Spiritual Leadership

Many writers have written books that can be fairly deemed a "classic." Brother Lawrence. St. John of the Cross. The guy who wrote Beowulf. But it's much rarer for a writer to pen more than one true classic. J. Oswald Sanders is one of those.

Sanders's book, Spiritual Leadership, ranks with his Spiritual Maturity as a true classic of Christian literature. In fact, I think if I had to prescribe just one book on leadership for pastors and Christians in general, it would be this book.

Sanders methodically and artfully charts the path of spiritual leadership, drawing from Biblical examples like Peter, Paul, Nehemiah, and Moses, as well as more modern voices like Wesley, Tozer, and Ockenga, among many, many others. His chapters on "Prayer and Leadership," "The Leader and Time," "The Leader and Reading," and "Perils of Leadership" were high points for me.

On the whole, the book is one of the few in my library that I have read--and plan to read--repeatedly. It bears reading and re-reading. And, with a fine updated version by Moody Press (adding study questions as well), it should be required reading for every Christ-follower for, as Sanders says, "every Christian is a leader, for we all influence others. All of us should strive to improve our leadership potential" (p. 109).