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By Eric D. Rust
Enrichment
International Editions Say the word leadership at a roundtable of
spiritually gifted leaders and chances are
the conversation will immediately turn to
Albanian Bengali Croatian the task leaders perform in leading others.
Church leaders spend most of their week
leading. Yet, in our effort to become better
Czech French German
leaders, we often overlook the biggest
leadership challenge we will ever face —
Hindi Hungarian Malayalam ourselves.1 We tend to neglect managing
ourselves because self-leadership is much

Portuguese Romanian Russian more difficult than leading others.2

Hardly a week goes by without our hearing

Spanish Tamil Ukrainian
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Excellent source of
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searchable subject/author
index.
that another leader has been disqualified
from leadership. We blame this failure on
sexual compromise, financial impropriety,
the desire for power, or poor leadership.
Those failings, however, are only the public
symptoms of a deeper personal failing. If
we look into the problem further, we usually
discover that the leader neglected his
personal life.
In his book Leading From the Inside Out,
Samuel Rima states: “The way in which a
leader conducts his personal life does, in
fact, have a profound impact on his ability to exercise effective public
leadership. There is a direct correlation between self-leadership and
public leadership.”3
The New Testament writer, Paul, understood this concept well: “I
discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.
Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be
disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).4 Paul understood that to be all God
had called him to be he needed to consistently keep his life in order.

IMPORTANCE OF SELF-LEADERSHIP

Leaders must care for, nurture, and manage their personal lives. In
leadership circles, this is known as self-leadership. Effective leaders must
Order Advance CD
Long out of print but fondly invest more energy into developing their own leadership skills than in
remembered, Advance
developing any other area.
magazine blessed thousands
of A/G ministers. Now the
Leadership expert Dee Hock suggests that self-leadership needs to
entire Advance archives — 30
years of information and occupy 50 percent of a leader’s time.5 What would happen if church
inspiration, helps, and history
leaders took Hock’s recommendation seriously and invested half of their
— is available on CD.
week into self-leadership? To become the healthy leaders God desires us
to be, we must develop personal mastery of our own lives.

CHARACTER FORMATION

Understanding personality and giftings, clarifying values, pinpointing

strengths and weaknesses, improving communication skills, and
effective time management are all important areas where leaders need
to focus their energy. While there are dozens of facets to self-leadership,
none are as critical as the leader’s character. Without character, leaders
have nothing. Our character defines us. Only after we determine who we
are can we know how to grow. For the Christian leader, character is the
ballgame.

The absence of strong moral character will shipwreck a leader. Financial

blunders can be repaired. Poor communication can be fixed. Leadership
decisions that do not work out the way the leader promised can be
salvaged. But character flaws can destroy a leader. Recovering from
moral and ethical compromise is often impossible. Once trust in a leader
is lost, it is rarely restored. People will only follow leaders who express
the highest level of integrity.6

Andy Stanley says it clearly: “We are always one decision, one word, one
reaction away from damaging what has taken years to develop.”7 Twenty
or 30 years of faithful service to God can be destroyed with one
compromising decision.

When a leader’s flawed character is exposed, the problem usually stems

from his lack of integrity. Integrity is being on the inside who you claim
to be on the outside.

Erwin McManus uses an analogy about a watermelon to describe

integrity.8 You have probably bought a watermelon. As you stand in the
produce section holding a watermelon, the only thing you can see is the
watermelon rind. You thump the rind, and if the melon sounds hollow
you buy it. When you check out, you spend your hard-earned cash on a
watermelon when you can only see the rind. When you arrive home and
cut open the rind, what do you expect to find inside? Watermelon. You
trusted that the melon had integrity. What if you cut open the rind only
to find a banana inside? That would never happen because a melon has
integrity. A watermelon is always on the inside what it claims to be on
the outside.

What about you? If someone peeled off your outer layer, what would he
find? Would he find on the inside what you claim to be on the outside?
Here we find the one advantage a watermelon has over people — by its
nature, a melon has integrity. Integrity does not come naturally to
people, even to leaders. It must be developed.

Leaders who practice self-leadership are keenly aware of the

inconsistencies in their lives. Rather than ignoring these inconsistencies
while they are small, they choose to align who they are with what they
believe. They understand that life cannot be compartmentalized into tiny
boxes. We have been created as whole beings. Who we are in private
cannot be isolated from who we are in public.

As leaders, we must decide who we want to be and then align our lives
so we become just that.9 This is not easy because the person you do not
want to be is the person you will most naturally become if left to your
own devices. Jesus said: “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose
it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Matthew
16:25). Self-leaders must die to the natural tendencies inside them to
become who God is calling them to be.10 God is calling us to become
inside-out leaders — leaders who are defined more by who we are on
the inside than by who we seem to be on the outside.

Because of the titles and perks church leaders often receive, it can be
easy for pride to sneak into their lives. When church leaders fall victim to
sexual sin or power plays, pride is often at the root. Romans 12:3
reminds us, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but
rather think of yourself with sober judgment.” First Peter 5:5 cautions
us: “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”

Church leaders stay grounded and reminded of who they are when they
practice the spiritual discipline of servanthood. When leaders are on their
knees in service or have the serving towel draped over their arm, they
are reminded that Jesus found His greatness in servanthood. Jesus never
prided himself on His godliness; He found His status in servanthood. In
His smallness He became great. Smallness and servanthood may not
naturally be comfortable words for leaders, but they are words our
Leader was comfortable with.

Acknowledging our weaknesses is another excellent way to keep pride at

bay. Many leaders are unclear of their strengths and weaknesses.
Admitting weakness requires personal security and humility.11 Leaders
who practice self-leadership readily acknowledge their weaknesses.
Instead of entertaining pridefulness by covering up their weaknesses,
they admit them and invite others who have complementary strengths to
help them manage their weaknesses.

SAFEGUARDING OUR CHARACTER

Church leaders must be masters of themselves because the stakes are

too high. For business leaders, dollar signs hang in the balance. For
church leaders, future ministry and eternity hang in the balance. As sad
as it is to see a business or political leader fall victim to his own neglect,
the price is always higher when a church leader falls.

Pat Williams, Christ-follower and vice president of the Orlando Magic,

offers six ideas for safeguarding our character.12 These six guidelines
serve as a useful grid for the church leader who desires to lead himself
with excellence.

1. Take time for consistent reflection and restoration of body and

soul. Many church leaders maintain such a fast pace in their
ministries that they find little time for themselves. Jesus modeled
soul restoration by routinely leaving the crowds to spend time
alone with the Father. Self-leaders create time on a regular basis
to pray, journal, and read. A well-ordered heart is the best gift a
leader can give his followers.

In addition, leaders need to take care of their bodies. Physical

health is a blind spot for many pastors. The Bible challenges us to
honor God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20). Good health
provides the energy and stamina to actively pursue God’s call.
Eating well and exercising regularly should be a part of every
leader’s lifestyle.
2. When faced with an ethical choice or a temptation, consider the
example you set for others. Think of all those who are watching
you — children, friends, mentorees, and church members. How
will your decision impact them? With church leadership comes the
sacred gift of moral authority.13 Our moral authority can be lost in
an instant. When temptation knocks, we must ask ourselves if
saying yes to temptation is worth hurting those who look up to us.
 3. Make yourself accountable to a small group of trusted friends.
Lone rangers risk burnout much more than leaders who are in
relationships that provide accountability. Self-leadership is too big
a job to be done alone. Leaders need to invite a small group of
people whom they know and trust to check in with them regularly
and ask the tough questions. All of us can lie to ourselves so often
that eventually we begin to believe our lies. Friends are not as
easily duped.
4. Focus on integrity, not image. Leaders who cultivate their inner
life will consistently rise above situations in life that would attempt
to pull them down. Dr. Robert Terry, author of Reflective
Leadership, observes that “the profound challenge in ourselves is
authenticity — being true and real in ourselves, in our
relationships, in the world.”14
5. Grow deep in your faith. As Christ-followers, we believe God’s
Spirit has the power to bring spiritual change to human hearts.
Character development is too difficult a task for us to accomplish
without the involvement of God’s Spirit. Nurturing our relationship
with Christ and staying in tune with His Spirit keeps us dependent
on the activity of God in our lives. The deeper we go into God’s
love, the deeper our love for others becomes, and the greater
protection from evil we experience.
6. Deal firmly and uncompromisingly with character flaws and hidden
sin. All leaders have a dark side. Some are people pleasers.
Others desire to build a name for themselves. Some leaders have
anger issues or codependent tendencies. These issues will affect a
leader’s ability to lead. Bill Hybels asks leaders: “Who is
responsible for resolving your interior issues so your church won’t
be negatively impacted by your junk? You are.”15 Spiritual leaders
must sort these things out. Our churches are depending on it.

CONCLUSION

On the final page of his book, The Next Generation Leader, Andy Stanley
poses a great question: “What small thing in my life right now has the
potential to grow into a big thing?”16 Poor character does not appear out
of nowhere. It starts small — so small it is often not even noticeable.
Eventually the small thing that was once unnoticeable becomes a huge
thing that controls a leader’s life. Just like cancer in the human body, the
best time to remove poor character is when it is still a “small thing.”

In God’s infinite wisdom He has chosen to place the future of the church
in the hands of leaders. He has done so with clear expectations. He
desires us to be exceptional leaders. He wants us to hone our leadership
skills, to communicate effectively, and to manage our teams well. But
above all that, God’s desire for His leaders is that they would be masters
in the art of self-leadership.

ERIC D. RUST, lead pastor, Cedar Hills Church (Assemblies of

God), Sandpoint, Idaho

Endnotes
1. Bill Hybels, Courageous Leadership (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002),
182.
2. Dee Hock, “The Art of Chaordic Leadership,” Leader to Leader 15
(Winter 2000): 20–26. Accessed from
http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/L2L/winter2000/hock.html on 13 April
2005.

3. Samuel D. Rima, Leading From the Inside Out: The Art of Self-
Leadership (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000), 27.

4. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, unless otherwise noted. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.
All rights reserved.

5. Hock.

6. Hybels, 189.

7. Andy Stanley, The Next Generation Leader: Five Essentials for Those
Who Will Shape the Future (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah Publishers, 2003),
119.

8. Erwin R. McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul (Nashville,

Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), 70.

9. Ibid., 81.

10. Pat Williams and Jim Denny, The Paradox of Power: A Transforming
View of Leadership (New York: Warner Books, 2002), 98.

11. Stanley, 22.

12. Williams and Denny, 125.

13. Stanley, 117.

14. Williams and Denny, 127.

15. Hybels, 192.

16. Stanley, 132.

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