HELPING PEOPLE HELP YOU
Support for a pastor may be all around. The trick is how to tap it.
Steve Harris
January 1, 1988
In the film The Natural, baseball hero Roy Hobbs befriends young Bobby Savoy, the team bat boy, a friendship bonded when Roy helps Bobby carve his own bat. The film's tense climax finds Roy at the plate, bottom of the ninth, two outs, in the biggest game of the year. A pitch (fouled off) shatters his bat, and-you saw it coming-here's Bobby, offering his "Savoy Special." Roy smiles, takes the bat, and on the next pitch smacks a game-winning homer.
I like that story not only because I love baseball and happy endings, but for a deeper reason as well: It works as an analogy for the kind of teamwork so necessary between pastor and people. Their partnership, each helping the other, is a key ingredient to the success of church ministry.
Pastors are people-helpers. That's our job. We're trained for it. There are ample opportunities. Most of the time we're even good at it. But let's be honest-pastors need help, too. Without it, ministry can become lonely and joyless. Both professionally and personally, we need our people to help us.
Often the problem is that barriers are erected from both sides of the pulpit. They may exist because either pastor or people have been hurt. But I've been learning that in most cases, if we're willing to work at it, we can gain much-needed help from our people. But we need to help them help us.
Allowing It to Happen
It was definitely Saturday Afternoon Panic. My young son's hospital stay that week had run my normal schedule through a food processor. Tomorrow's sermon lay half finished on my desk. There was a Sunday school lesson to review, a bulletin to mimeograph, and, oh yeah, Sunday evening service. A ringing phone jarred me out of my daze; it was a woman who did occasional volunteer typing.
"Need help getting ...
Like the preview? To read this complete article
and 20,359 more in the archive—JOIN NOW!
Easily find high-quality, well-researched materials that provide a Christian perspective on topics ranging from headlines to history.
Start using this invaluable tool TODAY for preparing your Bible studies, presentations, class lectures, sermons, meetings, and more.
|
It's easy and quick to join:
Brought to You by Christianity Today Int'l |  |
|
| 
Find similar articles
E-mail this page
