Over the past few months I have been working through some church planting ideas with the Emerging Leadership Initiative. I have been taking part in their online training, Cultivate. If any of you are interested in church planting, I would highly recommend connecting with this group and going through this program.
Throughout the process I have been challenged repeatedly. My call to church planting has been confirmed, but my method has been flipped upside down (in a good way). I could go on and on about how God has used this process in my life, but that would take forever and I don’t feel like typing very much. So, I’ll cut to the chase. During a Webinar this afternoon, the presenter, Eric Bryant, said the following phrase:
“Never choose talent over character.”
This phrase was in response to a participant’s question regarding releasing people into ministry roles. Obviously, I completely agree with this statement, in theory. However, I am still processing it. Writing this brief blog is part of my processing… err… process.
How does this phrase stir you when it comes to ministry and church leadership? I know this blog is primarily for high school students (who are totally welcome to respond), but for any of you previously or currently involved in ministry folks, I’d love to hear from you. At what point is “good character” not quite enough and some talent is needed? Is there a point where the talent is so great that serious character flaws are viewed as areas of possible growth, rather than disqualifying factors?