Assessing character

In her guest column for leadershipjournal.net dealing with how to assess character, Angie Ward states, "Here's another thing about character: It is revealed not in skills, but in community." She describes how a church leader she knew was never willing to become involved in a small group at the church where he served. After leaving that post for another, he later succumbed to multiple addictions and has since left the ministry entirely.

One of the "rules of thumb" that I have developed in my own heart and mind since coming to Hillcrest Church as Senior Pastor is to make a mental note anytime someone in our leadership seems lukewarm about a particular individual taking on some new role in the life of our church. Sometimes, the leader's reluctance is simply the consequence of a difference in personality or leadership style, or the lingering effects of a past interpersonal conflict, or "turf battle," but, more often than not, it has turned out to be a warning sign of a more significant issue. As leaders, we do well to remember that our team members often interact with people in our congregation in far different contexts than we do, and they know things about them that we do not.

As a husband, I long ago learned to take very seriously my wife's hesitation regarding certain people, particularly other women! Teresa is a very warm, loving person, so any time she is clearly unimpressed or turned off by someone's manner or skeptical about their character, I immediately take her feelings as a warning straight from the heart of God. We just celebrated twenty-one years of marriage last week, and in all that time, I don't think she has ever "missed" it once!

In the same way, I am learning to rely more heavily on the other members of my ministry team to "see" things in people that I may not. Hillary Clinton has famously said, "It takes a village to raise a child." I am coming to the conclusion that, "It takes a team to know a person!"