Discover the most popular and inspiring quotes and sayings on the topic of Synods. Share them with your friends on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, and let the world be inspired by their powerful messages. Here are the Top 100 Synods Quotes And Sayings by 83 Authors including Sunday Adelaja,Stanley Hauerwas,Pope Francis,Charles Hodge,O. S. Hawkins for you to enjoy and share.
When the kingdom leaves the church, the church stops living for herself
Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in the Protestant tradition want to say that Reformation was a success.
It is important to draw out the pastoral consequences of the Council's teaching, which reflects an ancient conviction of the Church. First, it needs to be said that in preaching the Gospel a fitting sense of proportion has to be maintained.
All Church power is, therefore, properly ministerial and administrative. Everything is to be done in the name of Christ, and in accordance with his directions.
The great, God-blessed churches in the world today have one common characteristic: an insistence upon an exposition of God's infallible Word.
The church is the only authorized institution for the proclamation of the gospel
The health of a church depends not merely on the creed which it professes, not even on the wisdom and holiness of a few great ecclesiastics, but on the faith and virtue of its individual members.
Don't tell me that you have a Reformed Church in the tradition of Calvin until you have the preaching of the Word every day of the week, devote Wednesday's to prayer and have the church gather together for prayer.
For every family of the pious ought to be a church.
The right of the people to a substantive part in the government of the Church is recognized and sanctioned by the apostles in almost every conceivable way.
Let us reject this decree. In matters of conscience the majority has no power.
Merle d'Aubigne, History of the Reformation, b. 13, ch. 5.
There are ten church-members by inheritance for one by conviction.
We are no longer a nation of one church; we are a nation of many churches.
The loss of Christendom gives us a joyous opportunity to reclaim the freedom to proclaim the gospel in a way in which we cannot when the main social task of the church is to serve as one among many helpful props for the state.
We should think of the church as an orchestra in which the different churches play on different instruments while a Divine Conductor calls the tune.
Collective unity is not the result of the brotherly love of the faithful for each other. The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole the church, party, nation and not to his fellow true believer. True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society .
A missions conference is a business meeting to decide the fate of the heathen.
The main focus of this group is to help bridge the gifts and abilities of the pastor (and other staff) and laity in the church. Building the bridges that will link the faithfulness of the past with the possibilities of the future is crucial.
The church's final word is not 'church' but the glory of the Father and the Son in the Spirit of liberty
Reformation ends not in contemplation, but in action.
We find not in the Gospel, that Christ hath anywhere provided for the uniformity of churches, but only for their unity.
The most urgent task is that of the biblical and liturgical formation of the people of God ...
When the Church listens to the Holy Spirit, it becomes fruitful. New movements are born.
A church that lives by power dies by power.
A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished.
Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.
If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied.
We cannot be content with an evangelism which does not lead to the drawing of converts into the church, nor with a church order whose principle of cohesion is a superficial social camaraderie instead of a spiritual fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
God expects us to measure the church not against tradition but against the standards & promises of His Word.
The mandate of the church is to promote kingdom expansion throughout the earth
Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.
Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic church.
We have to dissolve all the denominations in order to form from them the greater denomination of the homeland.
Theology must have the character of a living procession.
Elect from every nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
Those called to the service of governance in the church need to have a strong sense of justice, so that any form of injustice becomes unacceptable.
A church must grow larger and smaller at the same time. Larger through worship and smaller through small groups.
Nothing will divide the church so much as the love of power.
Congregations shaped by the Scriptures generally have preachers who are shaped by the Scriptures.
The laity are called to become a leaven of Christian living within society.
The church must be involved in all seven spheres of life
So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate. They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy.
If the Church is a living body united to the same head, governed by the same laws, and pervaded by the same Spirit, it is impossible that one part should be independent of all the rest.
Universal orthodoxy is enriched by every new discovery of truth: what at first appeared universal, by wishing to stand still, sooner or later becomes a sect.
The tribunal of God and of the pope is one and the same.
And a third thing is the understanding of the Church as a community, a communion which is just a hierarchy but the people of God, whose servants are the priests and bishops.
In particular, our church will have to confront the vices of hubris, the worship of power, envy, and illusionism[28] as the roots of all evil. It will have to speak of moderation, authenticity, trust, faithfulness, steadfastness, patience, discipline, humility, modesty, contentment.[
Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was in the flesh to the Father, and the apostles to Christ and to the Father and to the Spirit, so that there may be unity in flesh and in spirit.
The apostles were scattered, and even the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem had neither the power nor the means to impose uniformity.In these circumstances, we must imagine the literature of Christianity as spreading gradually, irregularly, and in a manner which variations inevitable.
For us in the Pacific, in Asia, in India, and in Africa, Christian unity is not an optional extra. It is an urgent necessity, for our divisions are a real stumbling-block to the proclamation of the Gospel.
The collapse in evangelical doctrinal consensus is intimately related to the collapse in the understanding of, and role assigned to, Scripture as God's Word spoken within the church. p. 98
Church and court, it's all the same - pews, a throne, a God, the accused.
Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils.
Apostles go into new territory and establish God's kingdom.
The renewal of the Church will come from a new type of monasticism which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this.
Precision in matters of Christian doctrine is a hallmark of confessional Lutheranism, all for the sake of the Gospel.
It appears likely that there was no normative pattern of church government in the apostolic age, and that the organizational structure of the church is no essential element in the theology of the church.
Churches, by the very reason of their structures, are monolithic and do not adapt easily. But in many cases, they, too, have allowed themselves to become allied or even part of an unjust establishment or system.
The church is God's remnant in a country, able to change the life of the nation
The church is not an audience of spectators; we are a fellowship of disciple-makers
A glorious Church is like a magnificent feast; there is all the variety that may be, but every one chooses out a dish or two that he likes, and lets the rest alone: how glorious soever the Church is, every one chooses out of it his own religion, by which he governs himself, and lets the rest alone.
Priesthood, Imamhood, Pundithood often come hand in hand with tyranny.
The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example. It is still clinging to one or two things which were useful once, but which are not useful now, neither are they ornamental.
Various Eastern fathers referred to the practice of married priests in their churches, offering each one of us elements for a further careful evaluation of the choice of the Latin church to connect celibacy to ordained priesthood.
At synods, I usually wait about a week before I speak. First I listen. I feel the temperature. I listen to what has been said, what has not been said, and what I think needs to be said at that point.
Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.
You are not likely to see any general reformation, till you procure family reformation.
No man who has not sat in the assemblies of men can know the light, odd and uncertain ways in which decisions are often arrived at.
The last mighty victories of the Lamb, who are called, and chosen, and faithful.
There is nothing more pitiable than a soulless, sapless, shriveled church, seeking to thrive in a worldly atmosphere, rooted in barren professions, bearing no fruit, and maintaining only the semblance of existence; such a church cannot long survive.
Denominations divide while the cross unites.
This truth of the gathering together of God's children is in Scripture seen realised in various localities, and in each central locality the Christians resident therein composed but <>ong>onong>e body: Scripture is perfectly clear <>ong>onong> that head.
Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people's side, of doing more than simply listening to them; a Church which accompanies them on their journey ...
The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.
Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.
Tragically, from the Orthodox point of view, we only too often convert people not to this one church, the body of Christ, but to our own denomination, at the same time imparting to them the "poison of division" (Nissiotis 1968:198).
By misunderstanding the nature and purpose of God's kingdom, we have marginalized the church's authority and influence both within its walls and outside them.
God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government.
A sect, incidentally, is a religion with no political power.
The failure of churches to continue Jesus' struggle to overcome domination is one of the most damning apostasies in its history. With some thrilling exceptions, the churches of the world have never yet decided that domination is wrong.
We are compelled, our faith urging us, to believe and to hold - and we do firmly believe and simply confess - that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.
The true Church preaches REGENERATION; not reformation, not education, not legislation, but regeneration.
The Church's foundation is unshakable and firm against the assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly batter and crash against her, she offers the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress.
God is decreeing to begin some newand great period in his Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself. What does he then but reveal Himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to his Englishmen?
As tranquil streams that meet and merge and flow as one to meet the sea, our kindred hearts and minds unite to build a church that shall be free. Marion Franklin Ham, no. 145
One king, one law, one faith.
The true structure of the church is the Kingdom of God, and this is neither frail nor like a tent in any way. But
The apostolic gift to the body of Christ brings order and maturity.
When the church becomes an institution, people are nothing more than volunteers to be recruited. When the church is a movement, our stewardship becomes the unleashing of our God-given gifts, talents, and passions.
As dutiful bishops soon discover, authoritarianism, or control from the top down, characterizes the hierarchical tradition.
Nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as breach of unity.
Council of Nicea had
And is it not sects, bodies of definite, uncompromising principles, that lead us into revolutions?
In a word, we are like the servants of the centurion in the Gospel with regard to the bishops, insofar as when they say to us: go, we are obliged to go; if they say: come, we are obliged to come; do that, and we are obliged to do it.
When God measures a church, He begins with its depth not its breadth, with its substance not its style.
Church must lead all other spheres of influence.We find people from all the mountains there.The church leaders must be able to mentor them
I don't know any institution in this country that ... carries more influence than the church.
Priesthood is not a convenient, historically conditioned form of Church organisation, but is rooted in the Incarnation, in the priesthood and mission of Christ himself.
The church is in turmoil today. The church is not to reflect the world but to be a portrait of Jesus Christ.