The document discusses several costs and challenges of spiritual leadership according to J. Oswald Sanders' book Spiritual Leadership: 1. Self-sacrifice is required daily as a leader must "lose their life" and lay it down for others like Jesus did. 2. Loneliness is inevitable as the leader stands alone, misunderstood and having to make difficult decisions. 3. Fatigue is the price of leadership as rising early and working late is required with no rest for the leader. 4. Criticism, rejection and pressure come with spiritual leadership as the leader is pushing people forward and held to a high standard.

1. Section 8 - The Leader’s Decisions
Group Activity: Create a one-
page visual summary of the
leader’s decisions
Study chapter 8 in Blackaby’s
Spiritual Leadership.
Study chapter 15-16 in Sanders

2. Section 9 - The Leader’s Schedule
Group Activity: Create a one-
page visual summary of the
leader’s schedule.
Study chapter 9 in Blackaby
Study chapters 17-19 in Sanders

3. Section 10 - The Leader’s
Pitfalls & Rewards
Group Activity: Create a one-
page visual summary of the
leader’s pitfalls.
Study chapter 10-11 in Blackaby
Study chapters 20-22 in Sanders

4. Section 8
The Leader’s Decisions
J Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership:
Chapter 15 The Cost of Leadership
Chapter 16 Responsibilities of Leadership

5. J Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership:
Chapter 15:
The Cost of
Leadership

6. “To aspire to leadership
in God’s kingdom you
must be willing to pay a
price higher than others
are willing to pay. The
toll of true leadership is
heavy, and the more
effective the leadership,
the greater the cost.”

7. Sanders quotes one man who
devoted much to developing an
institution, asked how much it had
cost to develop the institution he
replied, “Not much, just one man’s
life blood”
The price of every great achievement
is high - but it is not paid in a lump
sum, installments are required each
day. If you do not keep paying the
price your leadership influence falls.
Matt 16:25 - For whoever wants to save
their life will lose it, but whoever loses
their life for me will find it.

8. Self Sacrifice
You have to pay daily!
1 Jn 3:16 - This is how we know what
love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for
us. And we ought to lay down our lives
for our brothers and sisters.
To the degree we live with the cross
of Christ across our shoulders we
can live with the resurrection
manifest through us. No cross, no
leadership.
1 Cor 15:31b - I face death every day—
yes, just as surely as I boast about you in
Christ Jesus our Lord.

9. Mk 10:44-45 - and whoever wants to be
first must be slave of all. For even the
Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”
Those who lead the church must be
willing to give up personal
preferences, to surrender their
legitimate desires for the sake of the
work of God.
Sanders quotes a garage which had
the sign, “We crawl under your car
more often and get ourselves dirtier
than any of our competition”
Such is Christian service.

10. The only thing Jesus showed to his
disciples after the resurrection
were his scars. On the Emmaus
Road they only recognised him as
he broke bread and they saw his
scars
Sanders comments, “Scars are the
authenticating marks of faithful
discipleship and true spiritual
leadership.”
Gal 6:17 - From now on, let no one
cause me trouble, for I bear on my
body the marks of Jesus.

11. A poem by Amy Carmichael
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant
star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I
swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

12. No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed
far
Who hast no wound or scar?
Amy Carmichael rescued hundreds of
orphaned children - especially little girls that
would be dedicated to Hindu gods for use in
sexual temple rituals. In 1931 she prayed,
“God, please do with me whatever you want.
Do anything that will help me to serve you
better.” That same day, she fell, suffering
fractures that would cripple her for the rest of
her life.

13. 2 Cor 4:8-11
We are hard pressed on every side,
but not crushed; perplexed, but not
in despair; 9 persecuted, but not
abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed. 10 We always carry
around in our body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
also be revealed in our body. 11 For
we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so
that his life may also be revealed in
our mortal body.

14. Loneliness
Nietzsche: The closer you get
to the summit the harder life
gets - colder, the wind is
stronger and the burdens of
leadership are greater.
Leaders might be friendly in
their own right - but they
always live with a degree of
loneliness no known by most.

15. Dixon Hoste felt the loneliness when
Hudson Taylor retired and placed
the leadership of China Inland
Mission on his shoulders. Said Hoste
after the appointment:
"And now I have no one, no
one but God!"
All leaders know the heartbreak of
making decisions that will affect the
lives of other people - they are a
heavy burden and responsibility -
the result is that we often stand, as
Moses did, alone on the mountain
and on the plain being
misunderstood and criticised.

16. Enoch walked with God in a
corrupt and decadent
generation.
Jonah, alone, had a prophetic
message to a city of 1,000,000.
Paul knew loneliness -
misunderstood by friends,
misrepresented by enemies,
deserted by converts.How
poignant are his words to
Timothy: 2 Timothy 1:15
“You know that everyone in the
province of Asia has deserted
me."

17. A. W.Tozer:
Most of the world's greatest
souls have been lonely.
Loneliness seems to be the price
a saint must pay for his
saintliness.
The leader must be a person who,
while welcoming the friendship and
support of all who offer it, has
sufficient inner resources to stand
alone--even in the face of stiff
opposition to have "no one but God."

18. Fatigue
The world is run by tired
men
We have to be renewed each day - 2
Cor 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though
outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by
day.
Jesus need rest and recovery time -
Jn 4:6, and in Mk 5:30 knew power
going from him

19. Waiting for other people is not
befitting of a Christian leader -
you have to rise early, go to bed
late, expend greater energy etc.
Fatigue is the price of leadership,
mediocrity the result of never
being tired!
Writing to the secretary of the
Church Missionary Society,
Douglas M. Thornton of Egypt
said:

20. But I am weary! I have only written
because I am too weary to be
working now, and too tired to
sleep ... I am getting prematurely
old, they tell me, and doctors do not
give me long to live unless the strain
is eased a bit. My wife is wearier
than I am. She needs complete rest a
while. . . . Oh, that the church at
home but realized one half of the
opportunities of today! Will no one
hear the call? Please do your best to
help us.

21. Criticism
"There is nothing else that so kills the
efficiency, capability and initiative of a
leader as destructive criticism.... Its
destructive effect cannot be under-
estimated. It tends to hamper and
undercut the efficiency of a man's
thinking process. It chips away at his
self-respect and undermines his
confidence in his ability to cope with his
responsibilities."
No leader is exempt from criticism,
and his humility will nowhere be
seen more clearly than in the manner
in which he accepts and reacts to it.

22. In a letter to a young minister, Fred
Mitchell once wrote: I am glad to know
that you are taking any blessing there is
about the criticism brought against you
by , in which case even his bitter attack
will yield sweetness. A sentence which has
been a great help to Mrs. Mitchell and
myself is: "It does not matter what
happens to us, but our reaction to
what happens to us is of vital
importance." I think you must expect
more and more criticism, for with
increasing responsibility this is inevitable.
It causes one to walk humbly with God,
and to take such action as He desires.'

23. Samuel Brengle, who was noted
for his genuine holiness, had
been subjected to caustic
criticism. Instead of replying in
kind or resorting to self-
justification, he replied: "From
my heart I thank you for your
rebuke. I think I deserved it. Will
you, my comrade, remember me in
prayer?" On another occasion, a
biting, censorious attack was
made on his spiritual life. His
answer was:

24. "I thank you for your criticism of my life. It set me to self-
examination and heart-searching and prayer, which always
leads me into a deeper sense of my utter dependence on
Jesus
Paul declared his desire to work to please God and not men
- though he was often subject to criticism, Gal 1:10, 1 Cor
4:3-4, Col 3:22

25. You have to be careful of
being indifferent to criticism
and having a weak spiritual
life - such a situation is very
bad!
Being independent from
human opinion if your heart
and mind are set on
glorifying God can be an
asset - God’s voice must be
clear if human voices are to
be faint.
2 Cor 8:21

26. Rejection
Having high spiritual
standards often leads to
rejection - look at Jesus, Jn
1:10-11;
He was in the world, and the
world was made through him,
yet the world did not know
him. He came to his own, and
his own people did not receive
him.

27. J. Gregory Mantle tells of a minister
whose congregation refused to
accept his message. The minister
wanted to lead his people into green
pastures and beside still waters, but
they were unwilling. The ungodly
habits of his choir brought things to
a head, and the minister invited the
choir to resign. That the choir did,
and it also persuaded the
congregation to remain silent during
the singing on the following Sunday.
The minister sang alone.

28. Finally at wit’s end, God spoke to
him. On a park bench, he saw a piece
of torn newspaper, which he picked
up to read these words: “No man is
ever fully accepted until he has, first
of all, been utterly rejected.” The
minister needed nothing more. He
had been utterly rejected for Christ’s
sake, and his recognition of the fact
was the start of a fruitful ministry.
Rejected by people, he had been
accepted by God.

29. When, in response to the clear call of
God, A. B. Simpson resigned a pastorate,
he learned the meaning of “destitute,
despise, forsaken.” He surrendered a
comfortable salary, a position as senior
pastor in a great American city, and all
claim to denominational help for his yet
untried work. He had no following, no
organization, no resources, a large family
to support, and everyone close to him
was predicting failure. He often said that
he looked down upon the stone in the
street for the sympathy denied him by
friends he treasured.

30. “The rugged path of utter rejection
was trodden without complaint,
and with rejoicing. He knew that
though he…was going through fire
and water, it was the divinely
appointed way to the wealthy
place.”
To such a place Simpson was led.
At his death he had established
five schools for the training of
missionaries, hundreds of
missionaries in sixteen lands, and
many churches in the United States
and Canada that exerted a spiritual
influence beyond their numbers.

31. “The rugged path of utter rejection
was trodden without complaint,
and“Often the crowd
with rejoicing. He knew that
does not recognize a
though he…was going through fire
and water, it was the divinely
leader until he has
appointed way to the wealthy
place.”
gone, and then they
To such a place Simpson was led.
At his death monument for
build a he had established
five schools for the training of
him with the of
missionaries, hundreds
stone
they threw at him in
missionaries in sixteen lands, and
many churches in the United States
life.” a spiritual
and Canada that exerted
influence beyond their numbers.

32. Pressure & Perplexity
“We naively think that the more we
grow as Christians, the easier it will
be to discern the will of God. But the
opposite is often the case. God treats
the mature leader as a mature adult,
leaving more and more to his or her
spiritual discernment and giving
fewer bits of tangible guidance than
in earlier years. the resulting
perplexity adds inevitably to a
leader’s pressure.”

33. D.E. Hoste said to a friend:
‘The pressure! It goes on from stage to
stage [changing] with every period of
your life… Hudson Taylor (a known
missionary) said how in his younger
days, things came so clearly, so quickly
to him. ” But” he said, “now as I have
gone on, and God has used me more and
more, I seem often to be like a man going
along in a fog. I do not know what to
do.” ‘
But when the time came to act, God
always responded to His servant’s
trust.”

34. Cost to others
People close to a leader often pay a
heavy price.
Fred Mitchell was invited to become
the Director of the China Inland
Mission and he knew that there
would be a price to pay not only by
himself but those dearest to him. His
hands were already full and he had
no desire for more work. He wrote
Carlo Costly
his thoughts down when he was
Honduran
asked to take up that position,
footballer

35. " I have had many a sorrow of heart and
it still remains one of my chief regrets
that I have not been able to give myself
to your mother and you children more.
The harvest is great and the labourers
are few which means that there have
been many calls upon me. I do not
justify my negligence....; but any
sacrifice made by you for our dear Lord
Jesus' sake has not been unrewarded"
Jesus warned us to count the cost
before we take up our cross - Lk
14:25-33

36. When you add up the costs of
leadership what total do you get? Is it a
price you feel worth paying?
Which of the costs listed do you think is
the greatest for you - self-sacrifice,
loneliness, fatigue, criticism, rejection,
pressure and perplexity?
What of those sharing the cost of
leadership with you - do you know how
to encourage and appreciate them?