“Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News! If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust. What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News."

“Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.”

A continuation concerning the Three Big C’s of Paul’s philosophy of leadership. Last week we looked at competency.

How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News! If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust.

Character—Paul realized that leadership was not only a matter of being competent, but also required moral fiber and moral fiber is never developed on a high sugar and fatty cakes diet. It requires some mixed greens and stone-milled flax seed. If you haven’t guessed, every day I mix a concoction of flax meal, seaweed and vegetable greens into some water. I am now used to the taste but it did take some getting used to. The reason I abuse my palate is simple: I want to make sure my body is getting plenty of fiber and nutritious greens. Moral fiber is the same way. It is a mixture of different qualities that give you the moral texture necessary to avoid temptation and neglect in your life.

I have found character to be based on three heart qualities. First, the quality of honor. If a person is going to have character, they must possess an honor for the one who they serve. Basic humility is simply the result of honoring another enough to allow them to speak into your life, telling and showing you why it needs to be done and how to do it. A person who is always proving himself or herself is a poor son or daughter, and will become a poor parent.

Everything worth doing is worth being showed how to do it by someone who has already mastered it, such as a parent. Let a parent do what a parent does best. Birth their best in your life. Honor that parent until you are humble enough to become dependent upon them to learn what needs to be learned to master the subject.

Second, character is the quality of personal responsibility. In a world of blame shifters, it is essential that people define and claim what is their responsibility. So many people blame their bosses, others blame their past, religious people blame God, people who have just failed blame all who could possibly be at fault, the husband blames the wife and the wife the husband, and everyone blames the dog, the government and the person who just cut them off. We must give it a rest. Character is taking responsibility to do what is necessary within the will and under the power of God to win.

Lastly, character is the quality of self-discipline. Listen to Paul, “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.” He recognizes that life is not measured by one moment of sacrifice, but a lifetime of disciplining one’s body and soul to follow Christ.

The second and crucial leadership philosophy of Christ is character. Simply put, character is honor, personal responsibility and self-discipline.