From The Pastor’s Heart By DR. ROBERT KENNEDY, OP-ED
America is going through its process again, looking for leadership, as some might say, the right kind of leader. Of course, this is not a unique process here in America, but is especially significant in the midst of the present world pandemic.
Throughout the world, people are looking for strong leadership. But what does it mean to be strong? Without any attempt to criticize the so-called “strong” or “dictatorial” leaders, let me offer that there seems to be a shortage of good leaders. By the good leaders I mean that their strength is in their character, not in the brute force that anyone is ready to wield. People are ever in the search for leaders, for in historical reality, all human communities need leadership. A majority of people are followers, so there is a need to find the good leader.
In my first leadership workshop, many years back, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Winton Bevin. I mention him because he was considered by many, one of the great leadership gurus of that time. He showed us a survey on the qualities that people admired most in leadership. The survey noted that leaders with “character and integrity” were the most sought after.
For quite a few years, I began to wonder if Dr. Bevin and the leading professors who were writing on “character leadership” had made a mistake. I began to notice that what seemed to be of importance in the developing culture was to select leaders with charisma, wealth, popularity, and those who appear to be powerful and tall. Integrity and character had become relics of the old culture.
Today, I am hearing the call for character and integrity in the present search for leadership in America. And I am glad for the call for maybe the lessons of the past we should have known are now being learned, again. I hear the heart cry, and I listen to speeches. I read new books, magazines, newspapers, and various articles, and I am convinced that the frustration with the qualities that have been emphasized lately has brought us to the realization that what was demanded in the old culture was correct.
We need to find leadership with character. I mean high-quality character, with at least the ten elements that I place on the following list with a little frame of explanations:
1. Integrity – Straightforwardness.
2. Dignity – Worthy of respect.
3. Empathy – Knowing how to identify with the sufferings of others.
4. Honesty – Not practicing prevarication (lying, I mean).
5. Sincerity – Free from pretense, deceit, and hypocrisy.
6. Justice – Treating people with fairness, giving respect as we seek it from God.
7. Faith – Having a belief that turns the heart to God.
8. Humility – Not prideful, arrogant, opinionated or rude.
9. Truthfulness – Consistent in disposition, willing to give accurate, factual information, no fake news.
10. Genuineness – Being real. Some persons say it thus, “What you see is what you get.”
Shall I guess that you think we cannot find leaders with the above character elements, today? Does that mean we must settle for the qualities that have been as disappointing as we have experienced in contemporary times? All I can say is that if we are unwilling to do the hard work to look for the qualities, we are never going to change the way things are. There leaders with the great qualities, although they might not be as common as we would like them to be. We need to pray that they might be found and work hard to put them in place.
When ancient Israel was looking for their first king, they looked for the tallest man, which some considered most handsome. They sought a man that would allow them to look like other nations.
The story is recorded thus: “And he [Kish] had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people.” (1 Samuel 9:2 ESV)
Without telling the whole story, I need only ask, “How did the kingship of Saul turn out?” he built a fragile kingdom. And time revealed that he had severe character flaws. He was very proud, impulsive, stubborn, opinionated, mistrustful, resentful, and vindictive.
There is a host of other negatives we need not list here. But I argue that Saul faked his faith and, at his end, he visited a spiritualist, with the hope to keep his kingdom. But he ended his life by committing suicide (1 Samuel 31:1-5).
After Saul’s death, David became king, and long before his ascension, he was called “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). A reading of David’s history shows that he had many flaws. And one might wonder how God could see him so differently from Saul. But one cannot miss the point that David was humble and repentant. He was always willing to admit when he was wrong.
From the time of his call to the kingship, God told the prophet, Samuel, who anointed David, not to watch the external but to take note of his heart, “For man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
Look at the ten qualities named above and notice how they fit the life of David. He was a profound man of faith. He had a heart for justice. He was full of empathy, humility, sincerity, and the other high qualities of character that make for good leadership.
I wish to make this simple plea in the search for leadership today. That we turn away from the lust for mere charisma, popularity, power, wealth, and the externals that will only lead us on the road of disappointment; instead, let us turn to that which will be most fruitful, leadership with high-quality character. Most of all, let each of us seek to develop the high-quality character we seek in others.
If the truth is told, all of us are leading somebody. All of us are shedding an influence. So, let us check to see the qualities of our character.
