Spiritual Leadership Paper

This paper will now address the research on spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership is highlighted as service to others such as seen in the example of Jesus Christ (Sanders, 2007). Sanders writes, “The real spiritual leader is focused on the service he and she can render to God and other people, not on the residuals and perks of high office or holy title. We must aim to put more into life than we take out” (2007, loc. 166). Spiritual leadership has to do with leading from a place of service to God and others, without pursuing personal gain as the primary motive (Sanders, 2007). This ties into authentic leadership because it gives a healthy primary motive to display without shame. Leading with a focus on God is also the most effective method

This fulfills the calling of Jesus to make disciples as seen in the verses “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (English Standard Version, Matthew 28:19-20). This requires biblical leaders to take all the principles found in the Bible and train up other leaders in these ways so to make further disciples (Woolfe, 2002). This includes training these leaders to continue the process of making more disciples. This pericope gives the main point of leadership within a biblical framework, because leadership needs to be developed in the next generation of

Jesus was authentic with his followers as seen in the verse “Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him’” (New International Version, John 11:35-36). Jesus demonstrated what Sanders would call service to God because Jesus was demonstrating God’s heart for the people in being God’s vessel on the earth (2007). I believe this is a powerful example of both spiritual leadership and biblical leadership because Jesus’s authenticity was in line with God’s heart in that moment and displayed it without filter, which in essence is authentic leadership. In my opinion, Sanders would go further than authentic leadership in this regard because he saw spiritual leadership as the great goal and not authenticity. Instead, authenticity would be a fruit of spiritual leadership instead of authenticity being the main focus and goal. I believe biblical leadership would agree that authenticity would come as a fruit and not the focus. Instead the focus would be on Jesus and not on the fruits. In this regard authentic leadership