Character is easier to address with words than it is with a systematic, intentional, development plan, but it is possible to provide opportunities for character to develop within the programming ministry of the church.
One method is to weave character teaching and accountability into the small group ministry. I know at least one church that uses a character component in all men’s weekly small group meetings. A character issue is related to each week’s Bible study, and the men are accountable to each other for punctuality, honesty, health, sexual conduct, and transparency in conduct. By design, the church separated these from the spiritual disciplines, believing that the character issues would be neglected if included in the spiritual disciplines category.
In the church I serve, I write a blog dedicated to the subject of character development in adults. We began this blog after realizing that almost all character development material is designed for children, high school youth, or college students. Many adults are aware of their character flaws but do not know how to deal with them other than to condemn them. In addition to the blog, I lead a men’s Bible study that is indirectly related to the subject material of the blog. We promote the Bible study as a means of building leaders. I have found that some men are hesitant to attend classes or conferences on character-building because their participation may suggest that they have bad character.
A small congregation, trying to recover from some very public legal and moral failures of some of their leaders, had their worship team develop a 12-week series on character using Drayton Naber’s book, The Case for Character, as the basis for a study in their small groups. While this book has a classical, academic slant, it can be easily adapted for use in a church context. The author’s background as a chief justice of a state Supreme Court brought credibility to the study.
Gary Fenton Gary.Fenton@Dawsonchurch.org www.characterpath.com www.dawsonchurch.org
