What Kind of Character Does a Leader Need? EXPANDING OUR VISION FOR ENGAGING THE WORLD
When Drs. Howard Hendricks (ThM, 1950) and Don Campbell (ThM, 1951; ThD, 1953) founded The Center for Christian Leadership (now the Hendricks Center) in the 1980s, the character of the leader was their primary concern. Many who sat under Prof. Hendricks can recall hearing him say, “The greatest crisis in America is a crisis of leadership, and the greatest crisis of leadership is a crisis of character.” In an article in the student publication, Kethiv Qere, Dr. Campbell explained his purpose and vision for the Center: When we think of the term “leadership” today, we have too many examples of the type of leadership the Pharisees practiced, and few examples of the type of leadership God prizes. Worldly leadership exalts the independent “strength” of a “self-made” man. God prizes dependence on His strength and enablement. Worldly leadership exalts self-focus and egocentricity. God prizes the God-focused leadership of a Lewis Sperry Chafer, who exhibited Christlikeness in every aspect of his life and ministry. God prizes those who build up others and who succeed through their service to others. For too many years, some people in the broader Christian community have been developing leaders using the world’s model and have ended up with men consumed by their egos. In the face of this danger, why then should any Christian aspire to lead? Why is [DTS] expanding its emphasis on leadership? When [DTS] was founded in the face of the hurricane of liberalism in the 1920s, the crying need of the generation was men of God who had the skills to interpret and relevantly preach God’s inerrant Word accurately. The great need continues and [DTS] continues to produce students who are increasingly better equipped for the task. Our graduates rarely fail to reach their potential because they can’t accurately handle Scripture. But the ones who do fall short of their potential usually fail in the areas of leadership—personal character flaws, interpersonal conflicts, disorganization, lack of vision, etc. Flash-forward to today: the need for effective leaders continues, and the call for godly character has become more intense.
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Recent biblical work at the Hendricks Center (THC) and interactions with leaders show that the constant culture shifts are what trouble leaders significantly. The demand for attention, wrestling with the pace of information, and the way the environment continues to change has led THC to focus on what engagement with today’s connected world requires. One of the goals has included equipping godly servant-leaders with what THC likes to call biblical agility in these complex times. What is DTS’s vision for these changing times? As THC continues to strive to apply truth through Scripture, four significant points of interest have come into focus as we aim to process and engage with this ever-changing world. Comprehension. The first quality a leader needs to develop is a switch-hitting comprehension that includes an un-derstanding of Scripture, an understanding of the world, and the ability to read and react. For leaders, this demand for awareness emerges because we live in a fallen and flawed world. Life is messy, and it does not go as God originally designed it. Most seminaries teach the Bible and then move to apply it to life. That is an essential way to learn and read Scripture. But most Christians read Scripture in the opposite direction. They have a situation in life or God has them in a space where they are trying to sort it all out biblically. Leaders need such a comprehension that they can go either direction, from the Bible to life or from life back to the Bible. This latter way of reading requires an in-depth understanding of Scripture and an appreciation of how the Bible itself discusses the tensions of living in a fallen world. It involves reading that is not about single passages on a topic here and there, but an engagement with the whole Bible at a canonical level with all the angles Scripture gives, aware of the array of texts that address the topic. Most of the resources at THC start with situations and scenarios that read the Scriptures in light of the context. The goal is to make sense out of what the best biblical applications are for all cases. Sometimes reading Scripture makes people aware that no answer is crystal clear or completely free of issues in a fallen world, but comes with tension or discomfort because the world is not what it ought to be. It requires believers to do the one thing God has called us to do—to have faith that all things (good or bad) will work together for those who love Him.