Leadership Library Spotlight, pt. 2
by on Oct 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Book: Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer, 3rd edition
Author: J. Oswald Sanders
I have always loved to work for bosses, coaches, pastors, and leaders who have high standards. They expect much from me and are not content to settle for mediocrity. They believe that every person on the team should strive to be as strong in competency and character as the best leaders in the group.
Part of my appeal with Sanders’ book has to do with his mentality that being a spiritual leader requires an extremely high standard of living and learning. In fact, the standard is so high that only complete reliance on and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit will yield the marks of leadership in the believer’s life. This resource lays out a 166-page gauntlet of qualities, habits, challenges, dangers, and opportunities that spiritual leaders will need to master if they are to be fit for service in the kingdom of God as one to mark and follow by other Christians.
Another aspect that makes Sanders’ perspective unique among the pantheon of leadership literature is his perspective that these qualities should not be relegated to the domain of leaders alone. He stresses that becoming a person of spiritual influence for the glory of God should be a common denominator for the Lord’s people. In other words, he is not writing to pastors, speakers, authors, and professors who serve or hope to serve as the voices of our generation. He is appealing to every person who claims to be a disciple of Christ in hopes that we would all be living as leaders in case the need to fill the role of leadership ever enters our lives.
This book will challenge your thinking and overwhelm you with its relentless supply of demands, but Sanders is not creating these demands of his own volition. He sees them threaded throughout Scripture, and your challenge will be to verify the truth of his claims through your own study of God’s Word, and then hold fast to what proves to be true.