From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities That Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership by Scott Sauls. David C. Cook. 208 pages. 2017
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This is Pastor Scott Sauls’ third book. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. His openness, honesty and vulnerability remind me of Scotty Smith’s writing. Smith writes in an opening reflection to this book that “until leaders have suffered, and have learned to steward their pain, they don’t really have much to offer.”
The author tells us that Jesus offers us a radically different understanding from the world of what it means to be a leader in regards to credentials qualifying a person to lead, what matters most, how success is measured, etc. In this book he looks through a biblical lens at what he refers to as eight common thorns leaders face: unfulfilled ambition, isolation, criticism, envy, insecurity, anticlimax, opposition, and suffering. He tells us that depending on how we respond to them, these challenges will either make us or break us as leaders. His desire is to help us live and lead from weakness to strength.
I enjoyed and benefitted from this short book, highlighting a number of passages. Below are ten I would like to share:

• Making much of His (Jesus) name is a far superior ambition than making a name for ourselves.
• Our character must matter more to us than our reputation.
• Although it is sometimes hard to believe that your work, done for God’s glory, has enduring significance, it absolutely does.
• If you are a Christian leader, boss, or influencer, a time may come when your faith is costly to you and also to those whom you lead and serve.
• 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.
• Even in a world that’s increasingly hostile toward faith, the more heavenly minded we are, the more earthly good we will be.
• Rather than heralding to the world what they are against, Christians should instead be heralding to the world what they are for.
• It is especially important for Christian leaders to consider how they can lead in such a way that nonbelievers feel compelled to consider Jesus.
• The truest disciples of Jesus, not in spite of their Christian beliefs, but because of them, take initiative to love, listen to, and serve those who don’t share their beliefs.
• In the end our greatest influence may come not from our vision, our preaching, our leading, or our achievements—but through our weakness.

This would be an excellent book to read and discuss with others leaders, whether they are in a church, business or non-profit setting.