Mar 20, 2018
Rev. Carl Greene
Hebron SDB Church, PA
I am intrigued by some of the interview questions ascribed to major companies. For instance, an interview at Whole Foods Market might entail this question: “Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?” Keep thinking about that one while you consider a question that might be posed in a Trader Joe’s interview: “What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?”
Awesome questions. It is fascinating to consider how I might answer these questions. Even more, I wonder, why on earth are they asking these questions? How do these questions help frame the suitability of someone for employment?
Let’s apply that to the church. What questions are we asking of people whom we are selecting for leadership roles, teaching roles, and service roles? It is tremendously dangerous if the only question that we ask is: “Are you willing?” That means that our main criteria for filling positions in our church is if a person is warm and with a pulse. It would seem as though we should be asking a whole lot more of people than a willingness to fill a slot. We need to be looking at the qualifications of Ephesians 4: Character, Competence, and Chalk.
CHARACTER
Ephesians Chapter 4 presents how we have unity in the body of Christ. The first piece of making that happen is that each part of the body exhibits character.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in
a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been
called with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:1-2, ESV)
Walk. Based on verse one, our character should be defined by our walk. This concept of a defining walk was brought
to life for me by my friend Bill. I remember sitting with Bill in front of the nursing home he resided in when we saw someone on the other side of the parking lot get out of his vehicle. (Watching traffic and pedestrians was a favorite pastime of ours on sunny afternoons.) Bill was 95 years old while I was well under half his age, so I had certain eyesight advantages. Yet, Bill would inevitably beat me to identifying the person. I pride myself on identifying people—but Bill could pick someone out before I could start to adjust my eyes on him. Because Bill had a secret.
I would be looking for specific features of the person’s face or hair color, but Bill would watch the walk. While I could not see the shape of his nose from the other side of the parking lot, Bill clearly discerned whose “walk” was crossing the parking lot. See the connection with Ephesians 4:1-2? Character is not simply picking out a certain number of individual traits that can be seen in someone’s life, but it is seeing how those traits come together. The “walk” of a person’s character is his humility, his gentleness and patience, as well as his bearing with one another in love.
Notice that this walk cannot be an act. With time, our walk betrays who we truly are. We know this, but how often do we try to cover up a character issue for others, or especially ourselves? When I have not been particularly gentle in how I interacted with a family member, do I make excuses of why that was not truly my walk? Our excuses can sound something like this: “I am sorry for that, but I am tired, I am stressed, you know I have a short fuse…or I have chronic halitosis, or perhaps I have hairy hobbit toes.” Some excuses are better than others. Our walk is our walk—excuses serve no other purpose than to cover up areas in our lives that we are not living according to Christ’s call on our lives.
Unity. There is one more piece to the “walk” of character. Ephesians 4:3 states: “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Notice two things about this verse: 1) We maintain not create unity, and 2) How we walk with others matters. Unity flows from Who the Trinitarian God is, as described in verses 4-6 of Ephesians 4. The measure of unity is not what a person creates, but how a person contributes to the maintenance of unity. The other piece to that is realizing that character is not just my individual walk, but how I interact with others. This deepens the consideration of someone for a role within the church. Not only is the question about his individual walk—but we must also ask how he interacts with others. If someone is dripping with talent and individual qualities, yet lacks the emotional intelligence and empathy to be a team player, there is a growth area that requires attention prior to being placed in a position.
Are we, as a church, asking about someone’s walk?
COMPETENCE
While character is a prerequisite, competence plays a significant role in the interview process that we are discussing. There is something to intentionally developing our skills, talents, and abilities to be better prepared for places of leadership, teaching, and service. This brings me back to the old adage my mother told me often: practice makes perfect. This “practice makes perfect” phrase was shared often when it came to bike riding. But, my mother lied.
During my formative bike riding days, despite practicing for many weeks, I still wiped out in a patch of wet leaves which provided me with two very skinless elbows. After even more weeks of practice, I lost the brakes on my bike while riding down a steep hill. I was approaching an intersection at the bottom of the hill with no way to stop, so I attempted an ingenious solution—a bicycle water landing in the nearby pond. Sadly, rather than getting the bike to the water I put the bike into a ditch and experienced an amazing over-the-handlebars experience.
Perfection versus Mastery. Practice makes perfect? Not so much for me. Yet, the phrase “practice makes perfect” has been traced by some phrase enthusiasts to the 1560’s saying: “use makes mastery.” I really like that concept of use makes mastery. The more I use gifts, talents, and abilities, there might not be perfection, but there will be increased mastery.
Notice how this fits with Ephesians 4:7—“But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Our skills, talents, and abilities are not ours to perfect, but are actually gifts for us to master. You and I are called to steward the gifts God has given us. Yet, do we live like this?
Looking at this from another direction, how would you respond if I called you and asked if I could borrow your car for the weekend? Most likely, even if you know me, you would want to verify my purpose before lending me your car. This makes perfect sense. What about when it comes to our gifts, talents, and abilities—do we figuratively see them as the car we are borrowing from God—or do we simply assume ownership of our skills? A measure of competence is not simply the raw ability, but Who we are serving with that competence. If our use of skills is simply self-serving, we are clearly outside of God’s intent.
Purpose. Here is a way to monitor movement away from the self-serving use of our God-given skills. The intent of our stewarded abilities is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (v. 12). This means that the people living out their stewarded giftings in verse 11 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers) should not simply be getting work done, but intentionally raising up emerging leaders. A measure of my competence is whether or not I am facilitating the growth of other leaders. Two questions help with this reflection. 1) Do I invest in people or only in the task that needs to get done? 2) Do I invite others to invest in me? We know the right answer to the first question. The second question might be a good check on our honesty, though. If I am not inviting others to invest in me, I clearly do not value the leadership development process in my own life. With that lack of value, is it really reasonable to think that I am investing in others? If you do not have an intentional mentor speaking into your life, this probably is not only stunting your own growth, but enabling a habit of not valuing the investment in others’ lives as well.
One of my favorite illustrations is to eat while standing on my head. This 10th grade biology lesson about peristalsis speaks volumes to me. Food goes to its appointed place even though I am upside down and eating a granola bar. Amazing! Yet, ridiculous. When I can eat right side up, why would I choose an uncomfortable and potentially hazardous method of eating?
When it comes to competence, we need to ask similar questions. Just because someone possesses masterful competence, what is the purpose? If the purpose is only
to get a task done, it is like eating upside down. Yes, it worked, but it was well short of what it could have been. On the other hand, if competence is utilized to get a task done while concurrently developing emerging leaders, purposeful competence is exhibited.
Key church interview questions involve the walk and unity of character, the equipping and building up of competence, and finally…the chalk line. Onward to the chalk line in the next article.
