Quotes from J Oswald Sanders

tact is the ability to deal with people sensitively, to avoid giving offense, to have a "feel" for the proper words or responses to a delicate situation.

Suppose that we allot ourselves a generous eight hours a day for sleep (and few need more than that), three hours for meals and conversation, ten hours for work and travel. Still we have thirty-five hours each week to fill. What happens to them? How are they invested?

Conscious of time, Jesus spent His time doing things that mattered. No time was wasted on things not vital.

He moved through life with measured steps, never hurried, though always surrounded by demands and crowds.

Yes, Paul led his friends into all sorts of risks for Christ's sake, but they followed him cheerfully, confident of his love for them. Paul's letters glow with warm appreciation and personal affection for his fellows.

The apostle Paul similarly had loyal friends. "No man in the New Testament made fiercer enemies than Paul, but few men in the world had better friends.

When we lead by persuasion rather than command, patience is essential. Leaders rightly cultivate the art of persuasion that allows maximum individual decision making and ownership of a plan. Often, a leader's plan of action must wait for collegial support—ever patient—until the team is ready.

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.

The person who is impatient with weakness will be ineffective in his leadership.

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 a cheer.7

Often we think of patience in passive terms, as if the patient person is utterly submissive and half asleep.

Paul argues for holy anger when he repeats the advice of Psalm 4:4: "In your anger do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26).

Martin Luther claimed that he "never did anything well until his wrath was excited, and then he could do anything well.

Can this be right? An angry leader? Indeed, Jesus had this quality, and when we use it rightly, we follow Him.

The Pharisees had just given Him a stubborn, silent answer to a question, so He gave them an equally silent rebuke.

After a half century of ministry, F. J. Hallett claimed that in the actual work of a parish, the most successful leader is the one who possesses a keen sense of humor combined with a clear sense of God's grace.

A good test of the appropriateness of a joke is whether the humor controls us or we control it.

I have never met leadership without a sense of humor; this ability to stand outside oneself and one's circumstances, to see things in perspective and laugh. It is a great safety value! You will never lead others far without the joy of the Lord and its concomitant, a sense of humor.3

Paul spoke of his failures and successes with an openness few of us are prepared to copy.

A prominent businessman once replied to a question: "If I had to name the one most important quality of a top manager, I would say, personal integrity.

Surely the spiritual leader must be sincere in promise, faithful in discharge of duty, upright in finances, loyal in service, and honest in speech.

He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30 KJV).

Paul admitted to knowing fear, but it never stopped him. "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling," he reported in 1 Corinthians 2:3, but the verb is came. He did not stay home out of fear for the journey.

Pursuing the goal, the leader never looks back or calculates escape strategies if plans turn sour. Nor does a true leader cast blame for failure on subordinates.