The Flipside of Spiritual Gifts: The Rest of the Story

The September issue of Christian Standard magazine features my article on The Flipside of Spiritual Gifts. I encourage you to check it out, in paper or online, and read the article. As often is the case, not everything in my notebook made the cut to be include in the final published manuscript. Here's the rest of the story:

A few links about former University of Missouri Tim Wolfe, who I used as an example of derailers:

Mizzou News Daily Clips Packet, 10/10/2015

Some on campus said Mr. Wolfe was seen as stiff and aloof, and Mr. Middleton said a confrontation between the president and students on Friday outside a fund-raising event in Kansas City dealt a blow to those talks.
. . .
In a fateful encounter with protesters at a homecoming parade in October, members of Concerned Student 1950, a group named for the year the university admitted its first black student, surrounded Mr. Wolfe’s car. The police dispersed the students, and Mr. Wolfe did not come out of his car to address them, which he later acknowledged fed perceptions that he did not care about their issues.

University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe’s very telling resignation speech (Washington Post, 10/10/15)

Tim Wolfe's letter 2-1/2 months after resigning (Columbia Daily Tribune, 1/27/16)

A short list of common talents and associated derailers, from How to Spot a Derailer (Evening Standrad, 11/16/09)

Confidence / Arrogance Charisma / melodrama Energetic / Volatile Prudence/Paralysis Vigilance / Distrust and Witch Hunting Cool Headed / Aloof Spontaneity/Chaos Flair / Eccentricity Neutral / PAssive resistance Detail oriented / perfectionism Eager to please / at all costs

Two quotes about derailers in the ministry:

Lessons from Mars Hill (http://breshears.net)

We think of leaders falling to temptation around money, sex, power, and information which are temptations to vice, to lustful passions, to sarx. Wise leaders build accountability provisions around these vices. But the temptations to misuse of virtues often go completely unrecognized and therefore without protections of accountability. I think of many stories of leaders who ended up in sinful relationships – not because they were tempted to indulge sexual lusts but because virtues of pastoral helping were used beyond boundaries of godliness. Caring is expressed in a touch, then in touches, in holding . . . and misused virtue becomes devastating sin.

5 Lessons from Leadership Failures (CatalystConference.com)

Rather, the absence of one or more of four dimensions of character is clearly tied to derailment: authenticity, self-management, humility, and courage. The full expression of the dark side of these qualities nearly always dooms us. . . 

Stress brings out what’s inside us. If you don’t think you have a dark side to your character, then you probably haven’t been under enough stress! Wise leaders manage their stress levels and mitigate its pernicious impact on our behavior.