can bring to your people is a clear presentation of what the vision - God's will - is".

Simon Pettit (2003) - Newfrontiers Leadership Conference in Brighton - 11th July 2003.