Gifts vs Integrity

[B-A-C]

A while back, I was given the opportunity to go on a "scouting" trip with an old friend of mine who is a recruiter for a very large/well known college.

The junior college where this kid played was close to where I lived. So of course I couldn't pass this opportunity up. We went and watched this kid play football.

He was very very talented, he made some amazing catches. According to the statistics, he was 2nd or 3rd in total receiving yards in the entire nation. I thought to myself, there's no way
they won't try to recruit this kid. After half time, my friend started pointing out something that I didn't really see before. Almost everytime the defensive player barely touched him, he fell down.
In fact, it turns out, sometimes the defensive player didn't even actually touch him, and he still fell down anyway if it looked like he might have touched him. He got a lot of referee's to call interference
in his favor. Although he didn't actually catch the ball most of these times, he still got credit for the yardage made by these penalties.

At the end of the game, a news reporter asked him about what made him so good. He said "good genes, and I thank Jesus for them". Again, I though to myself, this kid is a Christian, good for him.
All though the game, my friend was writing down some numbers and statistics, and notes, I couldn't read them from my viewpoint, but after the game, he showed me some of them.

Then we went back to the hotel my friend was staying in, and watched some movies of this kid playing in some other games. It turns out, he fell down a lot. Now sometimes the other players
did actually foul him and knock him down, but most of the time, he just fell because he thought he could get foul called against his opponent. After a couple of hours of watching films, my friend
showed me the bottom line, it turns out about a third of his yards, were because of bad calls, made because this kid was good at falling down. You wouldn't really notice it watching him in one game,
you might just think well the ref just made a bad call. But over a years time, there were a lot of "bad calls" in his favor.

He told me to meet him tomorrow, and we would go talk to this kid.
We showed up at the appointed time and place, and the kid was happy, maybe a little bit cocky.. he knew he had talent. He was obviously expecting a good offer.
My friend told him he did indeed have a great talent, but he also told him he was good enough he didn't have to cheat. The kids response was, if the ref made the call, then it wasn't cheating.
My friend told him, he liked his talent, but he didn't like his character, they were going to pass on recruiting him. While winning games is important, a person's character is more important.
No one wants to win because some one on your team is cheating. He also told him to quit thanking Jesus for his ability to cheat, it makes Jesus look bad.

So what does this have to do with Jesus?
Now at first, this may seem like a simple "cheaters never prosper" devotional, but sometimes they do prosper, this kid was picked by another college the very next day it was in the paper.
I don't know if the recruiter for that college saw the same thing my friend saw or not, but if he did, he didn't care.

Which brings me to real point here, do churches do the same thing sometimes? I want these people to join my church because they... ( have a lot of money, have the gift of healing, are a funny and persuasive speaker, knows the Bible really well,
are a well known celebrity, consistently tithe very well, etc... )
But do we really care about the people in our churches? Do we care more about their gifts and what they can bring to the church than we care about their souls? Do we care more about their talents than we do their character?
Now of course none of us are perfect, but even so, some people have integrity and good character, some people don't. You can usually tell after a bit of time.
I'm not saying people have to be perfect to join a church, obviously seekers and new believers aren't going to have all this down yet, but once they are saved for a while, are we willing to use what they can give to the church
even if they themselves don't have integrity and good moral character? Or should we accept someone who may not be quite as talented in that specific area, but yet has good moral character?

I'm not even saying the people with questionable character have to leave the church in all cases. I'm simply saying choose people for their character, rather than their gifts.
I was noticing in Titus when it gives qualifications for elders and deacons, it talks about their character (not addicted to wine, husband of one wife, not fond of sordid gain) rather than what gifts or talents they have.
It's nice to have, funny, rich, charismatic people in your church, but do we choose them over someone with higher moral values and integrity?

 

[Hekuran]

Absolutely agree top to bottom. Just imagine the difference to our witness if we consistently focused on building good character rather than nurturing talent.

Every church pastored by a preacher of average ability, but who lives every word they speak with total integrity? I believe we'd soon have a church that's able to witness to a fallen and hurting world with total conviction and with great power.

 

[Bill]

A while back, I was given the opportunity to go on a "scouting" trip with an old friend of mine who is a recruiter for a very large/well known college.

The junior college where this kid played was close to where I lived. So of course I couldn't pass this opportunity up. We went and watched this kid play football.

He was very very talented, he made some amazing catches. According to the statistics, he was 2nd or 3rd in total receiving yards in the entire nation. I thought to myself, there's no way
they won't try to recruit this kid. After half time, my friend started pointing out something that I didn't really see before. Almost everytime the defensive player barely touched him, he fell down.
In fact, it turns out, sometimes the defensive player didn't even actually touch him, and he still fell down anyway if it looked like he might have touched him. He got a lot of referee's to call interference
in his favor. Although he didn't actually catch the ball most of these times, he still got credit for the yardage made by these penalties.

At the end of the game, a news reporter asked him about what made him so good. He said "good genes, and I thank Jesus for them". Again, I though to myself, this kid is a Christian, good for him.
All though the game, my friend was writing down some numbers and statistics, and notes, I couldn't read them from my viewpoint, but after the game, he showed me some of them.

Then we went back to the hotel my friend was staying in, and watched some movies of this kid playing in some other games. It turns out, he fell down a lot. Now sometimes the other players
did actually foul him and knock him down, but most of the time, he just fell because he thought he could get foul called against his opponent. After a couple of hours of watching films, my friend
showed me the bottom line, it turns out about a third of his yards, were because of bad calls, made because this kid was good at falling down. You wouldn't really notice it watching him in one game,
you might just think well the ref just made a bad call. But over a years time, there were a lot of "bad calls" in his favor.

He told me to meet him tomorrow, and we would go talk to this kid.
We showed up at the appointed time and place, and the kid was happy, maybe a little bit cocky.. he knew he had talent. He was obviously expecting a good offer.
My friend told him he did indeed have a great talent, but he also told him he was good enough he didn't have to cheat. The kids response was, if the ref made the call, then it wasn't cheating.
My friend told him, he liked his talent, but he didn't like his character, they were going to pass on recruiting him. While winning games is important, a person's character is more important.
No one wants to win because some one on your team is cheating. He also told him to quit thanking Jesus for his ability to cheat, it makes Jesus look bad.

So what does this have to do with Jesus?
Now at first, this may seem like a simple "cheaters never prosper" devotional, but sometimes they do prosper, this kid was picked by another college the very next day it was in the paper.
I don't know if the recruiter for that college saw the same thing my friend saw or not, but if he did, he didn't care.

Which brings me to real point here, do churches do the same thing sometimes? I want these people to join my church because they... ( have a lot of money, have the gift of healing, are a funny and persuasive speaker, knows the Bible really well,
are a well known celebrity, consistently tithe very well, etc... )
But do we really care about the people in our churches? Do we care more about their gifts and what they can bring to the church than we care about their souls? Do we care more about their talents than we do their character?
Now of course none of us are perfect, but even so, some people have integrity and good character, some people don't. You can usually tell after a bit of time.
I'm not saying people have to be perfect to join a church, obviously seekers and new believers aren't going to have all this down yet, but once they are saved for a while, are we willing to use what they can give to the church
even if they themselves don't have integrity and good moral character? Or should we accept someone who may not be quite as talented in that specific area, but yet has good moral character?

I'm not even saying the people with questionable character have to leave the church in all cases. I'm simply saying choose people for their character, rather than their gifts.
I was noticing in Titus when it gives qualifications for elders and deacons, it talks about their character (not addicted to wine, husband of one wife, not fond of sordid gain) rather than what gifts or talents they have.
It's nice to have, funny, rich, charismatic people in your church, but do we choose them over someone with higher moral values and integrity?

Its a little funny if you think of it . You are asking , who should we choose to bring into a church when it isnt our place to choose who comes into any church . Now if you were talking about a team of people to run the church, yes i would set a list out, but still pray over it. As the church isnt mine in the first place.

What is all the members of Hell's Angels came to your church . What if they dropped money into the basket. Would you judge them and judge where the money might have come from? If so. Then you should also do the same for every single member of the church.

God brings into a church who he wants there