Leading Character

Dr. Dan B. Allender, PLLC, Dr. Dan B. Allender

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780310308980
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Effectively leading a church or ministry organization requires many things—a motivating vision, a clear mission statement, an intentional strategy, high capacity staff members. No one questions these things. However, there is another fundamental requirement without which no ministry can thrive or sustain itself for the long haul—and too often it is either ignored or disregarded, especially by those in Christian ministry. According to Andy Stanley, that fundamental requirement is systems—communication systems, decision-making systems, budgeting systems, programming systems, structural systems and more. And it is systems, perhaps more than anything else, that determine what happens—or fails to happen—in an organization. Stanley writes, "You can pray your heart out, fast your heart out, commit your heart out and surrender your heart out to initiate change or launch a new ministry, but if you fail to address your systems, there will be no change and your ministry will not thrive. It's not because God is not interested or you're not spiritual, it's because God works through systems. Every time God creates something, there is something systematic and predictable about it. That doesn't make God predictable or small; it's just how God operates."

Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Leading Character

LEADERSHIP LIBRARY

The purpose of the Leadership Library is to provide leaders in all arenas—churches, businesses, schools, or nonprofits—with the cutting-edge thinking and the practical advice they need to take their leadership skills to the next level.

Books in the Leadership Library reflect the wisdom and experience of proven leaders who offer big insights in a pocket-size package. Whether you read these books on your own or with a group of colleagues, the Leadership Library presents critical insight into today's leadership challenges.

Leading Character

How did you first become a leader? Do you remember the circumstances? Maybe you earned an actual title to indicate you were the person in charge—the captain of the team, a candidate for public office, the CEO. Perhaps other people gravitated toward you naturally, counting on you for decisions and willingly following your lead. Or it's even possible that your leap into leadership resembled mine—and came about more or less as a matter of default.

I was teaching at Mars Hill Graduate School, which was, at that time, a satellite school of Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. We were, however, in the process of moving the school toward independence, and six of us who were on the faculty were involved in this transition. At one point, about three years into the process, we were required to complete and sign an accreditation document. And one of the blanks on that form required an answer to this question: Who is the president?

I'll never forget that meeting. When it got to the point where someone had to consent to list their name as the president, the room got very quiet. As we looked around at one another, it became clear no one was going to speak. We were all testing each other, waiting to see who would be foolish enough to agree to such a thing.

Eventually, we reached a consensus that because I was the oldest, I would take on that position—although no one, including me, expected that I would ever really act as the president.

That assumption continued until the moment when, about four months later, we faced our first dismissal of an employee. And with that responsibility, I may have become the only human being in history ever to fire the same person three times in less than twenty-four hours.

I fired him, providing due cause and asking him to think and pray about our conversation. At the end of our forty-five minutes of interaction, I said we would speak again the next day, never imagining he would go home and create an entire plan as to how he could enhance his performance and revise his job description. He came back eager for the opportunity to present his plan—and it was clear the firing had not taken effect.

I gathered enough wisdom and strength to fire him again. At that juncture, he asked, because of certain things he was doing, if he could stay another week to ten days to finish those projects. I considered that an enormously gracious suggestion on his part. “How reasonable,” I thought. So he went back to work.

Later that day, our receptionist—who had previously worked for a large corporation—asked me, “Is he still employed?” “Yes,” I said, “but just for another week to ten days.”

At that point, she began to enumerate all the things this person had access to and explained how this could be very problematic if he harbored any kind of ill spirit toward the school. Well, I hadn't even thought of an ill spirit, much less the complications that could occur. She told me that in her previous job, when employees were asked to leave, the company allowed them an hour or so to go to their desks and gather all of their personal belongings. Then they were escorted out of the building.

It made sense! Which meant I had to fire him for the third time.

And that was only the beginning. In the years that followed, I made every classic mistake a leader can possibly make. Then I invented some I don't believe ever before existed on the face of the earth.

But every mistake became a lesson learned. And very often these hard-earned lessons prompted valuable conversations with other leaders. I began to see that certain patterns surround outstanding leadership. I noted, for example, how often the leaders I most admired are each widely known for their strong, highly regarded character. That is not to say that they are stodgy, unimaginative, play-it-by-the-book kinds of people. In fact, most are quite honest about their struggles in ministry and with the wars of leadership.

Yes, they have impeccable integrity, but they also make me laugh. They not only wow me with their individuality and spontaneity, they impress me with their meticulous honesty and forthrightness. They struggle and worry about their kids. While they are committed to their marriages, at times they feel lonely and need more support from their spouses. They are real, human, fully alive, and beautiful people.

Too often, leaders suppress such openness. What they are allowed to say from the platform or in conversations with others is narrowed down to the “expected and tolerated,” and all else must be hidden or denied. Such limitations create a degree of being two-faced—one face public, the other private.

At times that hypocrisy is even internalized. When this happens—when we deny the parts of ourselves that would cause disruption if they were seen or acknowledged in polite company—we are on shaky ground. Because no one can live long with such disparity without a loss of integrity.

No one is immune to the public-private face war. Sometimes the face we present in public requires immense courage; other times, the public face is an indication of great cowardice. Are you aware of when you have been courageous or cowardly? I pray that by reading and then reflecting on this material you will be encouraged to consider both possibilities.

Eventually, I came to realize that leadership is all about character. And that the Christian leader, no matter what he or she oversees, has the opportunity to be a leading character—an example, a living representation of the power of the resurrection and the privilege of the fellowship created by sharing in Christ's suffering.

We demonstrate what it means to be a “leading character” by living this reality before those who are part of our organizations. We communicate our vision and strategies, we support and affirm our employees, we strengthen successful programs, we scrap processes that are no longer effective, and far, far more. But never should we do these things without making Christ known through word and deed. The primary focus is not what we speak, but how we live. We are to have a character that invites others to see the goodness of Christ and to be a character that intrigues and compels others to discover what it means to be forgiven and set free to live with passion and joy.

In short, the most effective leaders invariably embrace two fundamentals in this regard:

•The first is to have a character.

•The second is to be a character.

HAVE A CHARACTER

Say the word character and a dozen associations come to mind. There are character witnesses and character actors. We live in a culture all too familiar with character assassination. And we're intuitively aware of whether the behavior displayed by someone we know is “in character” or “out of character.”

Primarily, though, we associate the presence of character with virtues, including honesty, courage, and truthfulness. Few compliments are more valued than to be regarded as a person of outstanding character. Everyone would agree that a leader's character is a key component of a leader's effectiveness.

Our character reflects our creator. We are made in the image of God, and the nature of God's personhood is woven into the deepest fabric of our being. To understand our character, we must begin with a glimpse of God's character.

God's Character

Since every human being—the believer and the unbeliever—is made in God's image, we all bear a character that reveals God. What does it mean for us to reveal God in our personhood, through our personality, and through our character? One of the most concise ways to sum up this very nature of God is found in Psalm 62: “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving” (vv. 11–12). In a few words, the psalmist captures the essence of God's character—strong and loving.

God's strength is absolute and is in no way dependent on anyone or anything outside of the Godhead. God is fully God, lacking nothing. God is also love, and he has chosen to bind himself with loyal covenantal passion to his creatures. God is free and bound, independent and utterly committed.

How can both of these be true? Many would argue that if God is strong, he can't also be loving—since so much suffering exists in the world and he has done nothing, apparently, to end it. Such logic further suggests that if God is loving, then he can't be strong, since God's love would then be predicated on his power. But the conundrum is ours, not God's. God is both strong and loving, and this presents no contradiction or conflict for the Trinity.

God's strength is reflected in his sovereign authority over all that exists and all that transpires. Nothing happens that is a surprise or out of his control. He has authority because he is the author. And while he is not the author of sin, he uses even that to accomplish his sovereign purposes. Look at God's boast to Job:

Who shut up the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment

and wrapped it in thick darkness,

when I fixed limits for it

and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, “This far you may come and no farther;

here is where your proud waves halt”?

—Job 38:8–11

God's creative power and ordering of the world is part of his strength. His strength is also demonstrated by the boundaries he set for how we are to live, and both his law and the consequences for transgression reside under his authority. The fullness of his power, however, cannot be cataloged and understood; it can only be honored with awe and obeyed with reverence.

Yet, God is more than power; God is love. Scripture is filled with comparisons and descriptions meant to help us grasp the depth and inclusiveness of God's holy and never-ending love for us. That love is compared to the tender compassion of a mother for her child, for instance, and God is portrayed as bending his knee to whisper kindness to encourage his child's faint heart. We are told God's love seeks us even in the angst of longing and hurt, and we are frequently reminded of his mercy and loving protection. As is the case with his power, the fullness of God's love cannot be cataloged and understood; it can only be honored with gratitude and offered to others in reverence.

God uses his strength and love for honorable and wise pu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents