{"id":810500,"date":"2023-08-17T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=810500"},"modified":"2024-05-29T07:16:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T12:16:30","slug":"are-you-asking-the-character-question-about-your-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/are-you-asking-the-character-question-about-your-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Asking the Character Question about Your Staff?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you examine the job descriptions in searches for pastors, associate pastors, and church staff (as we have), you will find (as we did) an absence of expressed interest in character and a profusion of terms connected to skills. Job descriptions, even for senior pastors, have devolved into a can-do list. That is because we unconsciously value those <\/span>who get stuff done<\/span><\/i>, rather than those who exhibit godly character. Especially in the past fifty years, so many churches have hired on the basis of talents and skills and the capacity to \u201cbring it\u201d for weekend services. Somehow, we have equated <\/span>ability<\/span><\/i> with <\/span>character<\/span><\/i>. But when ability replaces character, we get toxicity in the boardroom and in the pulpit, and those toxicities corrupt the entire church.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>The Ascent of a Leader<\/span><\/i>, which explores the topic of character in leadership, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath compare a \u201ccapacity ladder\u201d with a \u201ccharacter ladder.\u201d The former is a \u201ctask-driven organization, at the expense of people\u201d and creates \u201cpeople-users,\u201d while a character ladder focuses on people and their success. On the capacity ladder, accountability means getting things done. Character, by contrast, focuses on depth of influence, living the truth, and protecting relationships. It sees failures in terms of development, not immediate results.<\/span>\u00b9<\/span><\/p>\n

What does the Bible say about character? Jesus taught that a good tree [good character] produces good fruit. Bad character eventually reveals itself as rotten fruit, while good character over time will manifest itself as a sweet, juicy peach. Hear the words of Jesus:<\/span><\/p>\n

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though this isn\u2019t hard to understand, some go too far with it. No human <\/span>always<\/span><\/i> produces juicy peaches, any more than someone <\/span>always<\/span><\/i> produces rotten fruit. Even as Christians, we never always behave in good ways. Therefore, Jesus exhorts his followers to examine themselves and others. That is, he wants us to become \u201cfruit inspectors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus also talked about character formation using the term <\/span>heart<\/span><\/i>. Again, consider his words:<\/span><\/p>\n

The words you speak come from the heart\u2014that\u2019s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander (Matthew 15:18-19, NLT).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though Jesus didn\u2019t use the word <\/span>ethos<\/span><\/i> (character), so central to the philosophy of virtue taught by the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle, what he teaches is similar: our behavior expresses our character. That is, within reasonable limits, what we do tells others who we are.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the writings of the apostle Paul, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit becomes the central reality of transformation. For instance, consider Romans 5:5: \u201cHope does not put us to shame, because God\u2019s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.\u201d Further, in Romans 8:9, Paul says, \u201cYou . . . are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.\u201d And in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul indicates that this Spirit-in-us is not simply individually or personally, but in the church corporately: \u201cDon\u2019t you know that you yourselves are God\u2019s temple and that God\u2019s Spirit dwells in your midst?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus and the apostles all believed in the inner work of transformation, or character formation, which produces good fruit, or what we often today call <\/span>virtue<\/span><\/i>. Paul captures the essence of this virtue in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18:<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord\u2019s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ultimate virtue is <\/span>Christlikeness<\/span><\/i>. The Spirit <\/span>in<\/span><\/i> us transforms us into the image of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a church, character matters more than culture. Character matters more than strategy. It is character that determines the very substance of where we\u2019re headed. As one pastor friend said to us recently, \u201cThe question is, \u2018Who are we becoming?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When you invite another person on to your staff, are you asking the character question?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00b9Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath, <\/span>The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence<\/span><\/i> (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994). The book has no page numbers. We are referring to chapter 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adapted from <\/span>Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers That Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture <\/span><\/i>by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. <\/span>Copyright \u00a9 2023. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you examine the job descriptions in searches for pastors, associate pastors, and church staff (as we have), you will find (as we did) an absence of expressed interest in character and a profusion of terms connected to skills. Job descriptions, even for senior pastors, have devolved into a can-do list. 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