People in ministry, whether pastoral ministry, education, campus workers, missions, or chaplains, need certain attributes for authentic and effective service.
I’d nominate these as the top five:
1. Holiness
Someone taught me long ago that there’s a difference between “gifted” and “godly.” Ideally you need both, but godly is always better than gifted and a jerk.
Holiness is both gift and demand. Something we are given and something we prosecute.
Holiness is not moralizing, not separatism, nor self-deprecation.
Holiness is the attempt to be consumed by God and to reflect Jesus to others.
Christian leaders are held to a higher standard in terms of language, financial dealings, relational integrity, and scrutiny. One must be beyond reapproach.
In effect, your walk must match your talk. You can’t have a private life without recourse to holiness.
Now, importantly, holiness is not perfection or sinlessness. Holiness always means dealing with the flaws in your character, mistakes of judgment, and seeking reconciliation when you are in the wrong.
In fact, learning how to faithfully resolve your own mistakes rather than deny them or cover them up is a mark of holiness.
2. Passion
When it comes to preaching, my students are a little disappointed when I tell them that the people they preach to are not going to remember 99% of what they said 1 hour after they said it. A congregation might remember the gist, a memorable saying, or an illustration. However, they will remember the passion with which you said!
Say what you like about John Piper, but the man has a passion, he believes what he’s preaching. His passion is contagious.
To quote a John Updike novel, a preacher should, “burn people with the passion of your belief.”
Be excited about Bible teaching, service, mission, justice, caring for the flock, and loving others.
Preaching is 10% delivering information and 90% trying to create inspiration.
3. Humility
I’ll be honest, in all the virtues of a Gospel Worker, humility is my worst.
I like talking about myself, what I’m doing, what I’ve done, and hearing people say how awesome I am.
I love Americans, but you folks are a bad influence on me because you treat me like a celebrity with the “Oh Dr. Bird, it’s such an honor to meet you.” To which I start thinking, “Well, yes, I suppose it is!”
This is why I daily tell myself, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Rom 12:3). And “We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Christ’s sake” (2 Cor 4:5).
Humility means it’s not about me and I need to make sure that this ministry can continue without me. I’m not indispensable and I do not need to be the centre of attention. Put the spotlight on others when you can.
Otherwise, you’ll be 82, refusing to retire, because you believe no-one is worthy to replace you.
4. Competent
Character is usually a weightier quality than talents, gifts, and charisma.
But being able to do things competently, like self-organize, prioritize tasks, lead worship, public speaking, run a funeral, lead a Bible-study, run a meeting, this stuff actually is important too.
People in ministry need core skills, personal attributes, and mentoring to improve in the basic work they are doing. You need to get trained, get practiced, and look for ways to improve all the time in your performance.
5. Love
This should probably be higher on the list, but it’s a top attribute.
If you want to serve God and serve God’s people then you need a lot of love.
You need to love God and seek his pleasure. This is what will sustain you when you get unfair often needless criticism over even menial matters.
If you want to serve people, then you need to love people. And the people in your church, Bible study, campus, or college will have varying degrees of loveability!
You have to love them, watch over them, care for them, guide them, and counsel all of them. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Rejoice when they rejoice. Weep when they weep. Speak a word in season even if they do not wish to receive it.
Love them with fatherly or motherly love, love them with the tenderness of Christ, and love them with the consolation of the Spirit.
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What do you think? Is that a good list? Anything you wish I had added?
This probably falls under the category of Humility but I am always mightily impressed when those who hold senior positions in the Church (and elsewhere) are able to admit when they don't know something. I tend to run from those who are too certain in their faith and run towards those who put loving others before "right" Theology.
Ditto Chris! I like how you expressed that in your definition of holiness, Mike - “Holiness always means dealing with the flaws in your character, mistakes of judgement and seeking reconciliation when you are in the wrong” . As a Christian manager of an Occupational Therapy department in a hospital, I feel like I’m in a “ministry” position. And I try really hard to model all 5 characteristics (not at all successfully I must say! But I try!) But I hope the ability to admit my own mistakes to my staff and even other hospital managers, is especially helpful in seeing Christ at work and the positive difference that can make to the way we work as a whole hospital for the good of our patients. It is antithetical to typical western behaviour in the workplace, sadly, so I pray that showing humility and holiness, Christ will be brightly evident and that his aroma will bring about his good work.😊