85 responsibility to treat followers with dignity and respect—as human beings with unique identities.”35 While Northouse and others may assume a moral obligation, they offer no justification for it. That need not stop them from acting out of their assumption. However, unless one can give sufficient reason and motivation for a leader to act consistently with right action, however “right action” may be defined in a specific context, the leader may at any time act decisively or exercise influence on others out of self-interest.36 Virtue ethics give sufficient reason and motivation precisely because the leader himself is formed by the virtuous excellence of actions performed and the influence exercised while recognizing that these also have a formational effect on followers.37 This too sounds like an outcome-based approach at first glance; however, the difference lies in the realization that virtue is not an external outcome but a good desirable in itself that is internal to the acting agent. In the case that a leader may not consider a virtue desirable, or at least not as desirable as a self-serving exercise of power in any particular moment, virtue ethics provides the necessary framework to recognize both virtue and vice. It is, in other words, self-corrective. While it cannot predetermine the willful choices of an individual, it at least provides a way of increasing self-awareness and, in turn, self-regulation.38 The Christian faith and its creation-based account of virtue ethics provides even deeper motivation for right action in leadership. The teleology of the Christian is based in a common understanding of individuals as “image-bearers,” those made in the image and likeness of God.39 Persons do not only deserve respect out of a general likeness shared between persons, but because of the shared image of God present in everyone. This gives them an inherent worth. That worth does not settle into the lowest common denominator of mutual respect, but instead excites a mutual affection rooted in the shared nature of the one thing that, above all others, makes humans unique.40 This uniqueness in design, purpose, and worth informs the Christian conscience and inspires Christian leadership to be of a certain kind. This call to virtuous leadership requires personal formation that adheres AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY: EXPLORING SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES AS POTENTIAL PREDICTORS OF RESILIENT PASTORAL LEADERSHIP
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