Dan B. Allender Quotes

So take seriously the story that God has given you to live. It’s time to read your own life, because your story is the one that could set us all ablaze.

Genuine trust involves allowing another to matter and have an impact in our lives. For that reason, many who hate and do battle with God trust Him more deeply than those whose complacent faith permits an abstract and motionless stance before Him. Those who trust God most are those whose faith permits them to risk wrestling with Him over the deepest questions of life. Good hearts are captured in a divine wrestling match; fearful, doubting hearts stay clear of the mat.

Christ never intended to cover up the dark side of life, but rather to illuminate a path through it.

Reconciliation is not to be withheld when repentance—that is, deep, heart‐changing acknowledgement of sin and a radical redirection of life—takes place in the one being rebuked. Nor is reconciliation to be extended to someone who has not repented.

The work of restoration cannot begin until a problem is fully faced.

God wants us to relieve suffering, pursue justice, facilitate reconciliation, and free the heart to love, but He desires for us to do so in a way that reveals His Character. It is not enough just to do well for others or to do things well. We must do well in our unique way in order to reveal the vast creativity of a God who loves to bring change through the most unlikely channels.

Beginning with the first day of life outside the womb, every child is asking two core questions: 'Am I loved?' and 'Can I get my own way?' These two questions mark us throughout life, and the answers we receive set the course for how we live.

Healing comes when our story is raw, bone-deep and full of hunger for what only Jesus can offer.

Strength is found in weakness. Control is found in dependency. Power is found in surrender.

Bold love is courageously setting aside our personal agenda to move humbly into the world of others with their well-being in view, willing to risk further pain in our souls, in order to be an aroma of life to some and an aroma of death to others.

If we want to create a different future, we must have the courage to look at the past.

Every addiction is an attempt to slay hope.

Most people want to grow, but the price of growth is pain.

[Biblical counseling] Must insist that the image of God is central to developing a solid view of personality; that our sinfulness, not how we've been sinned against, is our biggest problem; that forgiveness, not wholeness, is our greatest need; that repentance, not insight, is the dynamic in all real change.

Fasting from any nourishment, activity, involvement or pursuit—for any season—sets the stage for God to appear. Fasting is not a tool to pry wisdom out of God's hands or to force needed insight about a decision. Fasting is not a tool for gaining discipline or developing piety (whatever that might be). Instead, fasting is the bulimic act of ridding ourselves of our fullness to attune our senses to the mysteries that swirl in and around us."—Dan B. Allender, PhD

A leader - whether in the home, church, business, community, or government - has authority due to her role, but her positional power will not bring about good for individuals or organizations unless it is backed up by the capital of character.

Every marriage moves either toward enhancing one another’s glory or toward degrading each other.

Stories don't give answers, but they do offer perspective.

The desire for beauty, the hunger for union, the passion to be part of something greater than self, all arise out of our bent to worship.

To experience brokenness and humiliation all you have to do is lead.

The sole reason to serve as a Christian is Jesus, yet He is easily lost in the various activities that consume our days.

Courage never takes away fear; courage simply redistributes fear to get the job done.

Grace. Loss. Fortune. Hardship. Victory. Sometimes the worst seat is best seat in the house and it comes as a result of leading.

The more you openly name your struggles, the less people can use your silence as a back door to blackmail you, to sabotage your leadership, or to subvert relationships within the organization.

Love cannot last without a foundation of forgiveness.

The cost for the recipient of God’s grace is nothing, and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay.

Buzyness, however, is moral laziness because it involves refusing to live with courage and intentionality.

You may obey a leader who has power and authority, but you will not strive to serve her or the cause of the organization unless you respect and care for her in addition to the ones with whom you serve.

If you are a leader, it is not possible to be at peace with all and friends with everyone.

Idealism may get us into the fray, but it is the loss of all we cherish that begins to form in us a heart capable of leading others reluctantly and humbly.

For most leaders, humility comes only by wounds suffered from foolish falls.

Life is war, and marriage provides us with a close and intimate ally with whom we may wage this war. The battle requires bold love, forgiveness, confrontation, and repentance.

Elizabeth Turnage is a woman of grit and grace who lives into the stories of those who join her in this odd journey of seeking God. She honors the complexity of life without ever losing sight of the simple glory of the cross. Her grasp of the mundane and miraculous and their interplay gives a depth and honesty to her story that tugs at the heart and gives us hope our story can matter. Her book will be a clarion call to bring our broken, holy, troubled, and glorious life to the author of all stories: Jesus.

It is God's design to use reluctant servants to usher in glory.

If you lead, you will eventually serve with Judas or Peter.

One of the best sources of perspective is enemies. If we can learn from them, then we can profit from anyone.

In order to reclaim the joy and passion of leadership, we must walk the valley of the shadow of death and name the cost of leadership.

To dream alone is fantasy if it doesn't move the heart to act.

The more we walk the path first while becoming last and least in our organizations, the more we become like the Alpha and Omega whom we long to serve.

What originally led us to serve others by leading them seldom remains our North Star.

A reluctant leader is highly suspicious of people who work to accumulate and hoard power.