Mike Yankoski

“Regular church attenders tend to come to our places of worship to feel better, not to be hit with the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable, the threatening.”

“Sometimes it's easy to walk by because we know we can't change someone's whole life in a single afternoon. But what we fail to realize it that simple kindness can go a long way toward encouraging someone who is stuck in a desolate place.”

“What says more about who you are in Christ? How loudly you say AMEN in the service or how well you treat strangers in the foyer?”

“You'll never scare anyone into heaven... Telling someone who is suffering deeply that he's going to suffer more is probably a waste of breath. Its like warning someone who is already starving that they're about to get really hungry. But tell him of the restaurant that serves heaping meals to all who come no matter where they're from or what they look like & he's more likely to listen.”

“Jesus did thunder warnings of suffering & condemnation, but primarily to those who were convinced they were healthy & in no need of Him. To the weak, diseased, hungry & sin-bound, He had another message. "Come to me, all you who are weary & burdened...”

“Werent those well-intentioned speakers condemning the broken for being broken?”

“A hungry man can be a fast learner. When you come to a table with nothing but need, you are grateful for things you might have pushed aside before. And when you kneel, hungry & broken at His table, you receive a grace from Him you might, at some other time, have completely missed.”

“I suddenly felt entirely weak, unable, and inadequate to bridge the gap between myself and these men. Then I realized I didn't have to bridge that chasm. That wasn't my responsibility. My responsibility was simply to be there, and to trust that the Lord would use me, that He would bridge the distance.”

“I was warned when entering seminary that if I was not careful, a dangerous habit could form: I could learn to read the Bible and do nothing in response. I still remember our seminary president warning us that to study to the neglect of action becomes easier and easier with each occurrence. We should be terrified if we have mastered the art of becoming convicted and doing nothing in response.”