Leadership Quote

Posted on January 24, 2006 by Matt Todd

“We can lead others only as far along the road as we ourselves have traveled.” ~ J. Oswald Sanders

Is this statement true? I know he’s talking about spiritual leadership, but is this really a true statement? I immediately thought of Moses and Joshua who led the Israelites. I was about to say that they had never been to the Promised Land. That isn’t exactly true, since Joshua was one of the 12 spies.

When I was a crew leader at Philmont, most of the time, we just had a map. None of us had been in that particular region before. The maps weren’t even very accurate. But was I really leading them or was it more of a case of the blind leading the blind?

Of course, Paul said “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Paul was going somewhere (spiritually) he’d never been before, but he was following the leader. How does that play out in our lives?

I don’t really have the answers and I’m not really trying to be critical of his statement. It seems like there’s some truth to the statement, but I wonder how much.

I’m curious what others think.

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"