David Mathis serves as senior teacher and executive editor at desiringGod.org, a pastor at Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis. Follow David Mathis on Twitter here.

To purchase a copy of Workers For Your Joy or for more information about this book, click here.

Quotes from Workers For Your Joy

1. Christian leadership exists for the joy of the church. (pg. 16)

2. Christ grabs his pastors by the heart; he doesn’t twist them by the arm. He wants men with a holy ambition for the office, men with holy dreams about feeding and leading the flock, men willing and eager to stretch themselves to do what the calling requires. (pg. 47)

3. The pastorate is indeed a crucible and will make a genuinely humble man all the more humble (2 Cor. 12:7), but it is not a lab for experimenting with arrogant men. (pg. 67)

4. A healthy church might limp along with inadequate administration, but we dare not compromise on the quality of our teaching. (pg. 87)

5. The church needs leaders who, in a sense, do not clock in and out. (pg. 110)

6. Good pastors know that God has given them power for serving the church, not self. For exalting Christ, not self. (pg. 124)

7. Good shepherds smell like sheep because they live and walk among the sheep and are not sequestered from the flock. (pg. 140)

8. The pastor who drips love of money, subtle as it may be, tells his church and the world that having God is not enough. (pg. 156)

9. Gentleness does not signal a lack of ability but the added ability to steward one’s strength so that it serves good, life-giving ends rather than harmful ends. (pg. 224)

10. True Christian leadership is fundamentally self-sacrificial in the pursuit of greater, deeper, longer-lasting joy. (pg. 259)

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Evan Knies is an elder of North Hills Church in West Monroe, LA. He is husband of Lauren and father to Maesyn. He is a graduate of Boyce College and Southern Seminary.