Character in leadership

Recently I have been thinking a lot about character and what it has to do with leadership, specifically leadership in the Church context .  The role of character in a leader is incredibly important.  Many are the leaders who have had character issues which has resulted in huge harm to the Kingdom of God.  Character seems to be one of those things that is most often noticed when it is lacking.  A leader who has character leads from who he or she is, not from charisma.  Charisma finds away to get leaders in compromising situations.  Whereas character moves past the hero worship or Messiah complexes to lead out of a place of integrity.  Character is when a leaders says, "I will only lead you where I am willing to go." When character is present it can be a huge motivating factor for the people who he or she leads, especially in the case of chasing the Great Commission.  Leading people to Jesus is an incredibly hard thing to do on many levels.  There are the fears of rejection, looking inept or silly, pushing people away, or feeling fanatical.  The care and sheperding of a leader can play a huge role in overcoming those fears.  The character of a leader earns the of trust of their folowers to believe and act on the challenges issued.  In the case of  personal evangelism the leader has to model evangelism if they want it repeated. For that matter, if a leader wants any behavior repeated they need to model it.  If they want their people to pray then they must pray, worship they must worship, evangelize they must evangelize.  This is practiced by truly evangelizing, letting people see the conversation around a dinner tables or in a coffee shops.  Leaders with character allow people to see behind the curtain.  People today are tired of the flash and the show. If they are to buy into our faith they want to know that it is more than just a Sunday thing.  They want to know that is is for real and it is lived out.  

Changing Culture

This week our staff was able to attend the leadership event Catalyst One Day.  This was a wonderful experience, I actually enjoyed it more that the large gathering in October.  One of the major things that they hit in during the day was Culture.  Meaning the culture of your specific church and context.  The take away for me was that everything that you do as leader and do not do effects the culture.  If you speak a certain way it communicates something, if you put money somewhere it says that its important.  Conversely of you do not advertise or spend money on something it also says that it is not important.  Even if it is, Even if it core of you church.  This is all very interesting in that it means that in leadership everything matters.  Does this intensify the pressure on church leaders?  Does it inflate our self importance?  If we want to change the culture in which we are in, we need to realize that we are leading always even if we are not speaking.  Maybe, just maybe it is refreshing.  For me it is exciting to know that I have a chance to change culture outside the hour a week I am teaching.