TOP TEN Classic Discipleship Quotes (Part two)

DUE TO SOME POSITIVE RESPONSES from our dear readers and our hardworking staffs, I decided to add a sequel of our top ten sayings.

Be inspired!

 

1) “As long as there is a lost person out there, we are not big enough.” –Steve Murrell

This is a good measuring stick for us to use as far as church growth is concerned. There is no room for us to be big-headed, but instead we need to be concerned about the lost world out there.

 

2) “Find out what God is doing in your generation, then fling your life into it.” –Larry Tomzsack

While Steve was listening to Larry’s sermon when he was a young Christian, he was so surprised by that statement that it solidified his resolve to being in ministry and to reaching the youth.

 

3) “When in doubt, TITHE!” –Steve Murrell

A businessman handed me ten thousand pesos in cash for my first ever missions trip to Indonesia way back in the 80’s. I was so thankful to God and so I asked Pastor Steve if I should tithe it. Well, you know by now what he told me.

 

4) “You’ll never be mistaken in giving.” –Juray Mora

I can’t think of any other most generous person in the Ministry, but Juray. He lives, breaths, preaches, and demonstrates generosity to the full. It behooves us to follow his example.

 

5) “Don’t make decisions based on money.” –Steve Murrell

We were trained early on to move in faith not by sight. Every time we do conferences and missions trips, we were challenged with this punch line. I guess this can also by applied when getting married! (Warning: This only applies to single people 40 years old and above.)   

 

6) “How are you going to face your problem, if your problem is your face?” – Luther Mancao

Well, I don’t really know how to categorize this statement. Pastor Luther’s sayings are beyond explanation most of the time. You just have to hear and meditate on it for a week!

 

7) “All roads lead to discipleship.” –Ferdie Cabiling

Rome has been that important of a city that they made all roads, during those ancient days, leading to the center. Well, there is something significant about the term; it was the concept Jesus emphasized before He left: discipleship.

We decided to live with this aphorism as our guide in ministry every time we do an activity in Victory Ortigas.

 

8.)“If you have to brag much about your accomplishments, then it must have not been big enough.” Mr. Broocks (Rice’s Dad)

I heard this several times from Pastor Rice’s sermons on leadership, discipleship, and ministry. This really helped him to be on the side of humility every time he is tempted to brag on his achievements. He heard this said from his Dad when he went home one day.

I’d been on the opposite side of humility so many times. I’m just wondering how much more if I had never heard this early on from Rice. Oh God…more grace.

 

9) “The greatest legacy you can leave behind in this life is the lives you’ve touched for God.” –Dr. Jun Escosar

Way back when I was a student, I would always think, ‘I want to be like Jun E when I grow up‘. He was the first guy who became our full time minister in church. One of the other reasons why serving God was exciting is because we see him exemplify that.

 

10) “Saan tayo kakain?” (“Where are we going to EAT?”) –Manny Carlos

Acts 2.46b “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts…”

There’s nothing more biblical than finding out where to eat! Thanks Manny for inspiring all of us.

TOP TEN (+1) CLASSIC DISCIPLESHIP QUOTES

All throughout the twenty-four years of being a follower of Christ, I have collected powerful discipleship quotes.

Here are the following:

 

1. “Change the campus, change the world!”

The mother of all classic quotes. This was the very first ‘mantra’ ever launched way back in the 80’s by the master of quotes, Rice Broocks. It was so vivid because most of us were still university students at that time.

 

2. “Every nation in our generation.”

This is the most recent adage that Rice Broocks contributed. So simple yet profound that we named our worldwide movement after it. A powerful one – not only because of the name we got out of it, but also the mission of discipleship that is wrapped around it.

 

3. “A Bible and a passport.”

This was so real to us that a high percentage of our young people would want to go to the mission field. Most of us would apply for a passport, and be sure to be ready when he calls us to other nations. I don’t really know exactly who started this quote in the 80’s, but I could not think of anyone else but Pastor Steve Murrell.

 

4. “Why don’t you go home; take off your clothes in front of a mirror, then tell me if you are a boy of a girl?”

We were so much into helping others walk with God and become champions that we were all concerned about one another. So Pastor Steve asked me if I could help out this certain student named, Francis. While talking with him, I realized that there are fundamental issues I have to clarify before I proceed into this thing.

Ferdie: “Are you a boy or a girl?”

Francis: “I don’t knowww!”

Now, that was the start of a loooong journey to becoming a real man.

 

5. “Your Momma ain’t here!”

In one of our early exposure to Men’s Meetings, a young man in the Anson’s Arcade church venue was asked to share what’s in his heart to the expectant audience packed with disciples, young men full of testosterone. It was quite an inspiring exhortation that when he ended it with the quote mentioned above. Men…it was etched or shall I say, tattooed in our brains. To the middle-aged men today who were there during that time in the late 80’s; they could all point out to Jerry Santiago as the author of that phrase.

 

6. “If your son is acting like a monkey, it’s because he sees a bigger monkey in the house.”

I could sense that the short stint that the Lord allowed Omeng (Cervantes) and I in ministering to the Chinese youth in Dasmariñas Village, Makati was coming to an end. We were approaching the chapter on the Holy Spirit in the Purple Book that I knew some parents are a bit worried about, doctrinally. The spokesperson told me while surrounded by all the parents of these teenagers that his son was not really into it. “In fact,” he said, “ I have never even seen him read his Bible at home.” At the back of my head, I was thinking that this concerned father was treating Omeng and I as ‘hired’ teachers. Without hesitation, an aphorism just came out of my mouth!

 

7. “If you will not stop taking advantage of the girls here, I’m going to squeeze your b*@#s! You understand?”

Rico Ricafort was one of the youth pastors we had who made so much impact in many of our young people’s lives. He was a ‘shepherd’, indeed. A couple of teenagers were smooching inside a car in the parking lot before the youth gathering one Friday evening. When Rico found that out, he sat down with the boy and gave him a youth pastor’s straight-to-the-point advice.

Similarly, just a side note here, Joseph Carodan told one of the athletes regarding purity in the midst of fame in the sports world. “This (pointing to person’s heart) and this (pointing to the person’s crotch), belong to only one woman – your wife!”

 

8. “Every member a minister”

Denis Sy, the senior pastor of our San Juan congregation, once traveled with me to Bogota, Colombia back in 2002. We visited one of the larger Christian local churches in the world with a discipleship-based culture. We came back to Manila armed with a vision and a strategy wrapped into one.

 

9. “Discipleship is relationship”

This statement hit the nail on the head. The right to disciple is earned through a framework of relationship. Joey Bonifacio, not only coined the term; he even entitled one his blog sites with it.

 

10.“It’s all about discipleship, stupid”

I was caught surprise when Julius (Fabregas) and I discovered the philosophy of ministry of the Fellowship Church, Dallas, Texas. ‘It’s all about the weekend service, stupid.’ I approached one of the pastors and suggested the above-mentioned cliché. I liked it so much that I named my Word Press site, ‘It’s all about discipleship, Genius!’

 

+1 This has been Joseph Carodan’s version of the Great Commission to simplify it for the athletes to understand. Whether he is doing the offering, preaching a sermon, or teaching in our school; he would always use this to wrap it up. I think he has been using this like an exclamation point or a period in a sentence for five years!

“We’re gonna rock this nation!”