Birmingham pastor provides help in quest for developing character

I’m turning 50. How can I stay sharp in life and my career during the next 20 years?” 
   
“I’ve accomplished all this but something is missing.” 
   
“How can I be a good person?”
   
As Gary Fenton, the 59-year-old pastor of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, pondered these questions, he realized his baby boomer generation peers had been well educated, encouraged to succeed and had forced society to mold itself around their generation through the sheer force of its numbers.
   
But something was lacking.
   
Fenton discovered that for those born between 1945 and 1968 lessons in building character had taken a backseat to lessons in achieving success. His quest to discover how the now middle-aged generation could learn to be good for the mere sake of being good became one of personal discovery and growth.
   
“The process of writing the book and dealing with these issues made me a better person, I hope,” said Fenton, who decided to share observations from his own quest for character in his book, “Good for Goodness’ Sake: 7 Values for Cultivating Authentic Character in Midlife.” 
   
He is co-author of “Mastering Church Finances” and author of “Your Ministry’s Next Chapter,” a book for pastors entering midlife. Writing “Your Ministry’s Next Chapter” and talking with those who had read it spurred Fenton to consider what baby boomers in general face as they enter midlife.
   
New Hope Publishers, the general trade publishing imprint of national Woman’s Missionary Union, wanted to publish Fenton’s book because of its practical look at the issues facing baby boomers, said Andrea Mullins, director and publisher for New Hope. “What I love about Gary’s book is that it’s not churchy,” she said. “It’s so real, so relevant and authentic.”
   
The majority of those buying and reading books are baby boomers, Mullins explained. Fenton’s book helps those readers evaluate their lives and see where God has been working and where He wants to continue working.
   
Fenton said he grew up in a Christian home with loving parents, but “I’ve had to go back and realize how the character chapter was not stressed to me as much as it had been in (my father’s) generation.”
   
The development of character marks the maturity of an adult, he said. Gowing up with television, baby boomers saw how one could project an image of the way one wanted to be perceived. Many became good at appearing as if they had matured and developed character.
   
Fenton noted that for many, values such as developing community with a group and building relationships were a means to an end of being, or at least looking, successful.
   
In his own pursuit of goodness, Fenton said he realized how well he projected a “good and grown up” image. He also saw how much of his life had been filled with self-pity. This was an uncomfortable discovery for the man who has been pastor of the more than 7,000-member Dawson Memorial Baptist for 15 years.
   
“There is a side of the book that’s very painful,” Fenton said. But it also offers hope and help to change, he said.
   
The development of the values of community, relationships, personal discipline, solitude, gratitude, forgiveness and humility will cause goodness and good actions to flow out of a person’s life, Fenton said. Good actions will come because a person is truly good, not just acting good.
   
Through that development runs the need to rely on more than one’s self, which is hard for baby boomers, Fenton said. While writing the book, he saw all that needed to change in his life and knew it would be  impossible unless God was involved. 
   
“If I try to do this through self-discipline, humility or solitude — those are great virtues — but if I try to do it without God, I will fall flat,” Fenton said. 
   
Although aimed at baby boomers, the book can apply to anyone who has realized the need to develop character, Fenton said. “I hope this book helps not only baby boomers but also younger generations to look at life through new lenses of ‘Am I living for Christ?’”
   
Mullins noted, “If young adults would live by the values (Fenton) presents, they would not come to midlife asking the same questions baby boomers are.”
   
The values culminate in celebrating the work God is doing in one’s life, and “realizing how the gospel of Jesus Christ leads you to a lifetime of change,” Fenton noted.
   
His book is available in several outlets including LifeWay Christian bookstores. To visit them online, go to www.thealabamabaptist.org and click the LifeWay link.