Patience….quotes from J. Oswald Sanders

I cannot believe that I have went through so many courses, conferences, ordinations and never read Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders! It should be mandatory reading for every Christian leader!

I want to share, over the next few days, some quotes and thoughts from this masterpiece. Today I will share from a middle section of his book. He writes about essential qualities of leadership. He lists 8 qualities, I will share two or three quotes from his section on patience.

Patience:
A leader shows patience by not running too far ahead of his followers and thus discouraging them. While keeping ahead, he stays near enough for them to keep him in sight and hear his call forward.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. Romans 15:1

The evidence of our strength lies not in the distance that separates us from other runners but in our closure with them, our slower pace for their sakes, our helping them pick up and cross the line.

2 Peter 1:5-6 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control patience (perseverance), to patience godliness…
The word never means the spirit which sits with folded hands and simply bears things. It is victorious endurance…Christian steadfastness, the brave and courageous acceptance of everything life can do to us, and the transmuting of even the worst into another step on the upward way. It is the courageous and triumphant ability to bear things, which enables a man to pass breaking point and not to break, and always to greet the unseen with cheer. (Barclay)

Just a few thoughts from this chapter…stay tuned