Top 338 Quotes & Sayings by Andy Stanley
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American priest Andy Stanley.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
People are not on a truth quest; they are on a happiness quest. They will continue to attend your church - even if they don't share your beliefs - as long as they find the content engaging and helpful.
Leadership is all about taking people on a journey. The challenge is that most of the time, we are asking people to follow us to places we ourselves have never been.
People pray in one direction but they walk in a different direction, and direction always determines where we end up.
Somehow, what's in our hearts, good or bad is eventually translated into words and deeds.
There will be very few occasions when you are absolutely certain about anything. You will consistently be called upon to make decisions with limited information. That being the case, your goal should not be to eliminate uncertainty. Instead, you must develop the art of being clear in the face of uncertainty.
What people pray for will tell you more than anything else whether they are locked into the vision and priorities of the church.
When a plan or strategy fails, people are tempted to assume it was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies can always be changed and improved. But vision doesn't change. Visions are simply refined with time.
The issue is: how do you engage the audience? And one of the things I talk to our communicators about is: The outline is great; the stories are great. But how do you engage them? How do you make it feel like we are on a journey, not you are just up there giving me information.
Preachers prepare with this fear: 'Am I going to be able to fill the time?' The audience never worries about that.
Communicators need to figure out how well do they engage people, and they should not talk one word longer than people are engaged.
As a pastor, I've spent 30 years talking to people and heard every kind of story imaginable.
Guys that preach verse-by-verse through books of the Bible - that is just cheating. It's cheating because that would be easy, first of all. That isn't how you grow people. No one in the Scripture modeled that.
Preaching on Sunday mornings is such a simple thing, and by complicating it, I think we all do ourselves and the audience a disservice. It is very simple. Here is the model: Make people feel like they need an answer to a question.
If you're a preacher's kid, you see the church differently.
All Scripture is equally inspired, but not all Scripture is equally applicable or relevant to every stage of life.
The church wasn't an organization in the first century. They weren't writing checks or buying property. The church has matured and developed over the years. But for some reason, the last thing to change is the structure of leadership.
Most of us wake up every day and make decision that will make us happy, and generally decisions that will make us happy right then in the moment or that day. We are not really on a truth quest.
Success means your options multiply. Size increases complexity, and complexity can confuse vision.
A principle is a principle, and God created all the principles.
Greed is not a financial issue. It's a heart issue.
You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information.
God is a God of systems and predictability and order, and God honors planning.
Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.
Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.
You will never maximize your potential in any area without coaching. It is impossible. You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without outside input you will never be as good as you could be.
Maintaining peace with God is more important than keeping pace with someone else.
A leader is someone who has the courage to say publicly what everybody else is whispering privately. It is not his insight that sets the leader apart from the crowd. It is his courage to act and speak up when everyone else is silent....are those who would rather challenge what needs to change and pay the price than remain silent and die on the inside.
Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.
Actions don't only speak louder than words; actions should be used to interpret words.
Leaders who refuse to listen, will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing helpful to say
Grace is the vehicle God uses on occasion to ensure that we get precisely what we dont deserve.
Everything now will prepare you for the next step. Don't run from adversity; lean into it with all your heart and God will make you a leader worth following.
Forgiveness is simply a decision to cancel a debt.
Lord, give me the wisdom to know what's right and the courage to do what's right-even when it's hard.
Celebrate what God has given others. Leverage what God has given you.
Success is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for you.
Guilt rarely results in positive behavior. But gratitude? Great things flow from a heart of gratitude.
Giving up something now for something better later is not a sacrifice. It is an investment.
It's better to make a difference than to make a
point.
Learning never takes place while you're talking.
Your devotion to God is illustrated, demonstrated, and authenticated by your love for others.
The value of a life is always measured by how much of it is given away.
Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like — people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore — to control your life? How long?
Good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven.
Good excuses rarely collect dust. We use them, and use them, and use them.
When happiness points in one direction while wisdom, truth, integrity, and common sense point in another, that's when really smart people start doing really stupid things.
Without courage we will simply accumulate a collection of good ideas and regrets.
A single act of courage is often the tipping point for extraordinary change.
Blessed is the man who gets the opportunity to devote his life to something bigger than himself and who finds himself surrounded by friends who share his passion.
There is something insincere about a man or woman who repeatedly tells God how much he or she loves Him while refusing to obey Him.
If a man can predict his own death and resurrection, and pull it off, I just go with whatever that man says
Your greatest accomplishment may not be something you do but someone you raise.
You have no idea the numbers of people that God may want to influence through you
Telling someone they're wrong is not the same as leading or inspiring them to do what's right.
Blame enables us to smuggle our issues into our future.
The followers of Jesus did not die for what they believed - they died for what they claim to have seen.
The more conscious I am of the work God has yet to do in me, the less critical I am about what he has yet to do in you
There is no cramming for a test of character. It always comes as a pop quiz.
What breaks your heart is part of a divine design to bring change!
Direction, not intention determines your destination.
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