The purpose of a common, global ministerial code of ethics is to instill accountability within Church leaders to provide guidelines of protection for them and their community (Trull & Carter, 2004). Previous ministerial codes of ethics have sought to regulate ministerial relationships through prevention strategies recognizing the personal limitations and vulnerabilities of ministers by instilling fundamental virtues like trustworthiness, prudence, faithfulness, and integrity.

Ethical considerations between church denominations can be a cause of dissension in ethical considerations. Due to the dissonance between purity and empathy found within the vast spectrum of believers of the faith (Montemaggi, 2018), a common code of global ethics must be built heuristically, founded on what is guaranteed to be known and found easily and uniformly throughout scripture with a deep theological focus on biblical truths.

This global code of ethics must pattern after Christ’s life, one enabled by God’s Holy Spirit and aligned with His plan for a renewed creation, achieved through the overcoming of sin and death through Christlikeness in livelihood and in resurrection mindset (Belousek, 2016). A successful global ministerial code of ethics requires cross-cultural ethics founded in objective biblical truths and integration into experience-based acculturation to achieve communal visions founded in New Testament teachings.

Feasibility of Creation and Dissemination

Having a statement or affirmation of belief and faith was common in the early Church, as doctrines such as that of traditional creation were expressed as an integral and chief expression of faith (Belousek, 2016). This doctrine was contrary to the popular Greek doctrine of an infinite kosmos which rejected the origin of the material universe ex nihilo.

This counter-cultural diversion away from, and stark stance against, this popular Greek thought is one pillar of Christianity found through Scripture and the early Church (Carson, 2012). When looking into creating a doctrine of common global ministerial ethics in Christianity, this stark stance against cultural norms must be recognized and built within the framework.

Foundation in Scripture

As followers of Jesus, ministers of the faith must live for God and His will, reflecting traditional doctrine which requires substantiation in God’s Scripture (Belousek, 2016). These Christian leaders must not rely on a single leadership theory but instead focus on placing Christ on display in their lives and in the Church as a global entity (Huizing, 2011). This leadership is an expression of faith within every culture. As a leader, ministers are expected to be masters of virtue and ethics, the Aristotelian idea of leadership being the master-ethic (Levine & Boaks, 2014) and the biblical requisite as found in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus.

With ethics being the center of great leadership, successful ministry requires a foundation in Scripture that develops a strong relationship with God. This Christlikeness in Godly relationship and lifestyle, along with counter-culturalism, are the foundations of discipleship with Christ (Carson, 2012) and ministerial ethics must focus on these two foundations.

Possibility of Uniformity of Interpretation

The feasibility of this counter-cultural set of ethical norms for Christians is an issue. Local Christian cultures (read more on Christian Culture here) exist on a spectrum of ethics built on the polarities of compassion and purity (Montemaggi, 2018). Compassion, at its extreme, is an open attitude to people based on ethical beliefs, while purity restrains compassion through the upholding of held ethical norms.

This spectral strain is a strong cause of dissension within the Church and must be recognized in the formation of a global ministerial code of ethics. To understand how the clash between these inner-Church spectrums can be resolved, the liberal idea of comparative ethics is the beginning point of the discussion.

***Not all liberal ideas are antagonistic to the Christian Faith, however, learn more on how Liberalism has negatively affected Christianity.

Comparative Ethics

Comparative ethics seeks to globalize ethics through the discussion of common philosophies, such as human rights, through the process of acculturation (Bretzke, 2013). This emphases on the epistemological limitations and conditions of objectivity questions moral truth and seeks to create unity despite what could be said as universal subjectivity. Using comparative ethics, dialogue on common ethics occurs through the recognition of the epistemology of ethics which necessitates a grounding in both known universal truths and local environmental history and its conditions. From this discourse, a basis on which ethics must be accepted as objective truths established by God and how one’s subjective experience should be included in the common code of ethics can be discerned.

Doctrinal Differences

The issue found in initiating global ministerial ethics lies in not only cross-cultural moral differences but in doctrinal differences as well. As shown through Richard Niebuhr’s famous typologies of Christian engagement with culture (Stackhouse, 2002), doctrinal differences on how Christians should engage with those outside the church is a common topic of dissension. As masters of ethics, a ministerial leader’s success is dependent on their engagement with other people, as ethics is relational (Hromei & Voinea, 2013).

Knowing leadership requires engagement either within, against, or somehow in-connection-with both internal and external cultures, ministerial ethics necessarily must acknowledge successful engagement with these cultures and uniformity through this engagement type must be established through cross-cultural ethics.

Implications of Unification Despite Variation

The implications of a common, global code of ethics for Christian ministry leaders is at the heart of success for the Church. Paul stressed the unity of the Church and the ethics which Christ taught (Tangen, 2018). Paul and Christ both stressed a communal vision which worshiped in Spirit, was driven by love, shared moral reasoning founded in humility, and existed in mutual service of life-giving.

The foundation of the Church was built on codes of ethics which were given as direct and clear instruction for adherence, not with fear of penalty by the Church but with motivation founded in the doctrines of Christ’s teachings, mainly love and the lack or loss of it. With a history of ethical codes in the Church, it is not an outrageous attempt to unify Christian leadership in global ethical codes, it is imperative.

Encouraging Differentiated Thoughts

Recognition of various viewpoints is not in clash with orthodox theology, as this recognition brings new consensus on biblical texts, truths, and a wider understanding of God and morality (Bellis, 1995). Biblical exegesis brings about objective biblical interpretation, an area of continued growth in academia. Paul writes how Christians must embody a life of humility placing others above one’s self (Tangen, 2018).

In reviewing the New Testament’s letters of Paul to each individual, local church, a diversity in responses to local issues were given as ethical moral codes to respond to these scenarios. These responses were not without a common foundation in Christlikeness. It is through reasoning with Godly wisdom that allowed Paul to navigate the barriers within each local church and should be the method of ministerial ethics Church leaders use today.

Conclusion

Teaching values and morality through text and scenario-based case-studies can never be the foundation or cure to amoral behavior. It is through the development of spiritual and emotional intelligence, through empathy, sympathy, environmental awareness, and oneness with one’s environment that ethics can be formed within an individual (Fry & Wigglesworth, 2013; Muhdar, 2018).

Although a code of ethics can outline ethical dilemmas requiring further thought, these codes are in no way moral temples for the soul, instead, they stand as guides on an individual’s spiritual journey into virtue. As masters of virtue, ministers must recognize the need for the development of spiritual intelligence while keeping in mind codes of ethics which guide thought into a deeper discussion of spirituality.

As children led by the Spirit of God, those who are ministers of Christ must continue their journey in picking up their cross and following the ways of God, living in humility with others and in oneness together. Although many ethical considerations are in debate within the Church, the commonality of moral reasoning built within Scripture is the starting point on which cross-cultural ethics can begin and acculturation from experience can be unified for preventative measures to be instilled through ministerial ethical codes.

 

Further Study

Just What Are Ethics and Morality?

 

References

Bellis, A. O. (1995). Objective biblical truth versus the value of various viewpoints: A false dichotomy. Horizons in Biblical Theology, 17(1), 25-36.

Belousek, D. W. (2016). God, evil, and (non-) violence: Creation theology, creativity theology, and Christian ethics. The Conrad Grebel Review, 34(2), 155-179.

Carson, D. A. (2012). Christ and culture revisited. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Fry, L. W. J., & Wigglesworth, C. G. (2013). Toward a theory of spiritual intelligence and spiritual leader development. International journal on spirituality and organization leadership, 1(1), 47-79.

Hromei, A. S., & Voinea, M. M. (2013). Accounting between law, ethics and morality. SEA – Practical Application of Science, 2(2), 131-136.

Huizing, R. (2011). Bringing Christ to the table of leadership: Moving towards a theology of leadership. Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 5(2), 58-75.

Levine, M. P., & Boaks, J. (2014). What does ethics have to do with leadership?. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), 225-242.

Montemaggi, F. (2018). Compassion and purity: The ethics and boundary-making of Christian evangelicals. Religion, 48(4), 642-658.

Muhdar, H. M. (2018). The performance of state civil apparatus in Gorontalo Province: The relationship with emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, leadership, and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Innovation in Business and Economics, 2(02), 71-86.

Stackhouse, J. G. (2002). In the world, but…: Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and culture is 50 years old–and still has something wise to say to evangelicals. Christianity Today, 46(5), 80-81.

Tangen, K. I. (2018). Leadership as participation in Christ: Paul’s theology of leadership in the letter in to the Philippians. Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership, 8(1), 276-290.

Trull, J. E., & Carter, J. E. (2004). Ministerial ethics: Moral formation for church leaders. Baker Books.