The Integrity Engine: Rhythms, Rules, and Relationships that Keep You Grounded

In this episode, the host discusses the importance of integrity in leadership, specifically within churches, using the metaphor of an 'integrity engine.' By drawing from the experiences of a pastor who maintained integrity over decades, the episode emphasizes the role of rhythms, rules, and relationships in sustaining moral leadership and avoiding failures. The discussion forms part of a series based on the host's book, 'When the Church Falls,' which investigates leadership failures in churches and offers preventive strategies.• A pastor maintained his integrity over 40 years by listening to God and having accountability.• Integrity in leadership is compared to an engine that powers sustained leadership, contrasting it with the temporary energy provided by talent or adrenaline.• Leadership failures are gradual and often involve ignoring warning signs.• Establishing rhythms, rules, and relationships are key methods to maintain integrity.• Daily rhythms include practices like silence, prayer, and rest.• Rules involve safeguarding practices such as accountability when traveling and technology usage filters.• Relationships should include individuals who can provide honest feedback and ask tough questions.• Integrity ensures the survival of leadership beyond mere talent or gift.• Leaders should regularly 'audit their engine' to assess integrity levels.

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Transcript

Why Churches And Leaders Fail

Gifting Vs Integrity: The Engine Metaphor

Three Safeguards: Rhythms, Rules, Relationships

Soul Rhythms That Prevent Burnout

Guardrails And Wise Rules

Grounding Relationships And Tough Questions

Consequences Of Neglect And Hillsong Example

Action Step: Audit Your Engine

Book Overview And Resources

SPEAKER_00 0:08

I once heard of a pastor who had led the same church for over 40 years. And here's the thing, he still had that sparkle in his eyes that somebody asked him this question. How'd you do it? And I was really surprised at the response. He didn't mention strategy, he didn't quote any kind of a book. He didn't even quote the Bible. He just responded with something like this. Hey, I listened, I learned to listen to God before he listened to the crowd. And I made sure that someone always knew how I was really doing. And that really hit me because the fruit, joy is really the fruit of alignment, not adrenaline. And we want to talk about that today, about the integrity engine, some rhythms and rules and relationships that can keep you grounded. We're in the middle of a series based on my new book called When the Church Falls. We're looking at leadership failures, church failures, moral failures, church scandals, all that kind of thing, with the express purpose of looking at them and saying, How did this happen? And how can we present prevent them from happening in the future? And more specifically, because you and me are sharing this time together today. How can we be sure that you don't go down a path that leads at some point to some kind of moral failure? And as I said yesterday, I don't know of anybody that has fallen morally, a pastor that got up one morning and said, Today's the day I'm gonna do it. Today's the day I'm gonna fall. It's a gradual thing. So let's see if we can find some ways to safeguard you and your leadership and your church. Let's start here today, okay? As we talk about this integrity engine, is what we're calling it. Your leadership is a vehicle and integrity is the engine. So think of it like that. Your gifting is the exterior, it's what people see. Your integrity, though, is the engine. It's what actually keeps you going. And you can drive really fast with a broken engine for a while. When that check engine light comes on, you can usually drive a few miles, but sometimes if you just ignore it, you're gonna end up with a fully broken engine because eventually the damage will catch up. The dashboard light comes on, the knocking gets louder, and talent, when you're a church leader, talent can take you far, but only integrity can help you finish. We've seen this in my research for the book. I looked at a lot of different leadership failures over the years, last 25, 30 years, and they all had a lot of the same things going. A lot of the same things happening behind the scenes, and a lot of time, a lot of times, what was happening was an incredibly, an incredibly gifted and talented leader. They looked great on the outside, very shiny, but inside that engine, that integrity was flawed, and that's how you saw the flame out. And we think that it just happens overnight. It just I can't believe so-and-so did that. But it wasn't that they just got up one morning and did that. It was because of the three things that I'm going to talk about here: rhythms, rules, and relationships. Those are the really big parts of this integrity engine that we're talking about today. And if you want to keep yourself out of scandal, if you want to save your marriage and your kids and your family, if you want to save your church and the people that are under your spiritual authority and leadership, you will pay on a daily basis attention to your rhythms and your rules and your relationships. Let's talk about rhythms first. Okay, rhythms are daily, they're weekly, they're seasonal, they're soul practices, okay? They're daily silence, their daily prayer, they're taking your weekly Sabbath and getting real rest. They're vacations that aren't disguised as work trips. A lot of the people that have fallen from grace or that have found themselves in scandal are people that just couldn't shut their minds off, that they couldn't take a vacation, they couldn't rest. And the spiritual practices, the weekly, uh daily, weekly, seasonal soul practices just disappeared over time. They were high capacity, they were very talented, but they never slowed down. Eugene Peterson said, I want to be a pastor who prays. And I got to see Eugene Peterson speak once. I think it was uh it was at a catalyst breakout years ago. He's now since past, but I remember thinking in the room full, and you know, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I remember thinking, what an unremarkable person. Right? There were probably seven, eight hundred people in the room, and Eugene Peterson was given his message, and I thought, what an unremarkable he's not a great speaker. He wasn't a great speaker. I don't think he would have said that he was a great speaker. He wasn't flashy at all. But man, oh man, did he have a uh what appears to be a great list of spiritual disciplines? And one of the things that Eugene Peterson says is, I want to be a pastor who prays, and his rhythm, as I saw on that day, his rhythm wasn't flashy, but boy was it substantial, and it was holy. So guardrails, here's your rule for guardrails for setting up these rhythms. Okay, you need to have those guardrails. That those guardrails are going to prevent that drift. Things like, and you've heard these. I think Rick Warren had a list a long time ago. Never travel alone without accountability, no private messages with the opposite sex, make sure that you have tech filters on all your devices, clear your working hours and off hours. You might think, Todd, those are those are kind of legalistic. And sure, you can get legalistic about some things. Honestly, those rhythms and those rules, they're not about legalism, they're about wisdom, they're about keeping yourself pure and keeping that integrity intact. So you need to have the rhythms. You also need to have the relationships. The people who know the real you. We've talked about this before, not just supportive relationships, not just people on your board or your elders that say, you go because they see everything up and to the right and they want everything to be successful and they want you to be successful. So not just supportive relationships, you need grounding ones, people that know you and that will ask you the tough questions. You need the ones who notice the tone in your voice before you even realize it's off. You need the ones that ask you, hey, was that all the way true? The people that are not afraid to remind you who you are. And you need those rhythms, you need those relationships. And if you don't have that, those kind of rhythms and relationships, guess what happens to the engine? A leader with no rhythm runs on adrenaline, you don't take time off, you just keep going and going, and then you crash. A leader with no rules will slowly justify compromise. A leader with no relationships becomes isolated and reckless. And that's what happened at Hillsong. Long hours, blurred boundaries, no questions asked, culture, the collapse wasn't a shock. It was, as you look back on it, it was inevitable. It wasn't just a quick headline. Here's the bottom line for today. Your gift, and God has gifted you in some great ways, friend. Your gift can probably grow a church, but only your integrity can help it survive. So here's what I want you to do today. I want you to, as your action step, audit your engine this week. Audit your integrity. Do you have real rhythms, or have you gotten into a little bit of a rut? Maybe name one person who knows the full truth about how you're doing and schedule some time with them just so you can be transparent. Okay? This is a part of a series we started last week here on the podcast. We're gonna finish it up this week. Part of a series based on my new book called When the Church Falls. Let me see the subtitle. I named a long subtitle on this. When the church falls, what we can learn from leadership collapses and how to prevent the next one. It's not a tell-all book. It's not a scandal book. It's a book that really investigates what happened, what was in what contributing figures did all of these fall from grace really have? Because there's some common threads. And then once we identify the common threads, how can we make sure that we can avoid the next fall and the next failure? Because honestly, between you and me, I'm tired of it. I'm over it. We gotta stop this. We gotta stop this. We need to be leaders of integrity in the church. That's what God wants, and that's actually what He demands. If you would like to read more, you can order the book at WhenThechurchfalls.com. And I think it'd be a great book for you to go through with your elder team, with your your leadership team, with your board. I think it it's good for the church all to be on the same page and leadership all to be in the same page. Also have a free assessment over there if you're wondering how vulnerable you may be currently and how run down you are. You can go ahead and do that. There's a free assessment over at WhenTheChurchfalls.com. You can also check me out over at my new website, todd.church. There's all the podcasts are listed there, all of my blog posts, a little bit more about me, and there's a contact form in case there's any way that I can help you or your church, you can reach out to me there as well. All right, that's it for today. Thanks so much for joining me. We will be right back here tomorrow. Two more days left in the series. I'm really excited to share with you again tomorrow.