What Do We Value?

One of the most prominent topics in the church today is leadership.  We have all kinds of ideas about what we expect from leaders.  What kind of character they should possess, and what kind of training they should have.  We go to seminars and read books and articles about it.  There are hundreds of lists of the traits that we must develop in leaders if the church is to be successful.  As I read these lists its seems that I continually find one trait that is left out: Holiness.

Titus 1:8 tells us that and "elder" must be HOLY.  Paul also gave this instruction to Timothy in regards to leaders (1 Tim. 3:10).  The trend that continues within the church is that we look to the world to see how leaders should be developed, and how they should act.  I have taken college courses on church leadership where the textbooks are secular.  Every chance we get we seem to want to act like the world.

What happened to the standards that God set in place for leaders?  Where is the requirement of holiness?  It seems like the church is more worried about the talents that people possess than we are about the holy life that they live.  Here is my contention:  If we live the lifestyle taught in the Bible God will empower us to be the leaders we need to be.  Is it possible that trying to develop leaders in worldly ways is a misplaced priority in the church?  Is it possible that by not focusing on holiness (without which no man will see the Lord) we are wasting our time on peripheral things?