When The Church’s Moral Leadership Compass Is Broken

By A. Abeku Haywood-Dadzie

“........ But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless -Mathew 5v13

From the days of the great struggle for authority and autonomy between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany, to the battle for supremacy and sovereignty between Pope Clement VII and King Henry VIII of England, which led to the excommunication of King Henry VIII from the Catholic Church, and the subsequent formation of the Anglican Church. 

The Church as an institution was the salt and light for moral society and served as the moral compass for nations, so it enjoyed immense political power. However, between then and now, there has been an avalanche of change in the state of the church, with the influence and power of the church declining and eroding each day, mainly because of leadership challenges. This distrust in the leadership of the church led to a distrust of religion. So, though the congregation wants religion, they are dissatisfied with their religious leaders. "Thousands of European churches are transformed into mosques, bars, pizzerias, or warehouses for a lack of worshipers." Thousands of churches face closure, demolition, or conversion in the next decade unless God intervenes.

Ironically, in a world where societies have lost their moral mooring and purity has become obsolete, what is desperately needed is a moral compass, one that points to purity rather than manipulation and defilement. Today, it has become more crucial for the church to instil a solid moral compass into the hearts of its congregation. According to Benjamin Wiker "Society needs the Church to draw moral lines faster than those who are erasing them, and so cure confusion with clarity." The Church’s claim, and rightfully so, is that she is in possession of the moral compass, one that is constructed according to the laws of our nature, and one that is immeasurably enhanced in its precision by the upgrades of revelation, one that is accurate no matter how far we sinful humans wander from the right course."

But the challenge is that the church that is supposed to guide the moral compass with its blood is losing the battle. Its moral compass is so broken, there seems to be no hope for repair and hence credible challenges. So, then the question is, how do we reset the moral compass of the church from time to time for the church to direct the world? How do we fix the church whose moral authority is so severely damaged that it cannot fix the world?

I once asked what made a nation that has its motto "In God We Trust" succeed in removing God from the essence of its society. What made a nation whose pledge of allegiance has "One Nation Under God," take the bible out of public schools and public discourse, and placed it in its correctional facilities and yet surprised when there is a long queue to the correctional facilities. Maybe they forgot the saying by Pascal: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ." 

But the answers to my earlier questions are not farfetched; they can be found in the same bible and the state of the church in my own country. Besides, the truth of the matter is that the leadership challenge of the church did not begin today. Isaiah, while communicating to the leadership of the church, once said in Isaiah 56v10-12

My "watchmen" cannot see anything. They do not know anything. They are all like dogs that can not make a noise. They can not make the noise that dogs usually make. They lie about and they dream. They like to sleep. They are like dogs that like to eat a lot. And they never have enough. They are like sheep who do not understand anything. They all turn to doing what they want. Everybody tries to get what he can for himself. They shout, ‘Come! We must get wine! We must drink as much beer as we can! And tomorrow will be like today. It might be much better! " 

The greatest threat to the church today is not false religion, but compromise. Like the boiling frog fable, the church is being slowly boiled alive and losing its moral compass. The premise is that if a church, like a frog, is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out; but if the frog is put in tepid water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. This is the situation of the church today. It keeps compromising. 

Compromise with the world brings disastrous consequences for the church and usually, results in the church failing to guide its moral compass. When it comes to leadership, how leaders deal with challenges and controversies says a lot about their character. To paraphrase the words of one of the greatest leadership coaches of all time, John Maxwell, challenge and controversy are the crossroads that make leaders choose one of two paths, character or compromise. Every time leaders choose character, they become stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences and makes them unpopular. On the other hand, every time they choose compromise, they become less assertive and, though their choice may be popular with the congregation in the short term, in the long term, these leaders have their names blotted out of the leadership hall of fame.

Again, when it comes to the church, a leader’s value proposition can be measured by how the leader strives to fulfil purity. The actions and behaviours of a leader are crucial in building a moral environment. Right-living is at the heart of leadership in the church. In that leaders in the church are role models, they influence the values of their congregation, society, nations, and the world at large. Leaders who want their congregation to live right must set examples for them by living right. These examples will enhance their credibility and integrity and ensure that such behaviours are exhibited among the congregation. It is imperative for leaders to lead by emulating Christ.

Where there are inconsistencies between what leaders say and what they do, "dissonance" is created, and this leads to the creation of a culture known as "do as I say but not as I do" within the congregation. Besides, leaders must not only preach about purity but must be seen to be practising what they preach. They should be trusted to do what they promised, since choosing what is right, regardless of the consequence, is the hallmark of a leader. 

Most Leaders do not appreciate the fact that they influence many others beyond themselves, thousands of these leaders who had failed in their personal lives have indirectly ruined and damaged the lives of some of their congregation because they failed to live up to their expectations. It’s essential to note that leadership is all about values, and therefore it is impossible to be a good leader if you lack personal values. It is said that leaders who fail morally do not lead anyone to a better place. The higher the leader goes, the deeper his character must develop. The larger the outward privilege, the larger the inward character must be. "Character represents the inner life of a leader."

Added to this It is important to note that leaders must always separate their personal lives from their professional lives. However, at certain levels in church leadership, it becomes impossible for leaders to separate the two, the two become entwined and enmeshed. It will be OK for them to draw a healthy boundary between the two. However, sometimes these boundaries become blurred and inconspicuous. The conclusion is that at certain levels of leadership, the leader must accept the fact that it’s impossible to separate their professional lives from their personal lives.

 So what is my conclusion? After a lot of self-introspection and "thinking myself away" from my routine at the church to engage in this analysis of leadership in the church, I have come to the firm conclusion that, regardless of one's cultural background and religious affiliation, Jesus Christ is the greatest inspirational leader who walked on the face of the earth. As it has been said countless times, you don't have to be a Christian to learn leadership lessons from His inspirational leadership style. Despite being executed as a criminal with two other criminals, the famous Carpenter from Nazareth managed to start a faith that now has more than two billion followers on the surface of this earth, has lasted over 2,000 years, and will continue till eternity. 

Today, the attitudes and behaviours of leaders in the church leave people confused and deceived because today's Christianity bears no resemblance to Jesus Christ. However, though the church may be losing the direction of its moral compass with each passing day, the foundation of the church is sure. Its compass may drift with the storms of life, "When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain" but the church has an anchor on which its compass is grounded. This compass is "fastened to the rock which cannot be moved". Though its leaders may waver while the billows roll, The master will reset the compass.