After a while books about the practice of leadership become rote and redundant. They offer semantic gymnastics on the same old principles and practices. What we don’t have is enough books speaking to the character of leaders. Scott Sauls’ book, From Weakness to Strength is just such a book, and is rich. He writes with clarity and transparency from a place of experience. He is not coming to the reader as a leadership expert but as a fellow leader. And this work is profoundly Christ-centered. I highly recommend From Weakness to Strength to any leader, especially those in the local church. Here my favorite quotes from this excellent book.
“The leaders God chooses are often more broken than strong . . . more damaged than whole . . . more troubled than secure.” – Joni Eareckson Tada (Foreword)
“Until leaders have suffered, and have learned to steward their pain, they don’t really have much to offer.” – Scotty Smith (Reflection)
“It is impossible for God to shortchange any of His children.”
“Genuinely good endeavors like comedy and ministry (or the arts, or business, or entrepreneurialism, or parenting, or healthcare, or education, or government, or what have you) become broken endeavors when we start depending on them to satisfy our thirst for love, esteem, applause, and approval in ways that only Jesus can.”
“What’s on the inside – whatever has always been there – will come out under pressure.”
“When God gives us success for a time, when he chooses to put the wind at our backs – by all means we should enjoy the experience. But we musn’t hang our hats on it . . . because earthly success, in all its forms, comes to us as a gift from God and is also fleeting.”
“Forgetting the privileges of leadership, we come to view ourselves as victims instead of servants, as above the law instead of living under it like everyone else, as being entitled instead of being grateful recipients of an undeserved grace.”
“Though the spirit is willing, our flesh is weak. Let’s never get past our need for Jesus to carry us.”
“If you are not a pastor, I beg you to remove your pastor from the pedestal where you and others may have been tempted to place him.”
“When we fight back – instead of seeking to defuse the situation by not responding or by answering gently – we condition ourselves to reject all criticism, even the kind that is fair. We do this to our own peril.”
“Sin is absurd and futile, especially for Christians who are aware of the love and redeeming grace of God through Jesus.”
“To sin against the law of God is to sin against the love of God.”
“Our character must matter more to us than our reputation.”
“Those who resist criticism, especially fair criticism, show themselves to be unhealthy people. Unhealthy people, when criticized, tend to spin, manipulate, and regroup. True leaders, on the other hand, confess and repent.”
“It is not our repentance that leads to his kindness but his kindness that leads to our repentance. Reverse the order of this and you lose Christianity. Reverse the order of this and you lose Jesus.”
“The underlying cause of envy is pride, along with its close cousin, the rival spirit.”
“You are also a lot like the people you envy: Their grass never looks as green to them as it does to you.”
“There are few things like the presence of God that remind me that I am not yet what I am meant to be; that I fall short of the mark; that I am more small than I am significant; that, one hundred years from now, my name will be forgotten by the weary world in which I now live.”
“Our hearts are going to be insecure until they find their security in God.”
“Paul was persecuted, struck down, beaten, abandoned, and imprisoned as a direct by-product of leading in the name of Christ.”
“Paul and Isaiah both found purpose in work that, to most, would feel like a supreme letdown and failed leadership.”
“Our long term worst-case scenario is resurrection and everlasting life, an eternity of perpetual and unending strength, momentum, and bliss.”
“If Christian leaders and influencers and organizations do fall on hard times, if we lose favor and become a persecuted minority, it might actually mark the beginning of our truest impact.”
“Opposition is our opportunity not only to show the world a different kind of friend but also to show the world a different kind of enemy.”
“The more conservative we are in our belief that every word of scripture is true, the more liberal we will become in how we love every kind of person. To the degree that we understand how loved and forgiven we are, we will be among the least offended and offensive people in the world.”
“It may be that love across line of difference and deep disagreement will be Christians’ best opportunity to live as the aroma of Christ in the world.”
“As Jesus said, our chief purpose is not to defend and protect our own rights, privileges, and comforts. Rather, our chief purpose and mission i to deny ourselves daily, take up a cross, and follow Jesus – even to death if called upon to do so – all the while taking every opportunity to surprise our neighbors, especially those who do not believe as we do, with a life-giving, otherworldly love.”
“Your neighbor, O child of God, is anyone who is near and anyone who has a need.”
“We don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, we shouldn’t presume to provide them to people in the midst of grief. We don’t need to have the perfect passage of scripture ready to read or the right hymn ready to sing. We can be present. We can be quiet. And we can grieve with those who grieve.”
“Sometimes the best, most life-giving way to lead is by suffering well. Sometimes the best, most life-giving way to lead is by refusing to allow death, mourning, crying, or pain, to dictate the story line of our lives and of history.”
