The Integrity Gap

I heard a sermon the other day that talked about how important integrity is in our lives and that the best way to measure integrity is to examine the gap between what you say and what you do. This was followed by the question, "Who has more integrity, a liar who lies, or a liar who tells the truth," which was then followed by a clip from Pirates of the Caribbean where Will says "You cheated me!?!" and Jack Sparrow looks him right in the eye and says "Pirate." Jack Sparrow is who he says he is.

Now, I've worked in a church setting for the last eight years (both as paid staff and as a volunteer) and one of the biggest issues I have run into with leadership that doesn't have accountability, is a lack of integrity. I have grown up in a ministry-driven family (75% of my parents were missionaries, my father preaches, my uncle and grandfather are pastors) and I am in seminary myself, so I in NO WAY venerate those in church leadership. I do, however, hold them to a high standard of integrity. If integrity is "walking the talk" and making sure that levels of internal conflict are low and/or part of what God is refining in a person, then I think that those in leadership, especially spiritual leadership, have an obligation to hold themselves to that standard. My father likens it to structural integrity in that you don't want to have load bearing structures in a building that have bad integrity, or everything else is going to fall down anytime the wind changes or the ground shakes (notice how I don't say that pastors/church leaders are the foundation of the building - that ALONE is reserved for members of the Trinity. I know some denominations and churches treat pastors like gods and think they are the heart of the church, but I just don't cotton to that).

Why do I think this is such an issue? I think my parents primed me to be sensitive to it at a young age. The transgression that resulted in the greatest punishment was lying (deceit) and it was made very clear that no matter what you did, lying about it was worse. The price was 10 spankings per incident (yes, it was a long, long time ago, before spankings became labeled as child abuse). When I was older and we could articulate moral issues in a less physical way, the issue was named integrity. My favorite quote from my parents is "once you lose your integrity, everything else is easy." Even as I was guest lecturing at APU this spring, I ended up talking to these future church leaders about the need for a high level of integrity in their lives, because their words would cease to have weight if their morality came into question.

I'm sure it seems at this point that I'm expecting pastors and church leaders to be perfect, and that is just not the case. I know we are all human and that we all fail, but I think that as leaders, we need to be sure that we have constant human accountability in our lives. If we enter a leadership position that doesn't have that accountability built in, we need to get our tools out and build it right in to what we are doing. If that scares you, perhaps it is time to do an inventory and figure out what it is that is scaring you about being transparent and authentic. What do you think you need to hide? Your past? If you have asked God for forgiveness and repented, he's already forgiven you (and Jesus Christ already paid the consequences on the cross), so why are you carrying the shame? Is it because you are scared of your social standing in the church? The church is supposed to be a place where we can express our brokenness in community (and this next part is so important - so many of us get stuck in step one) and then rejoice in the healing and wholeness which comes from God alone. If you don't think you have the ability to be that authentic in your church, you need to start praying to find out how God wants to transform your church to a place where everyone can be transparent and authentic. Or, are you scared because you're not living with a high level of integrity? This is the part where you need to be praying about being in leadership, and if you aren't praying about it, you shouldn't be leading.

I know, I know, transparency and authenticity are pomo/emergent buzzwords and we're all tired of hearing them, but then why do we continue to experienced too little of it in the church? We've all been to the conference, or the leadership seminar, or the class that has reminded us how important these things are to the body, and yet I've heard leaders leave that experience and say "I just can't take on the cost of what it would mean to be that authentic," and then seen 20 others nod in agreement. Integrating what we say we are (Christ-followers) and what we do is paramount in our task of sharing the news of reconciliation to this world. We are supposed to be that incarnational witness of that transforming power to the world. How can proclaim that it is HIS healing power alone that saves us, unless we are vulnerable and honest enough to admit our failings and struggles? Again, I'm not talking about wearing our brokenness as a badge - THAT doesn't glorify God; I'm talking about bragging about what God can do and has done by living lives that require His extraordinary power to push beyond our human limitations