Setting Up Safeguards

To function with optimum effectiveness, pastors must set up strategies to safeguard themselves against such personal pitfalls as wasting time, abusing authority, satisfying a hungry ego, giving in morally, or even becoming a workaholic. Each pastor needs to develop a personal code of behavior or ministry ethics.

An Essential Ethic

Paul says it well in Ephesians 5:15: “So be careful how you act; these are difficult days” (The Living Bible). We all face temptation regularly, and should not expect to determine our proper responses anew each time we encounter a potential pitfall. We need some guidelines to help us uphold our ethics as we work with people daily.

Pastors can benefit from taking into consideration three important principles as they develop this professional code of behavior:

Accountability. We must all be accountable to someone. Those who fall almost invariably develop attitudes of arrogance and isolation; they unwisely choose to go it alone. Accountability demands that every leader have a regular meeting with a board or group of peers—for the sole purpose of honestly sharing feelings, revealing temptations, and identifying problem areas in personal and spiritual growth. Such practical accountability forces us to see how vulnerable we are and how easily we can be deluded into thinking we are above temptation.
Responsibility. All pastors should maintain the highest standards of professional behavior. The truly healthy leader is able to balance this quest for professional excellence with a broader sense of responsibility that encompasses personal roles and relationships. The pastor must learn to balance the demands of church leadership with the demands of family and personal life. A lack of this broader sense of responsibility leads to an unbalanced life.
Integrity. Foremost is the issue of how we use our power as pastors. Do we share our power? Do we use it with compassion? Is our use of our power ego motivated? Second to power is the issue of honesty. True integrity requires not just uprightness with regard to finances, but also justice in the application of authority, graciousness in what we take credit for, and compassion in how we gain and use privileged information.

Ethics in Action

How do these principles translate into daily action? Here is a leader’s safeguard checklist that can help pastors do daily ethics evaluations. Test yourself at the end of each day and then make whatever changes your answers suggest.

Have I been totally honest in all my dealings with people this today?
Have I acted appropriately toward members of the opposite sex?
Have I indulged any unsavory thoughts or sexual images, or fostered any uncharitable feelings toward others?
Have I been totally above reproach in all my financial dealings?
Have I fulfilled all my obligations without compromise and with a willing spirit?
Have I worked too long or too hard without evaluating my true motives?
Have I spent sufficient time with my family today?
Have I taken care of my family’s spiritual needs?
Have I attended to my own emotional and spiritual needs and integrated them into my daily walk with God?
Have I harbored any unconfessed sin or unforgiven hurts?

Archibald D. Hart; Leadership Handbooks of Practical Theology, Volume 3, Leadership and Administration; Setting Up Safeguards; pp 166-167.