Respectable Leaders
Qualifications of Elders: Part VIII
The claim of being a Christian should be a guarantee of honesty and integrity in business matters. Unfortunately, it is easy to claim to be a Christian when you aren’t. Christians look just lie everyone else so how are you to tell if the person you are doing business with is truly saved? Is a fish symbol on their sign or business card enough? Does the scripture verse quoted in their marketing materials prove they run their business on Christian principles? In my experience picking a business or service by symbols or scriptures seldom works well. Those claiming to be Christians are not necessarily telling the truth while those who are do not always follow Christian principles in their business.
I mentioned this to a Christian attorney and he responded that whenever their practice received correspondence from a business with an IXTHYS fish or scripture on the letterhead, their policy was to insist on payment-in-full before any service is rendered. The reason? In his experience, those were the people hardest to collect from. Many people out there are shocked that this is so. Many may feel that my friend is just cynical. I experienced this while working for a Christian radio station. Of the people who bought advertising the ones hardest to collect from were the churches and ministries. They expected us to be Christian and forgive their debts, while they ignored biblical principles to pay what one owes.
Like most of the qualifications for leaders, respectability and honesty should describe all Christians, but the potential leader is to epitomize the command. Scripture tells us that a leader is to have a good reputation among outsiders, to be respectable, to not be a lover of money or one seeking dishonest gain. All of these are related. The leader is to be one to emulate, inspiring respect in others, in his family life, church life and business life. This respect and reputation is not just among God’s people but he is to be one who lives his life in such a way and conducts his business in such a way that those outside of the church see his faith in his actions. Such a leader does not differentiate between business and faith. The leader of Christ’s church understands that Christian principles can not be laid aside when they get in the way of profit.
How can this be examined in the potential leader? Ask questions of the candidates family, business partners and employees. A man who is living his life according to the Word should not mind such investigation, especially if he has an honest concern for the church. If we do this with politicians shouldn’t we expect this with those who would lead Christ’s church? Many churches today have started checking the background of staff. This has come about to protect children from pedophiles. While this is good and seems novel, it is scriptural to ensure leaders of Christ’s church—elders, deacons et al.—are actually living in line with their profession of faith.
