To whom much has been given will much be expected. Those who are teachers incur a greater judgment, and that is because of the great responsibility teachers and leaders have to take care of people, not burden them down unnecessarily or lead them astray, and to provide a good example.In the face of that, we are all in the same boat with one another as imperfect human beings in need of undeserved favour. We can be real with each other, admitting our frailties and such, and we can be forgiven for the ways in which we disappoint or frustrate others. All that is part of being “in the same boat” with one another.However, what of this business of greater expectations and a greater judgment for those who would be leaders, who have been given position and authority by virtue of holding some kind of office especially in the religious structure of various faith communities? What about all that? Many point to the greater standard applied to qualify people who would assume positions of leadership. They would say prospective leaders must be without blemish.Qualifications for elders, for instance, state that these people must be above reproach, monogamous, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to addictions, nor pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, and free from the love of money. The elder must manage his own household well, keeping his children under control with dignity, and not a new convert. The elder must also have a good reputation outside the church.Good luck finding anyone who does all that perfectly. So, since no one can do all that to the standard we often expect of persons, people tend to hide failures and construct false-selves, personas that obscure.Psychotherapy can be a bit kinder to its leaders. Psychotherapists follow the model of a wounded healer, someone who is, him or herself, not perfect, who has been through counselling and understands what emotional pain and psychological confusion actually feel like. I wish that pastors and other leaders were free enough to follow that model. It would allow them to be more real.The virtues that qualify a person for leadership all fall into the category of a work in progress. No one person has them absolutely. No one has arrived. We are all simply trying to get there.If a person, for instance, is monogamous, it does not mean that that person never experiences any attractions to other people. Attraction is a sign that you are alive and that your body is working the way God intended it to. What the leader does with such attractions is what tells on him. If one indulges the attraction and feeds it with the energy of imagination, attraction gives birth to yearning and wanting. Yearning and wanting, then, seek opportunity, and often a person is then carried away with his or her desires so that fantasy becomes enactment. Knowing how to manage that whole process comes with practice; so, there has to be moments when the person in question does not get it exactly right.Furthermore, if a person is temperate, that self-restraint or self-discipline does not negate passion, especially if one’s passion is for the kingdom. If one is prudent, that shrewd cautiousness is not at the expense of kindness or generosity. The character qualities and strengths of a leader are all relative and in balance with other characteristics, emerging at the call of the situation at hand.Yet, there is still certainly a truth here that the leader is held to a higher standard, but it is a standard of service and not of privilege, or even of self-aggrandising authority. God elevates the leader; if the leader has to elevate him or herself, something is wrong. Leadership is in the example of Christ who gave Himself up for us, emptied Himself of the privileges of divinity, took the form of humanity, and sacrificed Himself in service to His Father for our benefit. When Jesus commissioned Peter on the beach after the resurrection, restoring him to service, He asked Peter, “Do you love me?” When Peter said that he did and that Jesus knew all things and should know that He did, Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep and that someday he would be led away to a place he would not want to go, pointing to the death Peter would suffer. Service in the cause of Christ is the expression of the leader’s love for Christ.Leadership is serving others, for Jesus’ sake, at the expense of oneself, not serving one’s own projects, for the ministry’s sake, at the expense of others.So, I know that there is a standard. Jesus certainly spoke about that standard in the Sermon on the Mount. Do I demand of my leaders that they be perfect? Think of what that might be like. Since no one IS perfect, the leader is subject to the criticisms of the entire congregation. His sermons are too long or too short. They are too heavy or too light. The music isn’t right. He doesn’t give an altar call. He isn’t visiting the sick and shut-ins enough, or he’s spending all his time with them and not getting around to other people. He’s in the office too much, or he’s not in the office and available enough. He doesn’t answer the phones. His wife doesn’t play the piano. His children are fighting with other children on the playground. He didn’t notice me last Sunday or say “Thank you” in quite the right way for the cake I brought by his house.I appreciate leadership that is reality-based. That is, the leaders as human beings are free themselves, and they promote grace and freedom in others. In freedom, there is room to appreciate other people as they are. Then, after that, I appreciate sensing that a person is led by the Spirit of God, that that person can actually hear from God and has a real relationship with God. Because they are free to be real themselves about who they are, when they speak about their relationship with God, it comes in the context of authenticity that makes the work of God in their lives all that much more solid. I want to see evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, and then I am interested in being with that person and serving alongside them in some way. I can trust a person who is real with me. I cannot trust a person who is putting on a show for effect, no matter how good his or her intentions might be.