Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer

Spiritual Leadership is the best book I’ve read on Christian leadership. I give copies to every key associate.

Charles W. Colson (1931–2012)

Founder, Prison Fellowship

As a young pastor, J. Oswald Sanders’s book Spiritual Leadership was the first book I read that awakened me to the subject of leadership. It started me on a 30-plus year journey of teaching leadership to pastors and laypeople. No other book has influenced my life the way this one has.

John C. Maxwell

Author, speaker, and founder

the INJOY Group

Spiritual Leadership should be the constant companion of every undershepherd in the Savior’s service. Most helpful is the fact that its emphasis is not on methods, but on character, passion, and godliness. I read it often to regrip the basic perspectives of my task, and have given it to the entire leadership team in our church.

John MacArthur

Pastor-teacher

Grace Community Church

This book proves that a godly attitude lies at the heart of Christian leadership. It does not borrow principles of leadership from the world and apply them to the church, but rather derives principles of leadership directly from the Scriptures. It ought to be read by all of us at least once a year.

Erwin W. Lutzer

Pastor Emeritus

Moody Memorial Church

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders is a classic among the classics. I read it as a young Christian, later as a leader, and needed what’s been taught in this book. I highly recommend it!

Chip Ingram

President, Walk Thru the Bible

I first read Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership as a young woman heading into ministry. It helped to shape my perspective, priorities, and passion and to ground my heart and mind in the timeless truths of Scripture. Anyone who desires to serve the Lord would do well to digest and internalize this classic.

Many Christian workers today are enamored of the latest trends, marketing models, and bestselling books by leadership gurus; they aspire to a sense of greatness and success that exalts human giftedness and rests on shifting sand. By contrast, the kingdom of God will always and only be advanced by humble servants of God who lead out of a clear sense of divine calling, personal integrity, spiritual depth, and dependence on Christ—men and women of prayer, full of the Word and wisdom, and anointed with the power of the Spirit. These are the ingredients Sanders urges us to prize and pursue.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Author, Host of Revive Our Hearts radio

The accelerated change in both the church and larger society compels the revision of the language of a classic like Spiritual Leadership. The ideas of Oswald Sanders are of too great value to risk losing any of their power to the ever-changing idiom of the present century.

D. James Kennedy (1930–2007)

Author and Senior Minister

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

J. Oswald Sanders’s book Spiritual Leadership came to my hand shortly after it was published and was a great help to me as a young minister. I recommend it highly, not only to pastors and Christian workers, but to all Christians who want to know something about God’s leadership in their own lives.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Author, Conference Speaker

Copyright ©1967, 1980, 1994, 2007 by THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NEB are taken from the New English Bible with the Apocrypha, 1961, 1970, the Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of Cambridge University.

Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are taken from The New Testament in Modern English (New York: Macmillan), translated by J. B. Phillips, © 1958 J. B. Phillips.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are taken from the American Standard Version.

Text updated by Mark Fackler, Ph.D.

Study guide by James C. Galvin, Ed.D. and Neil Wilson. www.LivingstoneCorp.com

The use of selected references from various versions of the Bible in this publication does not necessarily imply publisher endorsement of the versions in their entirety.

Interior Design: Erik M. Peterson

Cover Design: Dean H. Renninger

ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-1670-4

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CONTENTS

Preface to the Updated Edition

Preface to the First Edition

1. An Honorable Ambition

2. The Search for Leaders

3. The Master’s Master Principle

4. Natural and Spiritual Leadership

5. Can You Become a Leader?

6. Insights on Leadership from Paul

7. Insights on Leadership from Peter

8. Essential Qualities of Leadership

9. More Essential Qualities of Leadership

10. Above All Else

11. Prayer and Leadership

12. The Leader and Time

13. The Leader and Reading

14. Improving Leadership

15. The Cost of Leadership

16. Responsibilities of Leadership

17. Tests of Leadership

18. The Art of Delegation

19. Replacing Leaders

20. Reproducing Leaders

21. Perils of Leadership

22. The Leader Nehemiah

A Final Word

Notes

A Small Group Study Guide for Spiritual Leadership

Index of Persons

Index of Scripture

More from J. Oswald Sanders

If You Liked This Book, You May Also Enjoy…

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PREFACE TO THE UPDATED EDITION

Over the span of forty years, Oswald Sanders’s Spiritual Leadership has earned recognition as a classic study of the biblical principles of godly leadership. Originally a series of lectures delivered to leaders of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, the book has been valued by thousands of readers for its keen insights and godly wisdom. So why the need for a line-by-line revision? Our concern was that the language of the original edition was making it increasingly difficult to appreciate the power of Sanders’s ideas. Contemporary Christians who would otherwise benefit greatly from the book might be confused by references to obscure personalities, outdated expressions, and an absence of acknowledgment of more recent developments within the church and culture.

Our purpose, then, was to revise Spiritual Leadership for Christians living in the twenty-first century. We cannot improve on Sanders’s insights, but we have attempted to update his writing by examining each sentence for its clarity and relevance to the contemporary reader. Although we have changed the wording extensively, we have remained faithful to the original meaning and intent of each passage. Some of the specific changes are described in the paragraphs below.

First, female leadership has always been a strong, if unsung, part of evangelical missions. In the original edition, almost no mention is made that women participate along with men in leading the world to Christ. Perhaps Sanders meant his references to man, to men, to him, and to his to mean all people without respect to gender. It was common in his era to use masculine pronouns as a generic reference to everybody. But perhaps he did not. In any case, recognizing the role of both men and women in the church of Christ, we have enlarged the language of this second edition to include both, except in those specific parts where Sanders was obviously addressing only one group.

Second, we added notes to the text that identify many of the authorities whom Sanders cites, people now forgotten by most of us. Sanders quotes revivalists, preachers, scholars, and missionaries, often from the British church. He also admired and respected World War II military leaders whose names may or may not still be household words. Whenever possible, endnotes provide biographical information.

Finally, the text of the English Bible itself has undergone much change since Sanders spoke and wrote these pages. Except where otherwise noted, we have used the New International Version for the updated edition.

We trust the reader will hear these pages as well as read them. Like a good sermon, Sanders’s points are often repeated; sometimes paragraphs contain forays beyond the main point; and final paragraphs of chapters often end quite abruptly, as if the speaker suddenly realized he was out of time and quickly wrapped up. Because this book was originally a series of lectures, we have tried to retain the feel and texture of the spoken word. We hope the reader will sense the immediacy and timelessness of these messages as much as the first audiences who heard them four decades ago.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

This book had grown out of two series of messages delivered to the leaders of Overseas Missionary Fellowship at conferences in Singapore in 1964 and 1966. It was then suggested that these messages could be amplified and shared with a wider public. The author has acceded to this request.

The principles of leadership in both the temporal and spiritual realms are presented and illustrated in these pages from both Scripture and the lives of eminent men and women of God. Not every reader will have access to many of the biographies from which these illustrations are drawn, and this has encouraged the author to include pertinent incidents from the lives of persons whose leadership has been more than unusually successful. Whenever possible, sources are indicated. In the case of Scripture references, that translation has been used that appeared to the author to be most accurate and expressive.

The material has been presented in a form that is calculated to be of help even to younger Christians in whose hearts the Holy Spirit is working to create a holy ambition to place all their power at the disposal of the Redeemer. If there is something, too, that will rekindle aspirations and crystallize a fresh purpose in the hearts of those further along the road of leadership, the aim of the book will be realized.

J. Oswald Sanders

An Honorable Ambition

To aspire to leadership is an honourable ambition.

1 TIMOTHY 3:1 NEB

Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.

JEREMIAH 45:5

Most Christians have reservations about aspiring to leadership. They are unsure about whether it is truly right for a person to want to be a leader. After all, is it not better for the position to seek out the person rather than the person to seek out the position? Has not ambition caused the downfall of numerous otherwise great leaders in the church, people who fell victim to the last infirmity of noble minds? Shakespeare expressed a profound truth when his character Wolsey said to the great English general:

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambitions,

By that sin fell the angels; how can a man then,

The image of his Maker, hope to profit by’t?

No doubt, Christians must resist a certain kind of ambition and rid it from their lives. But we must also acknowledge other ambitions as noble, worthy, and honorable. The two verses at the beginning of this chapter provide a warning—and an encouragement—for sorting out the difference. When our ambition carries out a burning desire to be effective in the service of God—to realize God’s highest potential for our lives—we can keep both of these verses in mind and hold them in healthy tension.

Part of that tension is the difference between Paul’s situation and ours. We may understand his statement (1 Timothy 3:1, above) in terms of the prestige and respect given to Christian leaders today. But such was far from Paul’s mind. In his day, a bishop faced great danger and worrisome responsibility. Rewards for the work of leading the church were hardship, contempt, rejection, and even death. The leader was first to draw fire in persecution, first in line to suffer.

Seen in this light, Paul’s encouragement does not seem so open to misuse by people merely seeking status in the church. Phonies would have little heart for such a difficult assignment. Under the dangerous circumstances that prevailed in the first century, even stouthearted Christians needed encouragement and incentive to lead. And so Paul called leadership an honorable ambition.

We ought never to forget that the same situation faces Christians today in certain parts of the world. Leaders of the church in China suffered most at the hands of Communists. The leader of the Little Flock in Nepal suffered years in prison after church members had been released. In many troubled areas today, spiritual leadership is no task for those who seek stable benefits and upscale working conditions. It remains true that any form of spiritual warfare will inevitably single out leaders who by their role present obvious targets.

Paul urges us to the work of leading within the church, the most important work in the world. When our motives are right, this work pays eternal dividends. In Paul’s day, only a deep love for Christ and genuine concern for the church could motivate people to lead. But in many cultures today where Christian leadership carries prestige and privilege, people aspire to leadership for reasons quite unworthy and self-seeking. Holy ambition has always been surrounded by distortions.

And so we find the ancient prophet Jeremiah giving his servant Baruch some very wise and simple counsel: Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! (Jeremiah 45:5 NLT). Jeremiah was not condemning all ambition as sinful, but he was pointing to selfish motivation that makes ambition wrong—great things for yourself. Desiring to excel is not a sin. It is motivation that determines ambition’s character. Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation.

All Christians are called to develop God-given talents, to make the most of their lives, and to develop to the fullest their God-given gifts and capabilities. But Jesus taught that ambition that centers on the self is wrong. Speaking to young ministers about to be ordained, the great missionary leader Bishop Stephen Neill said: I am inclined to think that ambition in any ordinary sense of the term is nearly always sinful in ordinary men. I am certain that in the Christian it is always sinful, and that it is most inexcusable of all in the ordained minister.¹

Ambition which centers on the glory of God and welfare of the church is a mighty force for good.

The word ambition comes from a Latin word meaning campaigning for promotion. The phrase suggests a variety of elements: social visibility and approval, popularity, peer recognition, the exercise of authority over others. Ambitious people, in this sense, enjoy the power that comes with money, prestige, and authority. Jesus had no time for such ego-driven ambitions. The true spiritual leader will never campaign for promotion.

To His ambitious disciples Jesus announced a new standard of greatness: You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all (Mark 10:42–44). We will consider this amazing statement at length in a later chapter. Here at the outset of this study of spiritual leadership, we will simply highlight Jesus’ master principle: True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. True service is never without cost. Often it comes with a bitter cup of challenges and a painful baptism of suffering. For genuine godly leadership weighs carefully Jesus’ question: Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? (Mark 10:38b). The real spiritual leader is focused on the service he and she can render to God and other people, not on the residuals and perks of high office or holy title. We must aim to put more into life than we take out.

One of the outstanding ironies of history is the utter disregard of ranks and titles in the final judgments men pass on each other, said Samuel Brengle, the great Salvation Army revival preacher. The final estimate of men shows that history cares not an iota for the rank or title a man has borne, or the office he has held, but only the quality of his deeds and the character of his mind and heart.²

Let it once be fixed that a man’s ambition is to fit into God’s plan for him, and he has a North Star ever in sight to guide him steadily over any sea, however shoreless it seems, wrote S. D. Gordon in one of his well-known devotional books. He has a compass that points true in the thickest fog and fiercest storm, and regardless of magnetic rocks.

The great leader Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) was tempted by rank and riches; indeed, he is most widely known by the title of honor noted here. But his attitude toward ambition was summed up in one simple statement: I have one passion: it is He, He alone. Zinzendorf turned from self-seeking to become the founder and leader of the Moravian Church. His followers learned from their leader and circled the world with his passion. Before missionary work was popular or well-organized, the Moravians established overseas churches that had three times as many members as did their churches back home—a most unusual accomplishment. Indeed, one of every ninety-two Moravians left home to serve as a missionary.

Because we children of Adam want to become great,

He became small.

Because we will not stoop,

He humbled Himself.

Because we want to rule,

He came to serve.

FOR REFLECTION

How would you illustrate the differences between self-centered and God-centered ambition from your own life?

Who has been your most influential example of godly leadership?

What are some areas of honorable/holy ambition in your life?

The Search for Leaders

No one from the east or the west

or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:

He brings one down, he exalts another.

PSALM 75:6–7

Give me a man of God—one man,

One mighty prophet of the Lord,

And I will give you peace on earth,

Bought with a prayer and not a sword.

GEORGE LIDDELL¹

Real leaders are in short supply. Constantly people and groups search for them. A question echoes in every corner of the church—Who will lead? Throughout the Bible, God searches for leaders too.

The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people (1 Samuel 13:14).

Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city (Jeremiah 5:1).

I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall (Ezekiel 22:30).

The Bible shows us that when God does find a person who is ready to lead, to commit to full discipleship, and take on responsibility for others, that person is used to the limit. Such leaders still have shortcomings and flaws, but despite those limitations, they serve God as spiritual leaders. Such were Moses, Gideon, and David. And in the history of the church, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, and many others.

To be a leader in the church has always required strength and faith beyond the merely average. Why is our need for leaders so great, and candidates for leadership so few? Every generation faces the stringent demands of spiritual leadership, and most unfortunately turn away. But God welcomes the few who come forward to serve.

The church is painfully in need of leaders, lamented the English Methodist preacher William Sangster. I wait to hear a voice and no voice comes. I would rather listen than speak—but there is no clarion voice to listen to.²

If the world is to hear the church’s voice today, leaders are needed who are authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial. Authoritative, because people desire reliable leaders who know where they are going and are confident of getting there. Spiritual, because without a strong relationship to God, even the most attractive and competent person cannot lead people to God. Sacrificial, because this trait follows the model of Jesus, who gave Himself for the whole world and who calls us to follow in His steps.

Churches grow in every way when they are guided by strong, spiritual leaders with the touch of the supernatural radiating in their service. The church sinks into confusion and malaise without such leadership. Today those who preach with majesty and spiritual power are few, and the booming voice of the church has become a pathetic whisper. Leaders today—those who are truly spiritual—must take to heart