I became aware of a book titled “Humble Leadership” at a recent Minister’s Conference I attended in Ft. Worth, Texas where the author of the book, N. Graham Standish, served as the lecturer.

The book deals with the spiritual aspects of leadership that enable people to serve God and each other in a way that makes a profound difference. The subtitle of the book further explains what the attempt is: “Being Radically Open to God’s Guidance and Grace.”

Radical is a word that has escaped us when it comes to our spiritual language.

Radical means a distinct, pointed turn from something and toward something else.

In the case of Standish’s work, radical means turning toward being open to discernment and guidance from God’s Spirit and grace rather than the limited vision we have when we take our guidance from the models of leadership that serve the business or corporate model.

Standish argues that leadership models from the corporate world create an arena of making sure the church simply functions. In other words, we get stagnated. We do the necessary tasks.

This is in sharp contrast to the leadership model of humble spirituality.

This model begins to open the eyes of people to the possibilities of accomplishing God’s plan for a person or a congregation. Spirituality is the basis for the relationship of God to humanity and the basis for the work of the church.

The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians that the church is a spiritual organism, connected and fitted together to grow and flourish as God desires.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:5–6 about the individual person’s spirituality.

“Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the spirit wants. To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the spirit results in life and peace.”