How to create a compelling character who is supposed to be all good?

His "flaw" could be that he doesn't know who he is and is letting the church push him toward something he isn't sure of. He could also have flashbacks of memories of doing something terrible which he can't remember outright. You might also consider that stories outside the Bible which depict Jesus doing some pretty flawed stuff as a child. Your character could also have childlike outbursts of anger which he controls just in time to prevent a major "sin" or such. Or someone else could enter the picture and know things which others don't know about the character, even the character himself. And as Ann pointed out, the façade of perfection will be seen as a flaw by many; perhaps he flaunts it. Lots of angles. Good luck. Take care. Vern

If he's all good, could his flaw be that he tries to please everyone? By trying to appear as everyone's version of a 'good guy', could he hurt others inadvertently until he figures out what 'good' means to himself? Eg he wants to help a struggling village so performs a miracle and provides them with lots of food, and only realises afterwards he put the farmers and fishermen out of business? By the end of the story hell have figured out that being all good doesn't mean making everyone happy.

I think being all good all the time could be a flaw-one worth pursuing. I'm thinking about the Lucy show when she and Ethel swore to each other they would not lie, and all the horrible things that happened due to telling the truth all the time. For every sin, you can find ways to exploit how being sin- free can wrack it's own havoc and cause it's own complications. It will be tricky, but if you turn "good" on it's ear, it could be very interesting.

Again, the story of Jesus, looked at biographically and not Christologically gives a model.  There were lots of supernatural forces at work in his story--from the temptation by Satan to his raising from the dead.  For the young Connor, you might look at the Infancy of Christ, a collection of scriptures that didn't make it into the Bible (for good reason, I might add).  Jesus used his supernatural powers in ways I'm sure would make the adult Jesus wince.  It made me wince, anyway.

I read about some of them a while back. I want Connor to maintain an angelic aura, so my best course is probably to have events occur at the orphanage that seem to be someone attacking Connor's foes. As noted earlier, it could be someone working to defend him from his bullies or someone working to get him blamed for revenge-like acts that happen to his bullies and to the priest who doesn't like him. I'm not sure yet how far to take it. It's a supernatural thriller, so a murder at the orphanage isn't out of bounds, although I don't plan to use much gore, since the target audience is Christians. The Catholic Church plays a large role throughout the book.

My thanks to everyone for their ideas. This was very helpful.

I read about some of them a while back. I want him to maintain an angelic aura, so my best course is probably to have events occur at the orphanage that seem to be someone attacking Connor's foes. As noted earlier, it could be someone working to defend him from his bullies or someone working to get him blamed for revenge-like acts that happen to his bullies, including the priest who doesn't like him.

Dirk, angelic isn't namby-pamby.  The angelic hosts that fought with the Hebrews weren't exactly Disney fairies (although lately, they've been growing a pair, too).  One could read the Infancy of Jesus as parables about someone who is developing supernatural powers and not knowing how to handle them yet.  You might want to make the supernatural attacks on Conner's enemies ambigous as to origin. Did he do it, like Morbius in Forbidden Planet, who didn't realize that the Krell monster was an objectification of his own Id?  Or is there Someone else involved.  If so, who?

In fact, the way to make any compelling character is to introduce conflict.  The conflict beween using and misusing supernatural power is a great one to play with.  In most people, there is a moral evolution--from good and evil based on fear to the few (like Jesus) who base it on loyalty to being.  Why not make part of the story turn on Conner's moral development into a truely good man?

The vague origins of the supernatural attacks is what I settled on in an earlier post. However, for book one, I have to be vague about who Connor really is. It's revealed at the end of the book. The trilogy is his journey.

He was also seen reading the Book of Enoch, which has it that you are judged, not by the Son of God, as to whether you are worthy of heaven, but by all the animals you've ever met.  And he used the Davidic metaphor of the good shepherd. So, the speculation is that he sacrificed the pigs because they were "unclean" animals.  Of course, knowing that one comes back from the dead and that the Father restores--everything in Isaiah and all but his family to Job, he may have assumed the pigs would end up in pig-Paradise after some fear and pain, the fear and pain that his ministry was to show was at worst ephemeral.  Who knows?  I wasn't wanting to go into Christology, just pointing to a prototype for you that can be considered to be flawed but, at least by his followers, perfect. I was specifically addressing your dilemma with Connor.  If Conner is Jesus, there are a lot of "flaws" or weaknesses to be overcome and he being all-good, at least as all-good as his previous incarnation.

If Connor is Jesus, a Christian audience will expect him to be sinless (as defined by Catholics) although one can probably make allowances for the period between when Connor starts his journey and the end of book one, when he learns who he is. Nevertheless, I have most of that mapped out in my head. His primary opportunity to cause trouble is the acts of revenge which he may be responsible for at the beginning of the book. After that, his course is set by the Church. They send him to the Holy Land to protect him from the Antichrist and to hopefully jog his memory of Himself. From that point on, he's reacting to events as they come at him. He's not in control of his journey, although the reader will see how he handles himself during the trip. He'll also be moody at times because he can't remember, even though he's two years older than Jesus when the latter first showed any signs of being God.

You might try reading =Stranger in a Strange Land=--the as-writtem version, not the abridged, originally-published version.   The full version has the phrase 'real as taxes' in the second sentence.
Point is, Valentine Michael Smith is the ultimate innocent ... in a dangerous way.