Healthy ministries (and healthy organizations) are led by healthy leaders. For this reason, the Apostle Paul challenged pastor Timothy to “pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:15-16). If a leader is faithful in teaching but unfaithful in life, the leader’s lack of faithfulness in character will render the leader’s teaching useless because people will be unable to respect the leader and unable to hear the message.
1. Healthy leaders don’t confuse competence development with character development.
The story continues to repeat itself; when a ministry leader’s competence outpaces his or her character, disaster ensues. The way to combat the trend is to take character development more seriously than we do competence development, not to confuse or equate them as the same. We must lament the possibility of getting more skilled without being more sanctified.
When Paul told Timothy to hand ministry over to others, he instructed Timothy to find “the faithful who will be able” not “the able who may become faithful.” Paul began with faithfulness, believing ability can be developed. Failures in our competence may cause us to lose responsibilities, or even lose our jobs. That would be painful, but we can recover from that. We can learn and grow and adjust. But drops in our character can cause us to lose our ministries, our credibility, and our ability to say to others, “Follow my example as I follow Christ.”
2. Healthy leaders don’t confuse growth in one’s ministry with growth in one’s maturity.
It is a mystery and I have wished it were not true, but leaders with bad character can build things. God can and does work through leaders despite their bad character. He works because of the power of His Word, not the power of the person. For example, God used the Babylonians and the Assyrians to fulfill His warnings to Israel. This does not mean He was pleased with Babylon and Assyria. We don’t want to be them! Because we want to be leaders who live in a way that is pleasing to God, we must watch our lives carefully. We must care more about growth in our holiness and our tenderness before God than we care about growth in our ministries or organizations. We must abhor the idea of growing in influence while growing cold to God and other people.
3. Healthy leaders don’t confuse a critical spirit with a critical mind.
Healthy leaders have a critical mind, but not a critical spirit. A critical mind helps leaders make wise choices. A critical mind enables leaders to evaluate the culture in light of the Scripture, to think deeply about how to apply the gospel to the context. A critical spirit devours others, feeds bitterness, is easily angered and wronged, and keeps a record of all wrongs. A critical spirit corrodes the peace and joy of a leader and makes the person hard to follow.
Adapted from an article I initially wrote for Outreach Magazine.
