Five ways a young (or any) minister can be a good example …

For many years now, two of the most common encouragements for ministers have been to foster influence and build a personal brand. That’s because various church leadership “gurus” emphatically teach “leadership is influence” and an important way to gain more influence is to build a personal brand.

I think the Apostle Paul would disagree with those church leadership gurus, partly because their recommendations vary significantly from his own.

Writing to Timothy, his “son in the faith” and an intimate ministry partner, Paul’s recommendation to Timothy regarding “church leadership” was that he be a good example to those he served and led.

Mark twain was noted as saying, “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” That’s because a good example simultaneously sets (or raises!) the bar for the rest of us, and can shine a light on the lesser example we may have adopted and become overly comfortable with.

But here’s what some of those “church leadership gurus” miss — building a personal brand is not an overtly effective way of influencing others, but being a good example is.

Make no mistake about it, if you’re in a leadership position, then people are watching you. More specifically, people are watching what you do and how you live, even if you’re unaware of it. Kind of like the story Janine Jaquet Biden tells about how one man dealt with winter storms:

Just getting out of the driveway was a major feat during last year’s snow and ice storms. One co-worker was relating how he used his seven-year-old son’s baseball bat to smash the slick coat of ice on his driveway. He got cold and went inside for a cup of coffee before attempting to clear the car. Several minutes later, his son, who had been outside with him, came in.

“Dad,” he said, “I got the ice off the car.”

“How did you do that?” his father asked.

“Same way you did,” the boy shrugged, “with the baseball bat.”

Examples are powerfully influential, whether for good or bad. Knowing that, Paul exhorts Timothy to set a good example for the believers and identifies five specific areas for doing so: “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” Let’s briefly look at the five ways Paul tells this young minister how to be an example:

In what you say …
Paul’s first emphasis is speech, because careless words are often the first crack in a minister’s example. What you say in preaching is obvious, but just as telling is what slips out in private conversations, in moments of frustration, or in unguarded humor. Timothy was to show believers that a man of God treats words as holy currency. Proverbs reminds us, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences,” Proverbs 18:21 and Paul would write elsewhere, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them,” Ephesians 4:29. For a minister, sloppy or reactive speech can undo months of faithful teaching in a single sentence. Guarding your words means speaking with truth, restraint, and purpose, even when no one is recording.

In the way you live …
Paul widens the focus to Timothy’s whole manner of life. The idea isn’t a polished image or slick “personal brand” but a lived consistency. A minister’s schedule, habits, and daily choices can sometimes preach as loudly as their sermons. When Paul told the Corinthians, “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ,” 1 Corinthians 11:1, he was claiming no perfection, only congruence. Ministers cannot expect holiness from others while excusing compromise in themselves. Timothy’s life was to be an open book, showing believers that the gospel is credible because it can actually be lived.

In your love …
Love is the most searching test, because it often costs the most. Timothy’s example was not to be measured by how warmly he spoke about love, but by how deeply he practiced it with people, and especially with people who were hard to love. That included the false teachers troubling Ephesus, the quarrelsome believers he had to correct, and even Paul himself, whose guidance could be exacting and challenging. For a minister, the example of love is found in showing care to all believers, enduring opposition without retaliation, and serving others sacrificially, following the model of Christ.

In your faith …
Timothy’s faith would be an example to the believers. It is the trust and reliance on God that they could observe in his life. This faith is part of what shapes how he carries out his ministry and interacts with others, showing that reliance on God is a defining mark of a follower of Christ.

In your purity …
Paul ends with purity, because corruption can collapse everything else. Purity is both internal and external: refusing secret sins of the heart and avoiding public scandals of behavior. Timothy ministered in Ephesus, a city saturated with immorality, where compromise could be easily excused. Paul’s warning was clear — if you lose purity, you lose credibility. Purity means no hidden indulgence, no dishonest gain, no blurred lines. It is an example that says: this life is lived before the eyes of God, not just before the eyes of men.

Influence, then, isn’t about a platform, but about a person’s example. It isn’t about the size of the crowd but the quality of a life. The real measure of a minister’s effectiveness isn’t found in a follower count or a brand’s reach. It’s found in the consistent witness of their own lived reality. When a minister embodies these five qualities, they become a living, breathing testimony to the very message they proclaim — a testimony that speaks louder and resonates deeper than any carefully crafted image. This is the example the world is truly watching for, not a brand to follow, but a life to consider.

Scotty