The Character of Moral Ministry

In the foundation of a good pastor’s character, we will always find humility.

NAD Ministerial has identified moral character as one of the seven core qualities of an Adventist minister. But character stands above the rest because, as I believe many of us would attest, we would rather work with a pastor of good character and poor competence than the reverse. Incompetence can be eliminated by training or mitigated by delegation relatively quickly, but character deficiencies are part of who a person is regardless of what they happen to be doing and are not easily overcome. We cannot delegate our moral decisions to anyone but the Holy Spirit, and that is the essence of character transformation, at least according to Steps to Christ, p. 47.

So moral character is the cardinal quality of a pastor, meaning that it is the quality that integrates the others into a coherent whole (negotiating the tensions between them) and without which the rest cease to be of good quality. Here I am borrowing the notion of a cardinal quality from the idea of a cardinal virtue. A cardinal virtue is a moral characteristic that regulates other character virtues.

For Aristotle, the foremost cardinal virtue was prudence because, among other things, prudence helps us to find the virtuous middle between the vicious extremes. For example, a timid pastor who sees all too clearly the damage church conflict can cause and avoids it at all costs will eventually have their ministry ruined when faced with a conflict no one else in the church can confront for them. On the other hand, a rash pastor loves the excitement, if not the potential for transformative change that conflicts bring and will eventually have their ministry ruined when they rush into one unnecessary confrontation or controversy too many. A brave pastor is not afraid of conflict but carefully appraises the stakes and approaches it with caution. Prudence is the virtue that helps us judge whether the juice is worth the squeeze.

While there is much more we can learn from Aristotle in this regard, his outlook on character is limited for the Christian, as Augustine saw. For Augustine, the Christian needs similar virtues to the pagan, but they begin at a different starting point and are directed toward a different end. Christian virtues aim at the love of God—experienced and expressed—and begin, above all, with humility. Augustine wrote, “In that way [of piety] the first part is humility; the second, humility; the third, humility: and this I would continue to repeat as often as you might ask direction, not that there are no other instructions which may be given, but because, unless humility precede . . . pride wrests wholly from our hand any good work on which we are congratulating ourselves” (Epistle 118.3 [22]).

Pastors typically sense that we are called of God to our work. We receive recognition for our work when we do it decently well. And we have a great deal of independence in how we organize our work. These and other factors beyond our control tend to inculcate a sense of pride whether we want it or not, so much so that the arrogant or narcissistic pastor has become somewhat of a trope not only in church life but in popular culture.

I submit, then, that in the foundation of a good pastor’s character, we will always find humility. And if you are not sure whether you are humble, humble yourself enough to ask someone you know well and give them permission to give you a straight answer. If that sounds too difficult, you may need to give that choice over to the Holy Spirit.

David Hamstra is Lead Pastor of the Edmonton Central Seventh-day Adventist Church and Managing Editor of Best Practices for Adventist Ministry.