Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

Baby boomers have had three primary values when they select people to lead them. Perhaps four, but the fourth lags far behind the first three. What do we reward? What have we looked for in selecting a pastor... or a President?

If ever there was a generation in love with personality, it is boomers. We prefer a leader who can "fill up a room" with personality upon entering. A dull uninteresting person has a hard time getting elected by boomers. We want exciting motivating dynamic pastors. And Presidents.

We boomers want leaders who care. We prefer therapeutic leaders who feel our pain and "relate" to those of us in the trenches on the front line. We require our leaders to "share" their own struggles and difficulties with us, and we'll "go through" difficult times with them. We opt for leaders who made us feel good. Through their denominational addresses, their weekly messages, or their State of the Union speeches.

But most of all we want competence. We are the excellence generation. We want a job done right and we will handsomely reward the people who can do it that way. Denomination leaders or lay members will overlook another weakness if a pastor has a booming church. By "booming" we mean numerical success -- growth. For pastors this overruling competence means having a booming church. For presidents, a booming economy.

What? Character? Since when? Not Boomers. Maybe we "assume" character is in the mix, but since when do boomers really care about character? Do boomers ask candidates questions of character or Godliness in their pastoral interviews? Seldom. We want the candidate who can "get the job done." We don't ask if the candidate is a "good" person . Indeed, evangelical boomers say "Well, he's a good man" as a compliment of last resort, as if we are saying "Well, he's not real competent or successful, but at least he is a good man." Thus boomers have often traded away inner moral strength for personality, caring and competence.

It is a blind spot in our values. And it has gotten us some pastors and Presidents who captivate us with their personality, make us feel happy and loved with their positive pep talks, and who are models of success and competence in leading is toward the vision of the future.... but then we discover they lack inner character. We discover this magnetic, caring, competent pastor is having an affair with the organist, or secretly hiding church funds in a personal bank account, or our "great leader" has been consistently lying about the church's attendance figures to improve their success image. Or the President was having an affair with a young intern. So now boomers plan to introduce the "character issue" again... for our pastors and our Presidents.

But how will we do that? Not for Presidents, but for pastors? What questions will we start asking? How will we uncover the private lives of pastoral candidates? Will we get credit reports or hire private detectives to interview their college roommates and former sweethearts? What's your plan? How will we upgrade the "character issue" in getting pastors and church leaders? Talk is cheap. What will we change?

And, of course, are you ready to be asked these questions yourself?

So, what do you think? How do we practically move character up the boomer priority list for picking leaders?

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu