Insight

Servant leadership - more food for thought

'Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.' J. Donald Walters

'Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.' St. Augustine

'You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader.' Anthony J D'Angelo

'Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.' Winston Churchill

'But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.' Jesus the Christ

Reflections on leadership - more food for thought

‘The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.’ Harvey S. Firestone

‘As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.’ Bill Gates

‘Leadership is the transference of vision.’ Hal Reed

‘The only real training for leadership is leadership.’ Anthony Jay

‘He who thinks he leads and has no one following him is only taking a walk.’ Anonymous

Character - more food for thought

'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.' Martin Luther King, Jr.

'Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.' Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf

'Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching’ George Van Valkenburg

'Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value.' Albert Einstein

'Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.' Evan Esar

'A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.' Charles Spurgeon  

Serving others - more food for thought

You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. John Bunyan

Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can. John Wesley

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' Martin Luther King, Jr.

God has given us two hands - one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing. Billy Graham

Christmas - more food for thought

Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know… the birth of Santa. Bart Simpson

This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ. Frank McKibben

Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign. Christina G. Rossetti

Christmas began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man. Anon

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. George Matthew Adams

There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries. W.J. Cameron

Daily prayer - more food for thought

'I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.' John Wesley

'Talking to others for God is a great thing, but talking to God for others is greater still. We shall never speak to people for God with real success until we have learned how to speak to God.' Anon

'The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest victories will be witnessed when individual Christians everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto God and day by day give themselves unto prayer.'  John R. Mott

'When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't pray, they don't.' William Temple

'Pray, and let God worry.' Martin Luther
 

Leading by example - more food for thought

'We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.' Malcolm Gladwell

'Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.' Harold S. Geneen

'The youth worker is not primarily a talker or organiser, he is a model, a person who by the power of his Christian example motivates a dedication to Jesus Christ.' Lawrence Richards

'Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.' Albert Schweitzer

'We must become the change we want to see in the world.' Mahatma Gandhi

Prayer in our private lives - more food for thought

'Prayer that affects our ministry must first give depth to our private lives. True prayer works mighty spiritual changes. The character of our praying will determine the character of our ministries. Prayer makes our words strong, gives them power, makes them stick. No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study will supply its lack.' E. M. Bounds

'God does nothing but by prayer and everything with it.' John Wesley

'Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude - an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God.' Arthur W. Pink

'Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work.' Oswald Chambers

'Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre?' Corrie Ten Boom