Book Review: Spiritual Leadership

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

“No one need aspire to leadership in the work of God who is not prepared to pay a price greater than his contemporaries and colleagues are willing to pay. True leadership always exacts a heavy toll on the whole man and the more effective the leadership is, the higher the price to be paid.” J. Oswald Sanders.

One of the advantages of getting older is you get to go back and reread books that have shaped your life in the past. Spiritual Leadership, by J. Oswald Sanders, was required reading for Operation Mobilization, a mission group I worked with years ago. So at twenty years old, with that volume in my hand, I took up and read. Sanders clear and hard hitting words laid out for me then much of what is involved in being a leader.

The book is a series of messages given at OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship, formerly China Inland Mission) leadership conferences in 1964 and 1966. In it he examines what makes a leader, the biblical requirements of a leader, disciplines of a leader, the cost involved in being a leader, and training leaders. As I recently reread this book, I found myself continually challenged and called beyond where I am now. I have found myself rereading chapters as I try to internalize what he writes to help me order my life and priorities.

In his chapter on prayer Sanders writes, “In nothing should the leader be ahead of his followers more than in the realm of prayer… If you wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know of nothing to compare to this topic for its sorrowful self confessions.”
I cannot emphasize enough that this is a book that you should read.

A major warning though: Do NOT buy the new Moody Press revision. The editors at Moody Press took it upon themselves to defile Sander’s excellent work by making it gender neutral. They explicitly deny biblical directives for male leadership and have changed the book accordingly. To say this is a sad commentary on the state of the evangelical church and evangelical publishing, is understatement. Instead, look up the book on ABE books and get an older edition, there is a good supply.