One of the cool things about the leadership track that I’m serving at right now is the breadth and exposure we’re getting to so many quality leaders and insights. Late last week we heard from Marc Rutter, the national director in the campus ministry of Human Resources and Leadership Development. He gave a talk on “Leaders at Risk”. I’ve heard it at least twice before, but it is a sobering message to be reminded of how so many leaders have been derailed in their ministries because of character issues. His talk came as a result of a joint study of fallen leaders between him, Dr. Henry Cloud, and others. They identified 6 main profiles of ministry leaders who were at risk for some sort of major moral failure (sexual, moral…).

They are as follows with some rough notes I made describing each one:

1. Narcissistic Star Who Rises: selfish, gifted, talented, idealized by others because of gifting, successful so ministry becomes their measure, go all bad if confronted on character issues, success is more important that
2. Narcissistic Star Who Doesn’t Rise: selfish, not coachable, see themselves as not needing to learn and grow, like 1 they tend to fall in moral area
3. No Boundaries Person: put things at risk because they don’t say no to themselves and others
4. Floaters: don’t do bad things, they don’t do much at all, gravitate to place of low accountability, itinerate complainers; look for a lateral move if someone moves in; allergic to authority
5. Irresponsible Person: just don’t do any work and aren’t productive;
6. Authority Problem: out to do destructive things to ministry, black and white thinkers, they’re never wrong

I would say all of us can either relate to one of these profiles in some way or know some one who does. It really reemphasized the importance to me of doing the hard work of character formation in our relationships with the Lord so that our scope of ministry does not outgrow our walks with the Lord.

If you want more info on leaders at risk or are intrigued let me know and I can send you more of my notes from that time.

Tagged as: Character, Development, leadership