A mentor once told me a few things about character that have stayed with me. The lessons that I have learnt (sometimes the hard way) are invaluable in church planting and ministry.

One of the lessons was that it’s normal to appoint someone because of competence, but long term it’s really character that matters most. A person with good character can learn a degree of competence, but a person even with high levels of competence, but with poor character will rarely see their character improved.

The thing is that high competence can be quickly seen and applauded, but poor character often remains hidden for some time. Competence is like the top of the iceberg that is easily seen and marvelled at, but character is like the underside of the iceberg that remains hidden and can sink ships.

My mentor told me that in ministry we should check and test for character, but that when a person with significant character flaws was already in a ministry position whether it be church planting or on church staff, it was often too late to work on the character weaknesses.

Naturally I thought that somehow I would be able to rise above this and “fix” the character flaws of the people I was working with. As time went by I learnt some painful lessons that showed me that this mindset was really naivety, inexperience and pride speaking to me.

The sad thing is that poor character in a leader will nearly always see other people hurt as they pursue their own agenda at the cost of those who get in the way.

So what are some of the danger signs pointing to dangerous character flaws? Here are 5 danger signs to watch out for:

1.Not seeing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.

One of the patterns I have seen in recent years in the lives of many Christian leaders who have fallen for various reasons including moral failures, spiritual abuse and bullying has been an absence of the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit are all about the character that the Holy Spirit works to see formed in us, and it begins with how we love. Galatians 5:22-23 can perhaps be best stated as “… the fruit (singular) of the Spirit is love; (colon rather than comma) joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… In other words the fruit of the Spirit will be displayed in how we love each other with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

2.Not being prepared to serve others.

A hallmark of Christ-like leadership is being prepared to serve rather than always looking to be served. This involves kenosis or the practice of emptying one’s self. Serving others results in the needs of others being ministered to whilst serving one’s self is all about having others meet their needs. Kenosis doesn’t happen in a flash. It happens over time as we die to our own sense of self-importance, but the journey of serving others begins with a willingness to do so. I was deeply impacted over 20 years ago when I hosted a world famous Christian leader at a conference where he was the main speaker. He refused to use the Green Room and instead made himself available during the breaks to serve others and engage in conversation with those who came to hear him.

3.Not being prepared to put others first.

A healthy team player will always look to put the vision and goals of the team first rather than putting their own agenda first. Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Ideal Team Player” defines this as being humble. He says that the ideal team player will be humble, hungry (i.e. self motivated) and smart (i.e. good people skills). He writes that when a person is hungry and smart but not humble and therefore not putting the team’s agenda before their own, they will be what he calls “skilled politicians” who are cleverly ambitious and willing to work extremely hard, but only in as much as it will benefit them personally. He warns that such people are dangerous.

4.Not being teachable.

Will they take on other people’s ideas or direction, or does it always have to be their own way? I learnt long ago from Ian Jagelman of C3 that leadership is subjective. Often there is more than one way forward or of dealing with a problem. It’s just that the various alternatives have different consequences that need to be managed. A teachable person will want to question “why” instead of just deciding “no” and doing things their own way. Being teachable means that a person will benefit from the wisdom and experience of others. Pride will be a big obstacle to this happening.

5.Not being correctable.

How a person responds to questioning or gentle correction says a lot about their character. A humble person will be open to learn and adjust. A pride filled person will be convinced they are right and be determined to defend their position. A sign of humility is how fast a person who feels wronged will run towards reconciliation rather than away from it.

Character is formed over a life time (and we all have character issues to work on). But this does not disqualify the young from leading. Far from it. A young leader who has the humility to be both teachable and correctable will be well positioned to grow in their character. Teachability and correctability is critical.

In church planting, character flaws such as those mentioned will generally give rise to unhealthy consequences such as the following:

1. the church planter will become an “orphan” church planter. Filled with their own desire for success, they will frequently distance themselves or even sever relationships with the church or ministry that has helped them plant.
2. the church planter will be an unsafe person for some as will the church they lead. The churches we see planted across our nation must be safe places for all; young and old, people like us and people not like us. 
3. the church planter will shun healthy accountability as they strive to do things their way and hide their true selves from peoples who may see their character flaws and seek to bring correction.

So what’s the answer? How do we discover whether a person has the character to lead a plant or a church?

Firstly test people and ask probing questions of referees before putting them in positions of influence or leadership.

Secondly, be prepared to have hard conversations with them in a way that is gentle but firm.

Third, don’t just hope that they will improve and bear with them and their flaws. They most likely won’t improve without instruction and correction being brought and their accepting it.

Church planting and leading a church are holy privileges. Whilst none of us can say that we have Christ-like characters, that is the journey that we must be on. Great competence is naturally highly valued but Christ like character is of even greater value because ultimately we minister out of who we are rather than what we do. As this happens we will increasingly find ourselves being used by Jesus rather than doing things for Jesus.

Tim O’Neill – Executive Director,

Exponential Australia.