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Leadership: What's the connection between Character and Competence?

Leadership: What's the connection between Character and Competence?

By Canon Phil Ashey
AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL
https://americananglican.org/
August 15, 2014

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way... In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them [that is, Daniel and his companions] he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom." Daniel 1: 8, 20.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Leaders often find it difficult to make the connection between character and competency. Often when faced with moral failures, leaders hermetically seal themselves from the failures and point instead to their achievements. I remember this approach vividly during former President Clinton's response to his having an affair with a White House intern. In our own secular leadership culture this has led some to declare that there is no necessary connection between character and competency. In the end, secular pundits praise competency, best practices and "results" over and against character when leadership is on the line.

So it was no great surprise to read in the WSJ this morning that Iraq's besieged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki resigned under pressure for his part in provoking the sectarian divisions that galvanized Sunni terrorists to form the Islamic State and pursue the ruthless persecution of Christians and other religious minorities. As the WSJ reported, Maliki did what most political leaders do when confronted with their failures--he pointed to his accomplishments rather than his legacy of "profound sectarianism, institutional dysfunction and a weak military"--not to mention the "demonization" of the Sunni minority which swelled the ranks of the terrorist Islamic State.

Sadly, such behavior is not limited to the secular world. We can find the same disconnects between character and competency in the world of church leaders. Over the last two weeks, Mark Driscoll -- pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle Washington- has been accused of moral failures. Specifically, Driscoll hired a marketing firm to buy up 11,000 copies of his book Real Marriage using $210,000 of the church's money. The aim was to boost sales to attain a place on the New York Times Bestseller list. Driscoll in turn used the apparent success of Real Marriage to negotiate a multi-book deal with Christian publisher Tyndale House.

Since "Judgment begins with the family of God," (I Peter 4:17) let me unpack this a bit further. The following is from Wikipedia's entry on the Driscoll controversy.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability stated that buying a place on bestseller lists violates its ethical standards, but that because this happened before Mars Hill Church joined they were unable to take action. Christianity Today described the arrangement as "ethically questionable", and Carl Trueman of religion journal First Things decried the revelation, writing, "the overall picture is one of disaster" and "[it] has raised questions not simply about personal integrity but also the very culture of American Evangelicalism".

Driscoll had used the apparent success of Real Marriage to negotiate a multi-book deal with Christian publisher Tyndale House. The first book under Driscoll's "Resurgence" imprint was A Call to Resurgence, with plans to publish five to seven books per year. Tyndale House defended Driscoll's alleged plagiarism in A Call to Resurgence, and affirmed their continuing relationship with Driscoll.

Mars Hill Church responded with a statement, writing, "while not uncommon or illegal, this unwise strategy is not one we had used before or since, and not one we will use again." Mars Hill also claimed that the "true cost" of the effort was less than "what has been reported".

On March 17, 2014, Driscoll posted an open letter of apology in response to this controversy and others, writing that he will no longer claim to be a New York Times bestselling author, and that he now sees the ResultSource marketing campaign as "manipulating a book sales reporting system, which is wrong." He wrote that he was giving up his status as a "celebrity pastor", that he considered his "angry young prophet" days to be over, and that he was reducing his public presence in speaking engagements and on social media.

Pastor Driscoll and Mars Hill Church have suffered the consequences of moral failures in leadership. Because he has refused to step down from ministry and take an extended time to seek help, Pastor Driscoll and his church have been removed from the Acts 29 Church Planting Network that they birthed. Lifeway Christian Bookstores have suspended sales of Driscoll's books. He has also been removed as a speaker from several planned conference for Christian men.

It is encouraging that Pastor Driscoll now sees his actions as "wrong" and "manipulative." But the question remains--why didn't he make that connection until after he was confronted? Why did he misappropriate $210,000 of church funds for this "wrong and manipulative" purpose? That's no small sum. Why didn't he repent and make amends long before the story was leaked and became a public scandal?

Instead, Driscoll has stated he has no intention of resigning. One of his church Elders defended him saying that the criticism of Driscoll and Mars Hill "goes with the territory" of running a large church with a long history. Others have reminded us that we who are on the outside should suspend our judgment and be silent: "The reality is, that for all his failings (which he himself acknowledges) Driscoll has been a powerful voice for the gospel...through listening to his preaching thousands have come to faith, and tens of thousands have had their walk with God strengthened." After all, he has a grown a church to 14,000 in multiple locations in the most unchurched area of the country. He has results.

One of the choice nuggets of secular leadership wisdom can be found in Macchiavelli's The Prince: "Those princes have accomplished most who...knew how to manipulate the minds of men craftily. In the end they won out over those who tried to act honestly." But in the end, is it really all about competency in skills of manipulation, "winning out over others" and results? Is this really the standard by which Christian leaders should live? Is it simply enough for church leaders to say that such leadership attempts are simply "unwise" but not "uncommon or illegal"--as if it is ok to manipulate so long as you don't get caught?

Certainly not.

In the first chapter of the book of Daniel, the Bible draws a direct connection between Daniel's character and his competency in leadership--as well as for his companions Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego who joined him. As followers of the one true God in a pagan and religiously pluralistic culture, they chose to draw the line over God's commands about what they could and could not eat. It was a "resolve" that demonstrated tremendous character, courage and fidelity to God's word. They could have manipulated the system before them- eaten the king's food and gone back to kosher eating when nobody else was looking. Instead they risked their future success within the system. They risked their very lives. And God was faithful. He gave them knowledge and understanding of all kinds (Dan.1:17) so that they didn't have to manipulate anybody. In fact, God made them ten times more competent as leaders than those who lived by secular standards.

If discipleship is living your life as Jesus would, then Christian leadership is about leading others as Jesus would if he were in your leadership shoes. Jesus never manipulated anybody. Yet there has been no more brilliant, compelling, creative, authoritative and fruitful leader in all of our history than Jesus Christ. His life was one of utter transparency, caring for his followers, staying focused on the Kingdom of God and faithful to the Father's mission for him--and for us. His competency came directly from a character that was rooted and grounded in a loving relationship with the Father, in utter surrender to His will, listening carefully for the Father's voice and direction far from the disordered voices of the crowd or the flesh.

The church needs leaders who will lead like Jesus--with competency that flows out of character rooted in Christ. The world needs such leaders too. This is exactly what we teach in our Clergy Leadership and Lay Leadership Institutes. Please pray for us and support us as we seek to help develop leaders who will make the Biblical connection between character and competency.

The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey is Chief Executive Officer of the American Anglican Council

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