Sermon Quotes on adaptation
Ambrose Bierce
HOMILETICS, n. The science of adapting sermons to the spiritual needs, capacities and conditions of the congregation.
The Devil’s Dictionary: The Devil World.
William Bridges
It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions. Change is not the same as transition. Change is situational: the new site, the new boss, the new team roles, the new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal.
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.
Benjamin Franklin
Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.
Source Unknown
Ronald A. Heifetz
The improvisational ability to lead adaptively relies on responding to the present situation rather than importing the past into the present and laying it on the current situation like an imperfect template.
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
Heraclitus (Attributed)
There is nothing permanent except change.
Reinhold Niebuhr
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Prayer: “The Serenity Prayer”
George Bernard Shaw
Those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.
Everybody’s Political What’s What?
George Bernard Shaw
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Man and Superman
Timothy Keller
To reach people we must appreciate and adapt to their culture, but we must also challenge and confront it. This is based on the biblical teaching that all cultures have God’s grace and natural revelation in them, yet they are also in rebellious idolatry. If we overadapt to a culture, we have accepted the culture’s idols. If, however, we underadapt to a culture, we may have turned our own culture into an idol, an absolute. If we overadapt to a culture, we aren’t able to change people because we are not calling them to change. If we underadapt to a culture, no one will be changed because no one will listen to us; we will be confusing, offensive, or simply unpersuasive. To the degree a ministry is overadapted or underadapted to a culture, it loses life-changing power.
Center Church:Â Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, Zondervan, 2012.
Mark A. Noll
One of [Lamin] Sanneh’s key arguments is that while the spread of Islam has drawn ever-increasing numbers to the globalizing influence of Arabic, the spread of Christianity binds ever-increasing numbers to their own local languages.
Taken from The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith  by Mark A. Noll Copyright (c) 2009 by Mark A. Noll. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
See also quotes on Change, Status Quo
Still Looking for inspiration?
Consider checking out our illustrations page on Adaptation.