Character for Leadership: The Role of Personal Characteristics

Religious Contexts for Leadership 
Calian (2002) considered seminaries the ideal place to develop leaders for 
churches. In fact, he considered leadership development the primary task of such 
institutions. In this process of leadership development, the formation of one’s 
character is paramount to the purposes of theological education (Gilpin, 1988). 
Because theological education is focused on the development of church leaders 
(Herring, 1999), it is particularly important to develop the foundation of character 
for leadership within institutions of theological education. As stated by one church 
historian, “It is the task of the seminaries to produce a competent coterie of leaders 
for Christian ministry” (Hannah, 2004, p. 1). Additionally, it is imperative that 
religious leadership not be pursued for personal gain. Rather, “strong leadership in 

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Character for Leadership 
40 
 
the church serves the church’s ends when it helps the community to order its life 
for ministry” (Campbell, 1992, p. 6). 
Greenleaf (1998), seeing the magnitude of developing transformational and 
servant leadership qualities in religious leaders, leveled the responsibility for the 
transformation of society upon seminaries. Seminaries play a key role in the 
development of clergy (leaders) for churches and denominations. It is these 
churches and denominations that then have a responsibility to minister to the world 
in which we live. Therefore, the issue of leadership development is of special 
importance to institutions of theological education. In particular, the evaluation of 
their graduates is crucial in order to insure that these graduates mirror the values 
that must be present to promote the transformation of individuals and society. “If 
this vision [of personal development to then meet the needs of society] is to be 
achieved, a process that has to do with the being—the character—of students and 
graduates is required” (Hardman-Cromwell, 1993, p. 26). 
Spiritual formation programs are often curricular component designed to 
address the spiritual life and character development of seminary students.
Spiritual formation is a matter to be considered in the context of moral 
[character] formation not only because the two cannot be separated but also 
because failure on the part of the theological school or the student to attend 
to the spiritual life undermines the authenticity of ministry. (Campbell, 
1992, p. 18) 
In addition to programs of spiritual formation that generally address the 
character development of participants, Hillman (2004) demonstrated that students 
who are currently involved in some ministry leadership activities had the greatest 
propensity for displaying effective leadership behaviors. Such current ministry 
involvement is an important component in the process of transferring theory into 
practice and positively affecting the leadership development process. It is likely 
that the character of those involved in such ministry activities is different than that 
of uninvolved students. What is unknown is whether the character precedes and 
leads to involvement in ministry or ministry involvement promotes character 
development. 

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Character for Leadership 
41 
 
H
7
: 
Leaders exhibit effective visionary leadership behaviors based on 
their current level of involvement in a ministry capacity.