174 Sermon Illustrations on Leadership

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803-1882, American essayist and poet)

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You can’t claim leadership. You earn it.

No matter where your commitment takes you, or what your leadership accomplishes, it is exciting to know that you are always in the process of earning your leadership stripes by: Treating people as if today is the only day you have to help them reach their full potential. Teaching the benefits of setting a good example to the lowest level people in your organization. Knowing that if you take very good care of today, tomorrow will take care of itself. Accepting full responsibility and accountability for your thoughts and actions.

Taking time each day to be alone, to communicate with your God, to think about your mission in life, and how you are going to make a difference. When you have the courage to be a leader continually committed to earning your stripes, your potential is endless.

Leader’s insight:— Why Leaders Are Sometimes Unhappy — and why that may be good.

Seminar titles rarely snare my attention. They’re often too pat or too hyped. But in a planning meeting for the National Pastors Convention (to be held in February in San Diego), this seminar title by Gary Thomas made my brainwaves quiver: “What if God designed marriage to make us more holy than happy?”

I laughed out loud.

Nearly 20 years of marriage, full and rich marriage, have nonetheless taught me that marriage by design exerts a relentless pressure on my self-absorption. It challenges me to serve, to sacrifice, to love — in short, to grow up. Martin Luther called marriage The School of Character.

Contrary to hundreds of Hollywood romance movies, marriage is not primarily designed to make us happy. God is not primarily interested in our happiness, but in something deeper and more lasting: our holiness. Or we might say that God is so interested in our long-term happiness — our eternal joy, which only holiness leads to — that he reserves the right to sacrifice our short-term happiness to ensure we receive it.

I then applied Gary Thomas’s concept to Christian leadership: “What if God designed leadership to make us more holy than happy?”

People who have never been leaders sometimes spin romantic fantasies about the glory and attention that come with the job. Luther once quipped that God uses ambition to compel us to office. Apparently, God uses our self-directed desires to move us to a place where he can teach us the hard lesson of serving others. For leadership, like marriage, is a School of Character. It means getting up early for prayer meetings. Staying up late for board meetings. Getting criticized. Trying to do work without enough money, enough people, enough key leaders.

The wearying pace, lack of results, and frequent conflict can grind us down. We may, especially on Mondays, when our adrenaline is depleted, contemplate quitting. But it is at this precise painful moment that we are where God wants us. Through these chiseling experiences, God sculpts our character. We thought becoming a leader would bring excitement, growth, results — that it would make us happy (all while we’re serving God, of course).

But God is after something more valuable: to make us holy. He wants the soft, precious gold in the heart of the mountain, and he will move cartloads of rubble to get to it. God is not afraid to use criticism, discouragement, and limitation to blast away the hardened rock.

Are you discouraged about the difficulties of Christian leadership? They don’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong. They mean that God is doing something right. He’s making you holy.

“... render therefore to all their due ... honor to whom honor [is due]....” (Romans 13:7).

We are living in a very dangerous time. In some ways we are living close to a time of “anarchy.” More and more evidence is surfacing that we are not giving honor to whom God says honor is due. All too often it is our leaders, secular and religious, who are modeling this form of rejecting those God has commanded us to honor.

God has placed everyone in a position of authority. The Apostle Paul had just stated: “... let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God....” (Romans 13:1). Paul also added that existing authorities are “... God's ministers....” (Romans 13:4,6).

Those in authority today are under great pressures, especially in the nature and magnitude of the decisions they have to make. Their decisions often affect us all, even to succeeding generations. And I sense they feel the awful weight of their decisions.

They also are seeking the finest, most mature and tested advisers to assist them. Rarely do leaders today make decisions alone, even when the final decision is theirs. They believe that “... in the presence of many counselors there is safety....” (Proverbs 11:14). But too often today when a leader makes difficult decisions, those who themselves want to be the leader, or who feel their suggestions are not being considered or followed, are very critical, even demeaning, of the existing leaders. Paul warns those who “resist the authorities” that have been placed over them. He said “... those who resist authority resist the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves....” (Romans 13:2).

Any nation that fosters or encourages resistance to authority is putting their nation under God's judgment. And if this resistance is perpetuated as “politically justified” (in secular society or in religious circles), this will foster a “rebellious spirit” on all levels of society, including our schools, universities and our homes.

So what are we to do?

1. Model before others, especially our family, thoughtful examination of decisions made, but guard against the appearance of “rebellion.”

2. Pray for our leaders that they will seek, receive and obey God's guidance for their authority, and seek to be transparent “ministers of God.”

3. Strive to be godly leaders ourselves in any sphere of influence God may grant us.

4. Be content to live in the area of spiritual authority God has entrusted to us.

May God grant us the courage to express our views, even when they conflict with others, and to have the grace not to break fellowship with our brothers merely because we differ. God will be honored, and others encouraged and helped.

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I was in a Board Meeting in a hotel conference room. It was in the 90s outside, but I was ready to put gloves on so I could write without shaking. The air conditioner in our conference room was set on one notch past high - I mean, it was on arctic! We wandered over to the control box on the wall, and all we did was discover that the controls were locked up. Great! So, we called the desk and they had a hard time understanding us because of our chattering teeth. But they finally got the message, and the maintenance man came and turned down that ice machine. At that moment, he had the power in his hands. Summer or winter, he's the man who decides what the temperature will be. You know, that's a pretty significant position.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Climate Control.”

Our word for today from the Word of God turns the spotlight on one of the Bible's greatest role models for leadership - my hero, Nehemiah. He led God's people in the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days. As we join the story, Nehemiah is now governor for a poor group of people who are trying to establish life in their rebuilt city. In that difficult time, the climate was very important, and God had a man who knew how to establish just the right temperature.

Our word for today from the Word of God, Nehemiah 5 beginning in verse 14. “[W]hen I was appointed to be their governor ... neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors - those preceding me - placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled for the work; we did not acquire any land. Furthermore,” Nehemiah says, “a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations ... I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.”

In the intensity of this survival situation, the people desperately needed a climate of unselfishness, of sharing, of cooperation. But someone had to be the thermostat. Nehemiah was that man. He led the way, setting a temperature of sharing - and the people followed.

The greatest responsibility of any leader is probably not even in his or her job description. It's establishing a climate. Parents do it at home - Dad establishes a climate when he walks in the door at night. Teachers set a temperature in a classroom. A chairman sets a temperature in a meeting. Leaders do it in a church. Supervisors set a climate in an office or factory. In a sense, we are all leaders to the extent we set a climate where we are.

If you are in a position of influencing others, have you considered how the temperature feels where you are, what kind of climate you're establishing? Not so much with what you say, but more with the way you are. Is it tense around you or peaceful? Are people around you seeing a model of caring? Of unselfishness? Of pitching in on what needs to be done, as Governor Nehemiah did with the work on the wall? Are you setting a climate of respect for others? Of trusting God - or worrying? If people are around you, do they become people of prayer?

You're a leader. You are setting a climate, whether you realize it or not. And the interesting thing is, you end up reaping the climate you sow. So make the place where you are feel like it would if Jesus were there. He is.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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SOMEONE WROTE TO ME RECENTLY:-

“The NEW WAVE I believe the Lord wants to bring to our leadership in the end-time church takes center stage to give voice to what the Lord wants to say, but withdraws to let the Lord take over when He is finished. Letting the rest of the people glory in the light Christ generates.

“A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

“The way I could best describe it is in a personal experience I once had when my brother asked me to lead a meeting for the 17-22 age group while he was away, (this happened about ten years ago.)

“I shared, encouraged, exhorted, and got the young people praying and ministering to each other, oversaw it, helping along, and eventually the Spirit was moving so wonderfully amongst them, and they were ministering so well they didn’t need my help.

“I quietly slipped away from the meeting, and they didn’t even notice I was gone. I increased only for a moment, and then began my decreasing until there was only God and them left. This was not an absolving myself of leadership responsibility, but having the goal in mind to bring them to Christ, and not myself, when that was accomplished, they were able to continue with Christ…

“Jesus only spent aprox.3 1/2 yrs. with His apostles. Only three and a half years to equip the men who were going to lay the foundations that Christ gave them for which the church could continue to build on for thousands of years!

“THE LEADERSHIP GOAL AND PURSUIT:

The greatest accomplishment of a leader is to work themselves out of a job. That very attitude has to be there all the time and working into every situation.

“So yes, there of neccessity needs to be a type of stage, or should we say, a rock to stand out on; but only temporarily, until the rock is all we see and each of us are fully acquainted with the feel it, and the certainty of it under each of our feet.” **

ANDREW STROM REPLIES: While I would certainly agree with much of the above, I would also like to address this whole “He must increase and I must decrease” area. There is some very important truth in this saying, but I want to give an example from the other side of the coin.

In 1904, one of the greatest and most powerful outpourings of the Holy Spirit in history occurred in the tiny nation of Wales. The Welsh Revival that resulted is famous to this day. But not a lot of people realize that this Revival lasted JUST ONE YEAR, and that it was basically destroyed because the leader took to heart this whole “He must increase and I must decrease” philosophy. You see, there are times when this applies and times when it does not. It sounds so good and humble, but if it can destroy a Revival then we had better take a second look.

Evan Roberts was the God-appointed and anointed leader of the Welsh Revival. There is no dispute about this. He was also under immense personal pressure because of his leadership position. Wales was aflame for God, hundreds of thousands were repenting deeply and being saved, the courts were empty, the criminals were being converted, and the glory of God reigned supreme. Evan Roberts’ sermons were being reported by secular newspapers around the world.

It was at this juncture that one or two of Evan’s friends came to him and told him that they believed he was “stealing glory from God” because he was such a public figure and so well-known. Being a humble man by nature, 27-year-old Evan was horror-struck by this, and he literally hid himself away (in the house of Jessie Penn-Lewis), saying that he would give himself to prayer but that his public ministry was over. His attitude was: ‘God must increase, and I must decrease.’ What a disaster!

Within a very short space of time, the whole Revival was beginning to fall apart, as the devil gleefully attacked it both from within and without, with counterfeits, disputes, deception, excesses, etc. And there was no longer anyone with the anointing or the authority to combat all these destructive forces and keep the whole thing on the rails. The man God had chosen for the job had decided that he must “decrease”, and so had hidden himself away, just when he was most needed. How happy the devil must have been! And so the famous Welsh Revival, which could have lasted for years and could have spread to many nations, ended somewhat ignominiously after just one year. Excesses flooded in and thousands of young converts were lost. (Though tens of thousands still remained. It was not a complete fiasco by any means).

Please note that the same thing would have happened if Moses had suddenly decided to hide himself away and not lead the children of Israel. Or if Joshua had done the same. Or David. Or Gideon. Or the apostles Peter, James and John in the Jerusalem church. Or Paul with the Gentiles. Or John Wesley with the Methodists, etc, etc. What on earth would have happened if these men had suddenly decided that they must “decrease” in the middle of a move of God, when their leadership was so crucial? After all, God Himself raised them up to LEAD, right? Is it “humble” to hide yourself away when God has called you to lead? I think not. I think it is a disaster. If God calls you to lead, THEN LEAD. Don’t be ashamed about it. Just go ahead and do what God has called you to do:- LEAD the people of God out of slavery and into war or into freedom. And don’t hide yourself away unless GOD HIMSELF VERY LOUDLY TELLS YOU TO.

Some people are called to pray. Others are called to lead. And woe betide us if we abandon our post.

This is why I feel that the “He must increase and I must decrease” thing can be very dangerous if it is mis-applied. It sounds so ‘humble’, so “servant-like” to disappear or hide oneself away –-to be self-effacing and to run from the limelight. But when God needs leaders –-REAL LEADERS –-to stand up and tell it like it is, and to take responsibility, and to speak the hard words, and to really LEAD, then it is not “humble” to hide oneself away. It is disobedient and it is wrong. Actually, true ‘servanthood’ can involve taking all the heat and the battering that comes with leading from the front. This is no easy job. But someone has to do it. GOD NEEDS REAL LEADERS TODAY. Hiding can be the easy option. Leading can be very tough.

There is a whole “anti-leader” thing in the individualistic, hyper-democratic West today. It is not of God. It is anti-authority but it sounds so “spiritual”. But God is into authority. And God is into leadership. I believe He spoke to me once and said: “NO LEADERS, NO REVIVAL”. I really believe that. As one social analyst has said, we live today in the age of the “anti-leader”. And this same spirit has infected many Christians. They don’t want anyone ‘up the front’. They don’t want anyone in authority. They don’t want anyone to lead. “Everyone for themselves” might as well be their motto. And yet they say they believe in Revival!

I tell you, the coming apostles will be men of authority. They will be men who take responsibility. They will be used to keep the Revival on the rails –-to reprove, rebuke and exhort where necessary. And they will not hide themselves away UNLESS GOD HIMSELF CLEARLY SAYS SO. And yes, some of them will be well-known. Some will often be heard reported on TV or radio, just as the NT apostles would be if they were alive now. WHO CARES? I myself will rejoice. I tell you, this anti-authority thing is the root of half the West’s problems today. And a lot of Christians tend this way too (though theirs is a “spiritual” version).

To sum up, instead of “decreasing”, I’m going to be encouraging those who are called as leaders and apostles to REALLY LEAD. Yes, they need to be truly humble, avoiding self-glory, but they also need to be real leaders. And not be ashamed of it.

I Corinthians 16:13–14 — Something for Men

A. A couple of verses to launch our thoughts tonight:

1. and, let’s read them from a number of translations

a. NKJV: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.”

b. NRSV: “Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

c. NEB: “Be alert; stand firm in the faith; be valiant and strong. Let all you do be done in love.”

d. NLT: “Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done with love.”

e. I have no real quarrel with any of these translations: they all capture the meaning and intent of these verses

2. but let’s look at the following translations

a. AV: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity.”

b. NIV: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

c. NAS: “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

d. and these add a flavour, a colour, to the words that can be just as important as the meaning and intent

e. and that is this: there is an aspect to the Christian life that calls specifically to men;

(A) that men are to be men

(B) not in the sense of fallen man as he is degraded by sin

(C) but men in the fashion that God created him

(D) man created in the image of God

(E) man with a spiritual nature and a spiritual mission

3. now I understand why some of the translators have avoided including the reference to men in this verse — and the word used has the same root as our son Andrew’s name, a name which means manly — and make it gender neutral

a. after all, we are told that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28 NAS)

b. this verse is similarly applicable to women as to men; indeed, if you were to examine missions endeavours over the past 100 years, you would possibly conclude that women have applied it to their heart more than men

c. then there are many places in the original languages of the Bile where man is used in the sense of “mankind” (just as we use it in English, using the more convenient short form)

d. and the gospel message, the message of free salvation, is of course for all mankind: for men, for women, for children

4. but there is a prevalent attitude on this subject that disturbs

a. religion is for women

b. or, for children

c. Christianity is for the weak of body, mind and heart

d. trusting in Christ is just a crutch, and no real man need be bothered with it

e. well, according to this — and many other verses — it just isn’t so

f. if a man is going to follow and walk with Jesus Christ as his own personal Saviour, it is going to take every ounce of his gumption, guts and grit

B. Gumption, Guts and Grit?

1. “Yes,” you say, “that’s all very fine … but I don’t know if I’m built that way — I’m not that sort of aggressive person; in fact, I’m not sure that is what a Christian is supposed to be!”

a. well, whenever we have a question about what is a proper way for a Christian to live, we need to turn to our Model — What Would Jesus Do?

b. for, in Jesus of Nazareth, we have the Perfect Example of how we should live

c. was Jesus aggressive? … yes, but not in the obnoxious sense that we may have been using that word a minute ago

d. in Jesus Christ; in His ministry on this earth; we find these verses in 1 Corinthians 16:13–14 (NAS) personified: “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

e. alert: withstanding every Satanic attack hurled at Him throughout His life and ministry and victorious in all

f. firm in the faith; acting like a man; strong: never wavering from His obedience to the will of God, in carrying out God’s plan, so that at His death all that His enemies could shout at Him on the cross was Matthew 27:43 (NIV): “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

g. done in love: throughout His ministry His love was evident to all as He healed, restored to life, and served His own

h. and, at the end, the cross: if the Lord permits, we will take some time one day to talk about this central work of Christ, this primal event which gives us salvation, this cross and discover some of its implications for the man who would follow Christ in all things

i. Jesus, Perfect Man, perfect blend of gentleness & strength

2. “but,” you say, “that doesn’t help me much … I’m not Jesus Christ, I can’t walk on water!”

a. yes, that’s true … as long as we are in this body, we are going to be imperfect

b. but just check for a moment why Jesus could be the perfect man … His birth was by the Holy Spirit

c. and no, just as Nicodemus said, you cannot enter again into your mother’s womb and be born; but there is a new spiritual birth to every man who finds Jesus as his Saviour

d. and that new life, is described in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” — in that new birth, though not yet perfect, we find we are re-created as God intended

e. so it is living in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that will enable you and me to “act like men”

f. and as a Christian man you are going to need to do so — it won’t be easy

(A) there will be ridicule — never easy to bear

(B) there will be the continuous enticements

(1) let’s go there … it’ll be fun

(2) let’s look at this on TV … we all adults

(3) oh, have one … it won’t hurt you

(4) hey! have you heard this one …

(C) and so on it goes

g. so, take this verse with you tomorrow, the rest of the week and for you life

3. “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

While teaching a group of leaders about goals, I suggested that they write specific, measurable goals and hold each other accountable to them. Before I could finish, one of the newer guys-let’s call him Mr. Helpful-said, “Great! What’s one of your goals?” Being on the spot, I said, “To lose 20 pounds.”

“Terrific,” Mr. Helpful said. “I’ll bring a scale every week. You can stand on it, and we’ll see how well you’re doing.”

I tried without luck to slip out of the arrangement. So every week Mr. Helpful brought the scale. I did all right for a while, but then one week I just pigged out. I knew I had not only not lost weight but gained some. Fearing the meeting that week, I was relieved when Mr. Helpful showed up without his scale.

It was no problem, I told the group. I’d go upstairs to my scale, weigh myself, and then tell them the results. Well, Mr. Helpful would have none of that: he made me go up, get the scale, and bring it down to the meeting.

Holding yourself and others accountable in doing what you say you’re going to do may seem hard. But it’s a key element in bringing about real, lasting change in our lives.

"Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it" (Psalm 141:5)

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Ron Jenson, adapted from FATHERS AND SONS (Broadman & Holman, 1998)

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. May/June 2006, Vol. 9, No. 3

A foolish king owned a beautiful castle, but no one lived in it, and thieves often broke in. So the king hired the first workman he could find to surround the castle with a rock wall.

The workman ran out of rocks and sent for the king. The king snapped, “Who cares where you get more rocks? Just build that wall!”

Months later, the king visited and found a high and imposing rock wall. But when he entered the gate ... the castle was gone!

The workman said, “Without any stones, I could only use the castle itself.”

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Leadership isn’t just giving orders. A wise leader provides both a clear vision and the means to get the job done . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first

sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to

complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to

finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This

fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30)

Sermon in Exodus series, #9. Exodus 18:13-26

DON'T DO IT ALL

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I. They still do it today.

A. It is natural to want to meet someone who has power.

B. Moses was not the only one who gets burned out.

II. Jethro, a nice pagan.

A. Midianites were descendants of Abraham, like the Jews.

B. Jethro was not a typical Midianite.

C. Jethro also had some insight into leadership.

D. Wisdom is not limited to the Bible.

III. The new division of labor.

A. Moses became the Supreme Court. 18:19

B. Capable people served under him. 18:21

C. Even the common people had an obligation. 18:20

D. It worked!

IV. The wisdom of delegating.

A. We should limit our efforts to what we do best.

B. By hogging, we thwart the gifts of others.

V. Bureaucracy has its place.

A. We hate going through levels of government.

B. The real issue is competence, not delegation.

C. Do something for the glory of God.

Sermon in 1 Timothy series - Clean Up the Church, #7. 1 Timothy 3:8-15

DESERVING DEACONS

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I. Focus on the team.

II. What do biblical deacons do?

A. This is not as easy to figure out as you would think.

B. Many point to Acts 6:1-7 for more details.

III. What is more important to Paul is who they are.

A. Outward character comes first.

B. What Paul stresses about leaders.

C. A quiet heroism.

IV. Deacons in the Baptist tradition.

A. Spiritual leaders within the congregation.

B. Practical aid.

V. The special question of deaconesses. 3:11

A. Literally, the verse reads "the women."

B. Wives or board members?

VI. Service has its rewards.

In the 1976 presidential campaign, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, then the Democratic nominee, made headlines in the United States and around the world merely by granting a single interview. That interview was with Playboy magazine. The interview was a political bombshell. No major American politician had come within any distance of Playboy magazine. It was considered the iconic symbol of American pornography, and the very fact that a political candidate — not to mention the nominee of one of America’s major political parties — had granted an interview to Playboy magazine, seemed almost morally unbelievable and indefensible. In the interview, Jimmy Carter dropped no bombshells concerning any kind of moral revelation; to the contrary, he basically made news by affirming what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said that it is not enough not to commit adultery, one must not even lust in the heart.

Jimmy Carter went on to be an elected President of the United States, but he is remembered from 1976 for the very fact that scandal was attached to the appearance of a major presidential candidate on the pages of Playboy magazine. Now fast-forward to 2016 and this year’s presidential race, and you can tell how much evangelicalism has changed. Some of the evangelicals who were appalled by Jimmy Carter’s interview in 1976 appear to have changed their mind. A photograph went viral yesterday of a major evangelical leader, the president of an evangelical institution, standing with his wife endorsing Donald Trump as President of the United States, and over his wife’s shoulder is a cover of Playboy magazine featuring, quite boldly, none other than Donald Trump.

On the one hand this underlines what a difference 40 years can make. But, of course, the story is even bigger than that. During the 1990s and the scandals of the Clinton administration, evangelical Christians were pretty certain that Bill Clinton was a living demonstration of the fact that character matters and that a lack of character can be fatal for leadership. During that time when commenting on the character crisis, I wrote an article entitled, “Character in Leadership: Does it Really Matter Anymore?.” I cited former President Calvin Coolidge, who identified character as “the only secure foundation of the state.”

As I pointed out, political controversies over character are not new, but they certainly have changed over the years. In the 1990s, there was an open cultural debate in the United States as to whether or not the sex scandals that were first alleged and then confirmed about President Bill Clinton had any direct impact upon his ability to lead the nation. It was very clear then that even as Americans seemed to be unsure about the centrality of character to leadership, at least most evangelical Christians seemed to affirm the centrality of character in leadership. Conservative evangelicals were very quick to criticize Bill Clinton for his sexual infidelities and, furthermore, to make the argument that Bill Clinton’s fitness for President of the United States had been undermined by his sexual misbehavior. Evangelicals at the time were very quick to make clear that this was not only a matter of an isolated sexual misbehavior, but rather that it fit a pattern of infidelity that was well-traced through the entire adult life and career of then-president Bill Clinton.

In the 1990s, evangelicals largely spoke with solidarity on the centrality of character in leadership, and of character as something essential to the credibility required of one who would hold a major position of leadership, in particular, one who would be elected President of the United States. In the midst of the Clinton controversies, Peggy Noonan, then well known as a former speechwriter to both presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, wrote:

“In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant ... he doesn’t have to be clever; you can hire clever ... . You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you cannot buy courage and decency; you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him.”

During the Clinton crisis, I cited Peggy Noonan’s assessment as an example of the way we should all be thinking about the centrality of character to leadership. Even during those times of controversy, James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, pointed out that most Americans were unsure about exactly how character was essential to leadership, but there was little question that character was essential to leadership.

“Character matters,” Hunter explained, “because without it trust, justice, freedom, community, and stability are probably impossible.”

At the time of that controversy swirling around then-president Bill Clinton, I tried to make several points in my article on character in leadership. First, character really is important. We are right to demand moral character of our leaders and to believe that character is inseparable from credibility. This is especially true, I argued, in a representative democracy.

Secondly, character is rooted in conviction. It was President Harry S. Truman who once remarked: “A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.”

Third, Christians also understand that sin is a fundamental reality we have to take into account when considering character. It is impossible for one who is driven by the Christian biblical worldview to expect moral perfection of anyone, including those who will lead us. That same biblical worldview, however, informs us that character is so central as to be an indispensable guide to making decisions about whom we will trust and how we will vote.

True character and leadership is also demonstrated when a leader responds to his own moral failure in a way that shows true repentance and moral courage. That was especially an issue back during the Clinton crisis when former President Bill Clinton was well known for actually making a tortured moral argument in which he evaded moral responsibility, even saying at one point that it all comes down to what ‘is’ means. In the midst of that controversy, I found myself repeatedly discussing these issues in public, including on news programs. On one particular episode of the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes, I was facing off with a liberal Roman Catholic priest on the question of character and leadership. That priest made the argument that we simply are not to judge, to make moral judgments about any other human being. I pointed out that even as Jesus warns us about hypocrisy in judging, we have to be making moral judgments about human beings all the time. For example, it is impossible to make the straight-faced argument that parents should not be concerned about the moral character of a potential babysitter. I then concluded my argument with these words,

“Americans have retained enough moral sense to know that personal character still matters in the choice of a babysitter. If this is true, we can hardly claim with a straight face that character is irrelevant to those who hold high positions of political leadership. In the end, our concept of character must be filled with specific content if it is to be meaningful. We must press on to think as Christians, refuse to be daunted by the complications, and show that we care about character even between elections.”

I raise that because I now have to wonder where evangelical Christians are going to stand on the issue of character. If the issues seemed to be so clear to evangelicals in the 1990s, how do I explain what appears to be they mixed signals coming from evangelicals in the midst of the 2016 presidential election?

Earlier this week in New York between 900 and 1,000 prominent evangelicals met with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and it was announced by the national media that many of those evangelicals appear to be quite satisfied with what they heard. Additionally, many of them seem to be ready to endorse Trump for the office of President of the United States.

Writing yesterday evening at The Atlantic, Emma Green wrote,

“The ‘90s are back in Trumpland, and the old-guard religious right is making its return. After Trump spoke at a meeting of more than 1,000 evangelicals and some Catholics on Tuesday, his campaign announced his appointment of an ‘evangelical executive advisory board’ to lead a larger ‘Faith and Cultural Advisory Committee.’”

As she said, “The list reads like a who’s who of conservative Christian leaders.”

She also points out, to her credit, that the list hints at tensions over Donald Trump amongst conservative evangelicals. The list is noteworthy, not only because of the names that are on it, but also because of the names that decidedly are not.

In the 2016 presidential race, evangelicals are facing some very hard questions we have not had to face before. We’re looking at a very different political equation in this election than we have ever faced in terms of the lifetimes of those who will be voting in 2016, in particular those evangelicals who can look back at previous election cycles — especially since 1980 — and understand that we have not faced this kind of difficult decision.

Evangelicals looking to the 2016 election in the fall are basically going to be torn between two different directions — one is voting for someone not a major party nominee or on the other hand voting for Donald Trump, with the argument that he is the lesser of two evils in terms of the understanding of the political choices that evangelicals will face. Those who are driven by an affirmation and conviction of the sanctity and dignity of human life cannot vote for a Democratic nominee, whoever that nominee may be, who would be committed to the Democratic Party platform’s call for abortion to be legal under virtually any circumstance. Furthermore, Hillary Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not only made her identification with abortion rights and with Planned Parenthood clear, she has gone further even to demand the public taxpayer funding of abortions.

While that is hardly the only issue, evangelicals should not be embarrassed by the fact that every voter is a single-issue voter on at least some issues. That means there at least some issues every voter understands are absolutely nonnegotiable. Without any apology, I believe the sanctity of human life is absolutely nonnegotiable. But the very fact that someone is pro-life, or claims to be pro-life, is not a sufficient reason to elect that person or to vote for that person over against every other consideration. And when you look at someone like Donald Trump, you’re looking at someone who has made his entire fortune through immoral enterprises such as casino gambling. You’re looking at someone who has bragged about his extramarital affairs even to the point where, in his own words, he has warned husbands that their wives are not sexually safe so long as he is in the room. You’re looking at a major party candidate who has actually framed in his office a cover story from Playboy magazine showing his own face.

I cite that article I wrote during the Clinton crisis to document arguments the importance of sexual morality and character to leadership. I read those words because I want to make certain I am consistent over time and not bending my argument to the political urgency of the moment. If I were to support, much less endorse, Donald Trump for president, I would actually have to go back and apologize to former President Bill Clinton. I would have to admit that my commentary on his scandals was wrong. I don’t believe I was. I don’t believe evangelicals who stood united that time were wrong.

In this difficult political season, evangelicals must not demonize one another as to how we’re thinking through these issues, but I must plead with all evangelicals that we must indeed think through these issues carefully and faithfully, and think very biblically and candidly. We are going to be learning a great deal more about the candidates in weeks and months ahead. But it’s also increasingly true that we’re going to be learning a great deal about ourselves as evangelical Christians in America. Perhaps we had better brace ourselves for what we’re going to learn.

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This essay is drawn from my commentary on the Wednesday, June 22, 2016 edition of The Briefing.