Character: A Leadership Essential
Continuing to explore what the Bible teaches us about pastoral leadership and the relationship between pastor and people, we will discover that character is a determining factor in a pastor’s success or failure in achieving God’s agenda and purpose for the church.
Over the last number of months, we’ve explored calling as of first importance. Without a definite and discernable calling that is from God, one has no right to serve as a pastor of God’s people. After calling, I would rank character as the next leadership essential. By this I am saying that a pastor’s character will play an essential role in the health, well-being, and growth of the church. Biblically speaking, the godly character of a leader inspires confidence in the people. Questionable character creates questions.
Nevertheless, we seem to be living in a time, generally speaking, when the character of leaders is of secondary importance to results. This idea is culturally driven, or politically driven, or both, more than it is biblically driven. Again, in a general sense, we seem more tolerant of leaders who deliver, or promise to deliver, the results that are most compatible to our own beliefs and desires. That is, to our own self-interests. Whether we’re talking about business leaders, political leaders, or spiritual leaders, this is a formula for ultimate failure, even disaster.
When it comes to pastoral leadership, character still matters. The high and holy calling of the pastor that we wrote about last month demands a high standard and holy quality of personal character on the part of a pastor. This does not mean perfection, of course. No man possesses perfect character. We all have imperfections as God’s image-bearers and ambassadors for Christ. But these cannot be photo-shopped air-brushed away. They must be acknowledged and surrendered to Jesus and overcome by yielding to the Holy Spirit.
This is called self-discipline. It is a quality produced by the Spirit. In Galatians 5, Paul wrote about the fruit of the Spirit, which portrays a nine-fold, interconnected, quality of life in the Spirit. In writing to Timothy, Paul, the pastoral mentor, admonished his young apprentice with these words: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (II Timothy 1:7).
As a spiritual leader, Paul described how he had to rely on self-discipline in his own life for the ultimate purposes of God. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (I Corinthians 9:24-27).
Here, Paul is talking about self-discipline with regard to keeping his body, his fleshly desires, in check. And this is just one area where self-discipline is so important. Nevertheless, it’s an aspect of character in which spiritual leaders seem to struggle with the most. Think about King David when he looked down from his palace perch and saw beautiful Bathsheba bathing below! To say that self-discipline would have served him well in that moment is an understatement.
For Paul, the idea that not controlling his body might lead to becoming disqualified to continue preaching the Gospel he was called to preach was unthinkable and unacceptable. Gospel impelled calling will hopefully motivate Spirit-empowered self-discipline and strength of character that reflects the glory of God and leads others by Word and by example. Character is an essential of leadership.
But some questions remain: What is character, after all, and how do we get it? What does God look for in a person when he calls him to serve as pastor to his people? How is character developed in spiritual leaders? These are the kinds of questions we’ll explore in the months ahead. Thanks for reading!