Spiritual Leadership

While browsing our bookshelves, I came upon Spiritual Leadership, by J. Oswald Sanders. It seems that my wife got this book while doing camp leadership back in college. Being generally interested in spirituality and leadership, I was curious as to how they might be combined. Suffice it so say that I was impressed.

The book is a series of lectures given by Sanders to the Oversees Missionary Fellowship many years ago. The first edition was published in 1967, and I read from one older than Amazon's selling now. The principles, however, are primarily Biblical, and have lost none of their impact over the years.

I enjoyed most the fact that the same content I am finding in many recent leadership writings is found here, but with the added spiritual dimension. Sanders begins with the simple question of whether Christians should aspire to leadership at all. Doesn't the ambition for leadership conflict with the virtue of humility? This tension runs throughout all of the short chapters. The answer...perhaps.

Sanders lays out a model of leadership that is difficult, strenuous, and often poorly rewarded. He speaks to the Biblical model of servant-leadership and emphasizes that the leader is to be first not in prestige, but first in humility, in service, in sacrifice, and in suffering. For the Christian leader, emulation of Christ is the first goal, and that emulation brings with it no expectation of earthly glory or reward.

However, in American evangelical society, spiritual leaders are often accorded glory, whether rightly or wrongly. Best selling authors and mega-church pastors receive financial and social rewards, being considered gurus leading the rest of us to a better life. This naturally creates a tension for any talented leader called by God...is the calling clear and truly from heaven, or is the call a justification for pursuit of glory in a church job?

Lay leaders are faced with similar questions, although normally on a smaller scale. Leadership of a Bible study or ministry within the local church rarely brings financial rewards, but the social prestige within the church community is nearly guaranteed. Will the eager servant be equally as eager to change diapers in the nursery as to teach their peers Sunday School class?

For Christians in leadership positions outside the church, this book is equally applicable, although Sanders was clearly speaking to those within the church. The lessons of vision and drive and discipline are true no matter who is following or where we are going. In fact, I would posit that the Christian leader of a non-Christian organization has an even more difficult task as he must meet both secular and Biblical standards for quality leadership.

I read this book too quickly (as I usually do), but unlike many other books on leadership, I don't plan to forget about it as quickly. This book set itself apart in my mind because it combined both solid leadership lessons with the foundation for why I should care. Discipline for discipline's sake is all well and good, but when the pursuit of Christ's glory is added, real meaning is found.