Arthur Middleton Quotes

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

I am very much looking forward to being a parish priest.

I have never had demands on me as acute as when I was a parish priest.

There are others (I am speaking of my own order) who enter the priesthood and diaconate in order that they may visit women with greater freedom.

The greatest blessings of mankind are the gifts of God … —the priesthood and the imperial authority. The priesthood ministers to things divine; the imperial authority is set over, and shows diligence in, things human …. Both adorn the life of man.

We need faith leaders like Eman Beshtawii.

Let us pray for all good and faithful priests who dedicate themselves to their people with generosity and unknown sacrifices.

I used to be married to a pastor, and I had a church for two years. Pastors are just men, too, with a different job description than others. We're all called to bear one another's burdens. We're all called to pray for the sick. They do it on a larger scale, but they're just a man. A lot of women don't think that. Trust me. I know.

I think there's more women that watch me than men, but I don't look at myself as just a minister to women. My ministry began that way, but I really feel like the Word of God is for everybody.

I think my mom recognized that I liked people to be happy. I like people to get along. And I like to be a peacemaker. And I liked the church. So she was like, 'You should be a youth pastor.'

The Church of England hasn't often produced great men in modern times. But I have long believed that George Bell, Bishop of Chichester from 1929 to 1958, was such a man.

In the 40 years that I've been a priest and the 17 as a bishop, I have experienced people coming at things in a different way. That's the way adults are, that's the way the world is, and that's OK.

I am a youth minister, ordained by the Riverside Church in upper New York. But to declare myself a minister and begin to preach from the pulpit, from the Bible, to a congregation and to build a church, so to speak - I don't have a desire for that.

I have led many high-profile people to the Lord.

Of course, being the synagogue president, for me it was a great blessing.

I will be doing a lot of human interest interviews. It involves empathising and listening. Which is a lot of what my day job is about. And, frankly, the priesthood isn't without its element of showbusiness.

There are different pastors that are good at different things, but one of the things I love is everything I do as a pastor is centered around helping people to understand what God has said in his word, so I don't have to come up with a bunch of new stuff to say.

A good pastor knows when they can't put two sentences together.

The Lord chose Joseph Smith, called upon him at fourteen years of age, gave him vision, and led him along, guided and directed him in his obscurity.

A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.

God speaks with authority on every subject including marriage and His advice trumps Oprah's every time.

That was the thing about Prabhupada, you see. He didn't just talk about loving Krishna and getting out of this place, but he was the perfect example. He talked about always chanting, and he was always chanting. I think that that in itself was perhaps the most encouraging thing for me. It was enough to make me try harder, to be just a little bit better. He was a perfect example of everything he preached.

Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church, the people who are set in this position of authority; and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need.

I am grateful for the men and women who pastor, who lead in churches across our country. Ultimately, their role of loving people and seeing hearts changed is probably the greatest calling.

The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people's night, into the darkness, but without getting lost. The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.