KidMin Leadership: Personal Godliness (Paul)

Paul is widely recognized as one of the founders of the Christian movement.

His influence as a leader has been felt over the centuries until this day. His leadership as a missionary, church planter, pastor, and theologian has given him enormous influence among the people of God.

His writings (comprising the bulk of the New Testament) have influenced millions of people towards God’s purposes for them. It is no surprise that Paul’s leadership was built upon a foundation of personal godliness.

We see this most clearly in Paul’s work with churches in Asia Minor and the writings associated with his ministry. His commitment to personal godliness was evident in his church planting and pastoral ministry.

Specifically, his life of personal godliness was an essential element in calling Christ followers to follow the model, pattern, and example that he set.

We will look at a few examples to see how personal godliness was foundational to Paul.

Do What I Do

Our modern society separates teaching, policy, and opinion from lifestyle, morality, and virtue.

During the heated character debates of the 1990s in the United States, one successful politician famously said “It’s about the economy, stupid.”

In other words, moral living and virtue are not important. Priority should be given to economics, financial policy, and pragmatic monetary issues affecting everyday voters. No one should care about virtue or godliness. Character wasn’t important.

Many Christian leaders have unintentionally embraced this kind of pragmatic leadership approach. Some of our most famous Christian leaders are revered for their communication skills and their ability to teach with power, conviction, and insight.

Humor and effective storytelling are also high on the list. These leaders are gifted in casting ministry vision in compelling ways and attracting people and financial resources.

While character, family life, and moral virtue may be present they are not the first qualities mentioned by their admiring followers.

In some cases that I have observed both outside of the pulpit and away from the masses, they can exhibit qualities that can only be described as megalomaniacal.

Personal godliness is not a primary issue which may be why so many American Christian leaders fall in moral failure.

While it pains me to write that, it seems clear that this problem pervades the Church all the way down to the children’s ministry. Having been involved in children’s ministry for over forty years, I have had the honor and joy to work with children’s ministry workers all over the world.

In most cases, on Sunday morning (or Friday in the Middle East), those workers are consumed with lesson plans, creativity, games, child safety security, and fun. These are vital and important.

However, it is the rare children’s worker who steps into a room full of children believing that their greatest ministry resource is personal godliness.

I know this to be true in my own life. I suspect that it is not much different in youth groups, Bible studies, women’s ministry, and the church choir.

Paul's View of Personal Godliness

This could not be further from the approach of the Apostle Paul, who viewed personal godliness as foundational to effective and godly leadership.

We will examine several examples beginning with his writings to the Corinthians.

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. (1 Corinthians 4:14-17 NIV)

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV)

In both passages, one at the beginning of the letter and the other in the main body, Paul refers to “imitate me” (1:16) and following Paul’s “example” (11:1).

Having founded the Church, Paul has a unique platform for influencing the congregations in Corinth. This is necessary, as the Church has strayed and embraced several practices that Paul finds objectionable.

These include idolizing leaders (1:10-17), celebrating immorality (5:1-13), suing other Christians in the secular courts (6:1-12), sexual immorality (6:12-20), and defiling the LORD’s supper (11:17-34)—to name a few.

Paul deals with each of these and other issues in turn with teaching, exhortation, and admonition. However, there are also sprinkled in critical instructions to the Church, illustrating Paul’s own commitment to personal godliness. In both passages, he urges the Corinthians to follow his example; to imitate his way of life.

For Paul, one of the great means of influence as a leader was personal godliness. Do not only what I say, but also what I do. This is evident elsewhere in his writings.

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. (Philippians. 3:17 NIV)

As in the Corinthian letter, he takes the same tack in reminding the Philippians to follow his example. He urges the Church to look at his life as a kind of role model for Christian living.

Certainly, Paul wasn’t sinless, but he did have the confidence to urge his followers to follow the example of his life. We know from his writings that his life was dedicated to Christlikeness, and he was simply urging the Philippians to follow him in that pursuit.

For Paul, “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20) included being an example of that which you teach.

Paul goes one step further by urging other leaders in the Church to take that leadership role. By instructing the Philippians to “keep your eyes on those who live as I do,” he is reminding the Church of the need for, and the presence of, leaders committed to personal godliness.

Not only did Paul see personal godliness as a key to his own leadership, but it was also a wider principle for all Christian leaders. This is evident in his writings to the churches in Thessalonica.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. (2 Thessalonians 3:6-8 NIV)

Work Ethic

The Church was struggling with idleness and what we might call a lack of work ethic. This was apparently due to the expectation of the imminent return of Christ.

As a result, some in the Church had taken an attitude of idleness awaiting the LORD’s return and making themselves as we would say today “so heavenly minded they were no earthly good.”

This in turn led to the idle members of the congregation seeking food and sustenance from others. This created a burden and community tension.

It was also a poor witness to the large secular community which would have viewed some Christians as being “freeloaders.” In the churches, people were advocating this thinking and practicing it themselves.

Paul corrects that mistake in teaching and reminds the Thessalonians that Paul and his team did not live that way. He correlates the teaching with his own lifestyle.

Paul acknowledges the role of modeling by entreating them to not follow a bad example. Rather, he reminded them that he and his team worked, paid their own way, and were not a burden to the Christian community.

My point is not the issue of idleness, but rather the importance of modeling personal godliness as a Christian leader.

Paul built a foundation of personal godliness in his own leadership life and saw it as crucial for other Christian leaders.

The Golden Goose

One of the themes of Israel’s monarchy as articulated in the Old Testament is that as the King goes, so goes Israel.

Personal godliness in Kings like Hezekiah and Josiah for example leads to renewal in Israel. Ungodliness in Kings such as Jeroboam and Ahaz brought disaster upon Israel. The spiritual life of God’s people was linked to the spiritual life of the leader.

Aesop’s fable, The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, communicates this idea clearly.

One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich, he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find nothing.

In this famous fable, the ministry work of a leader is in a spiritual sense akin to the “golden egg.” It is treasured and precious to the leader and to God. What the goose needed to continue to produce “golden eggs,” is what a leader needs to continue to serve God faithfully and fruitfully.

The leader needs spiritual food through a life-giving relationship with God. The fruitfulness of ministry is directly linked to the personal godliness of the leader. When the leader fails, falls, and fades, there will be no more “golden eggs” of ministry.

Effective leaders build a foundation of personal godliness.

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