The Table Briefing: Leading With Courage And Compassion

By Darrell L. Bock and Mikel Del Rosario

[Darrell L. Bock is senior research professor in New Testament studies and executive director for cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Mikel Del Rosario is a doctoral student in New Testament studies, project manager for cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary, and adjunct professor of Christian apologetics and world religion at William Jessup University, Rocklin, California.]

Being a Christian leader is not easy. Every day brings challenges, tough questions, and hard decisions. With multiple perspectives just a click or tap away, many people in our communities are confused about spiritual things and are exposed to more questions about God, Jesus, and the Bible than ever before. At the same time, the cultures in which we minister are rapidly changing with demographic shifts across America. Add to this the polarization we see, even in the church, and it becomes clear that Christian leaders are facing challenging times. What qualities must a leader have to minister well today?

Knowing that leaders are concerned about our shifting times has led us at the Hendricks Center to focus on what effective cultural engagement requires for Christian leaders. Over the past decade of ministry, we have discovered five qualities that are vital for leaders ministering in rapidly shifting times: comprehension, compassion, courage, character, and competence.

On an episode of The Table Podcast called “Leading with Courage and Compassion,” we talked about these things with Bill Hendricks, executive director for leadership at the Hendricks Center. This article highlights key points of our conversations, both on and off the air.

Comprehension

First, Christian leaders must develop an understanding of Scripture and of the cultures in which they serve. People need ministers who can bring the whole counsel of the Scriptures to bear on current issues. While many Christian schools, universities, and seminaries prepare students to study the Bible and apply it to daily life, we must equip students to work in an additional way—beginning with real-life circumstances and moving back to the Bible. We speak of cultures because culture is not a monolith but is made up of several parts, some of which rub against each other. Bock uses an illustration from the world of sports to explain.

Bock: Leaders need to understand both Scripture and the culture around them, to “switch hit,” to be able to move in either direction—to “read and react.” Football fans know exactly what I’m talking about. When you hand the ball off to a runner, and he’s in the sweep play, and the linemen are pulling out in front, the play is drawn to have a hole in a certain place. As the runner is coming to the sideline and deciding when he’s going to make his cut up the field, he’s got to “read and react” both to the way the linemen are configured and the way the defense is coming at him. He also needs to anticipate where that hole is going to be by the time he gets there.

All the skills pictured in that metaphor are the skills of the leader who’s able to “read and react”—both knowing what he’s carrying on the one hand (i.e., what Scripture has to say) and how to cut through life in the midst of it all.

So this comprehension is twofold: Understanding Scripture and understanding the culture, which has tended to take a lesser position, and yet it’s very important as well.

Another metaphor is the ability to “switch hit”—the ability to go from life to the Bible or life back to the Bible. To be able to go both ways is important in being a leader and in knowing how to discern what needs to be done in difficult circumstances.

Del Rosario: So you can go from “Today’s lesson is from John 1, ” and then exegete that for people, but you can also help someone who says, “I’m having trouble with my marriage,” or “I’m having trouble responding to this person at work,” and “How can the Scriptures help inform what I’m going through and how I can respond?”

Bock: Exactly right.

This comprehension goes beyond reading single passages on certain topics and continues to engage all of Scripture at a canonical level. Awareness of the various angles Scripture gives to a topic and of the array of relevant texts enables a leader to pull together into a coherent scriptural whole all the sacred text says about a topic. This does not involve playing texts against each other, but instead being aware of their scope and relationship to each other. It prevents a cherry picking of texts that can produce an imbalance.

Knowing the importance of understanding cultures, Bill Hendricks brings up worldview differences:

Hendricks: Many times we’re dealing with people who are coming from an altogether different worldview. If our approach is just to say, “Well, the Bible says X,” if they don’t believe the Bible, they may think it’s as relevant as Aesop’s Fables. You know? The conversation may be over at that point.

Bock: There’s what’s going on in the culture, and there’s what the Bible says. Often those two things are in conflict. You know, we live in a fallen world. So our world is full of tension, and oftentimes those tensions are between what the Bible aspires for people to be and the way they actually live.

At the relational level you’re left asking, “How do I actually relate to someone who’s coming from a very different place than I am?” Is it strictly going to be a confrontation? What is that going to achieve? Or could it be a combination of challenge and invitation?

I’m going to challenge them with the way Scripture calls people to live, but it’s always with an invitation to step into what’s possible from God’s hand and through God’s grace. At the relational level, I need always to be wrestling with those two elements side by side so that I don’t back off my convictions, on the one hand, and I’m actually engaged in the conversation with a willingness to learn and to hear what’s being said, on the other hand. At the same time, I’m also extending an invitation that says, “There might be a better way to live. There might be a more profitable way to do things than the way we are right now.” To lead well, leaders need to lead not just in what they think and what they see but also how they relate to the people that they lead.

Del Rosario: So we have Scripture that we need to understand. We have cultures that we live in—or subcultures that we live in too. Maybe we have to manage a couple of different things.

Bock: Yeah, that’s an important point. There’s more than one culture that we’re floating around, and we’re always dealing with hybrids to one degree or another.

Compassion

Second, Christian leaders need compassion and empathy. As James wrote, we must be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger” (1:19). Part of this means developing good listening skills. Putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes gives us a better perspective and can help inform our response. Further, it gives us the potential for discovering common ground that may exist for drawing people into appreciation for the gospel or for the way God calls people to live. Bock shares three things leaders must be able to do when engaging in difficult conversations.

Bock: The first thing to do is be a good listener. The next thing is to get a spiritual GPS on someone. You need to get to know people well enough to see what drives them. What are they interested in? What are they invested in? What influences have impacted them? The other thing to do is to put your doctrinal, theological, and identity meters on mute.

Now that’s said very carefully. I’m not saying, “Turn them off.” You’re not going to be able to do that, nor should you. You should pay attention to what you’re hearing. Instead, our tendency, when we hear something that’s doctrinally off is to think, “I’ve got to respond immediately.” We immediately go into rebuttal mode.

When you put rebuttals on mute and you just try to figure out GPS, you’re trying to figure out where people are located. We’re assuming here that we’re talking about long-term relationships. You’re going to get a chance, down the road, to bring up the stuff that you hear. But initially you want to understand what drives this person and what makes them tick. That’s part of compassion.

Another important part to realize is that the attempt to understand someone doesn’t equal agreement, nor does it equal defection because you’re compromising on anything. You’re trying to get to know the person. And really, before you can do a good assessment of someone, the better you understand them, the more likely your assessment is to be on target. We’re talking about something that’s almost a requirement relationally in order to interact well. Particularly in areas of conflict, it’s important that you at least know what you’re disagreeing about.

When you both say, “Yep, that’s exactly what we disagree about; now, let’s talk about it,” you’re in a much better place than what often happens in these conversations, particularly when they’re debates. You end up talking past one another, and you really aren’t touching the issue that you disagree about.

Del Rosario: It’s so important to develop that empathy, that understanding of the other person rather than feeling like, “They said something I disagree with; now I have to defend the entire contents of the Christian worldview because they have a different view than I do on this particular topic.”

Bock: Right.

Although the gospel challenges people’s perspectives and lifestyles, a person is more likely to receive our critique when they know that we respect them, care to understand them, and ultimately have their best interests in mind. All this takes compassion and patience while working relationally with someone who may see Christianity differently than we do. This brings to mind the ethos of loving your neighbor as yourself—part of what Jesus called the Great Commandment (Matt 22:39–40; Mark 12:31).

Courage

Third, Christian leaders need the courage to hold to biblical convictions. Doing so can feel like going against the flow of popular culture, since Scripture often challenges the way people live. As such, confrontation and difficult conversations are inevitable in ministry. We discuss the need to engage, despite the tendency to withdraw.

Bock: Leaders need the courage to walk into difficult places and spaces. Some reactions are easy. I can react against something and push back or stiff-arm what’s going on. I can withdraw and say, “I don’t want anything to do with that. That’s too complicated; I’m not going there.” In many situations in the church, that’s probably the default category. We just stay out of it.

Hendricks: We say, “I don’t want to rock the boat.”

Bock: Yes, and, “I want as much peace as possible.” Meanwhile, this stuff is simmering underneath and eating away at your community if you don’t deal with it.

A different way is to have the courage to step forward and step in, ideally with some comprehension of what’s going on and with enough compassion that when you step in, you have something to offer. In the midst of offering it, you’re not only modeling something about how to deal with it, but you’re helping people get their hands and heads around what’s going on and what to do.

Del Rosario: I’m hearing us put these things together: courage and compassion. So you can have your convictions on one hand—you don’t let go of those convictions—and you are charitable and winsome in your discussions.

Bock: Exactly right. You behave in a way that causes people to reflect. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to not make a statement but to ask a question or to make an observation designed to give the opportunity to pause and think through what’s going on.

I come back to Acts 17. After Paul initially commends his audience for their openness to spirituality, he talks about what their connection to idolatry means. He’s hoping to give them pause by saying, “Do you really think you can confine the Creator God to a building?”

Paul understood, when he was introduced at Mars Hill, that they viewed him as a cultural curiosity. They described him as a seed picker. That’s like a little bird that flits from this, to this, to this, to this. And the suggestion was that Paul’s message was a mile wide and an inch deep.

But he had the courage to address them honestly and directly and try to serve them, despite their attitude, as he engaged them. That takes courage. That involves risk. The key is having enough security in your identity in the Lord to be able to take the pushback that will come from stepping into that space. A good leader understands that it takes a particular fortitude because people are yelling against you as you’re doing what you’re doing.

A leader needs courage to stand for what is right. But he or she also needs to be able to explain that stand and demonstrate it with compassion. Paul wrote, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim 1:5). As leaders, we need comprehension, compassion, and courage working together in all areas of our lives—including our vocations. Hendricks explains:

Hendricks: People bring all of who they are to work. Henry Ford said, “When you hire a hand, the whole body shows up.” That’s so true. The person brings all their challenges, all their problems, all the relational things they’re going through, all their hopes and dreams. They bring all of that to work.

So we need to see people as whole persons and begin to care about “Where is their life going?” As Christians, we’re concerned about that bigger thing of “Where’s their eternal destiny going?” And we need to bring Christ to them not just by hammering on them to repent and turn. The gospel certainly needs to be shared, but it needs to be shared not just for eternity, but for right now.

The values of our King that Darrell mentioned are an attractive set. Life goes better when we treat people as we would want to be treated. We show them patience, and we show them kindness, and we show them compassion.

Character

Fourth, Christian leaders must be people of character. This means intentionally developing the kind of spiritually grounded life that reflects God’s power and presence. Consider the relational fruit the Holy Spirit produces in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22–23). Bock explains:

Bock: The character that we’re talking about is the character that images the presence and power of God. The fruit of the Spirit is very relational. We’re talking about authenticity, integrity, genuineness—a person who has nothing to hide. We need the Spirit of God to have this character; it’s not something instinctive.

Hendricks: This is why the spiritual formation piece is so important and doesn’t just happen. We must intentionally meet with God on a daily, if not hourly, basis to bring ourselves back before God and try to hear God’s voice and understand his Word and be in his presence so that his Spirit begins to change our character, transform our inner person because everything goes from the inside out. And that happens over time.

Too often people may be Christians, but functionally speaking, they’re pure secularists when they go to work, in that they leave God at home. And they need to bring him with them.

I need to be praying over the task in front of me, about the people around me, about the meeting I’m getting ready to go into. I need to be talking with God about the decision I’m getting ready to make and invite his presence and power to demonstrate themselves in those moments. If we did, I think we’d see much different things happening in our work. We’ve got to apply those spiritual disciplines to our work in order for that to happen.

Bock: So we seek to shape compassionate, courageous leaders, and we do that by training leaders to possess biblical agility in shifting times. By biblical agility I do not mean that the Bible changes, but that we read Scripture in a way that sees what it asks of us as circumstances move around us. We read and react. That only happens through the power of the Spirit of God. But when that happens, you have a person who can deal with anything fresh that comes their way. The result is Christlike wisdom for every situation.

It isn’t that they have a rote answer. In fact, the answer that they might have is the recognition that the answer, in this situation, is particularly complex, but they know not only how they should deal with the situation, but also how to lead other people into and through the situation.

That skill is essential. It requires boldness; it requires being prophetic; it requires a comfort zone with their own status before God that’s willing to take the pushback. And in the midst of all that, they’re able to develop that skill to read and react to what’s in front of them so they know—when the opportunity comes—how to seize it.

Del Rosario: An image that comes to my mind is of an ambassador who’s able to interact, to engage with people who see Christianity differently than they do—whether talking to a skeptical relative or a friend at work—and walking with them before they get to the crossroads, before the gospel even becomes a challenge in their lives. This kind of leader can teach truth and love well, leading with courage and compassion.

Developing character means we react not on the basis of popularity but from a place that says “this is the right thing to do” with a sensitivity for how to arrive there relationally. The more evident the gifts of the Spirit are in our cultural engagement, the better we can relate to others and gain a hearing for the gospel message.

Competence

Fifth, Christian leaders must possess competence. We must be able to lead well. We must have the knowledge, skills, and gifts required to effectively direct a group of people toward a compelling vision. Leading well takes a wise combination of a reflective, observant mind, a caring and strong heart tied to hands that apply themselves to the task with care and solid applicational judgment. Competence is also humble, willing to learn from past mistakes and see things with an eye to accomplishing goals more effectively. It never lets the task overrun the people through whom it is accomplished or for whom it is directed. Competence puts comprehension, compassion, courage, and character together in a way that extends beyond the self to the cause and organization being served. The result is leadership where a path is forged through the midst of challenges that life inevitably throws our way. Competence is corporate, not individual, because it also makes others better.

Conclusion

Christian leadership is difficult. In the midst of the challenges, tough questions, and hard decisions, however, we have the Spirit of God providing all we need to be faithful in ministry. Our work over the last decade has confirmed that comprehension, compassion, courage, character, and competence are vitally important for Christian leaders. These produce the ability to read and react to the cultures in which we minister. They require a relational skill that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. They require a character that is shaped by the heart and ways of God, producing compassionate, courageous leaders with Christlike wisdom for every situation, leaders who represent Jesus well as his ambassadors in rapidly shifting times.