Quotes from J. Oswald Sanders

God is always at work, though we cannot see it, preparing people he has chosen for leadership. When the crisis comes, God fits His appointee into the place ordained for him.

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).