Day 6 of J. Oswald Sanders and Spiritual Leadership.

This chapter (and the next one) are packed with insight! I’ve taken several days to process and meditate on the insight Sanders shares in these chapters. I’ll share the highlights.

Chapter 8 = Essential Qualities of Leadership

Sanders lists seven qualities that leaders possess:

1. Discipline
2. Vision
3. Wisdom
4. Decision
5. Courage
6. Humility
7. Integrity and Sincerity

Discipline

• “Before we can conquer the world, we must first conquer the self.”
• “Many who drop out of ministry are sufficiently gifted, but have large areas of life floating free from the Holy Spirit’s control. Lazy and disorganized people never rise to true leadership.”
• “Many who aspire to leadership fail because they have never learned to follow.”
• “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

Vision

• “Vision involves foresight as well as insight. A leader must be able to see the end results of the policies and methods he/she advocates.”
• “The pessimist see difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
• “Leaders take lessons from the past, but never sacrifice the future for the sake of mere continuity.”

Wisdom

• “Wisdom is heavenly discernment. [It] gives a leader balance and helps avoid eccentricity and extravagance. If knowledge comes by study, wisdom comes by Holy Spirit filling. Then a leader can apply knowledge correctly.”
• “Wisdom is nine-tenths a matter of being wise in time. Most of us are too often wise after the event.” Theodore Roosevelt

Decision

• “A visionary may see, but a leader must decide.”
• “The spiritual leader will not procrastinate when faced with a decision, nor vacillate after making it.”
• “To postpone decision is really to decide for the status quo.”

Courage

• “Leadership always faces natural human inertia and opposition. But courage follows through with a task until it’s done.”

Humility

• “A leader’s humility should grow with the passing of years.”
• “Let every day be a day of humility; condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow-creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distresses, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowliest offices of mankind.” William Law

Integrity and Sincerity

• “The spiritual leader must be sincere in promise, faithful in discharge of duty, upright in finances, loyal in service, and honest in speech.”