mgpcpastor's blog

A great post by Zack Eswine, who points out that in a world that values speed and productivity, the pastor’s skill set really revolves around endurance and generosity of spirit.

Finding our “Game Speed” as Pastors

“I want you to practice at game speed!” the coach shouted. As his voice echoed and bounced off of the gym walls my third grader was wide eyed and full-eared. This was his first basketball camp. “I don’t care if you make mistakes!” the coach bellowed. “But I do care that you don’t lolly gag around! Ten minutes of practice at game speed is better than thirty minutes of casually shooting and dribbling!” The coach’s point is a good one. We play the way we practice. We should practice the way we play. This is how teams win games. I got to thinking. How does this principle apply to trying to succeed as a pastor? Asking the question a problem rises. A tension challenges us.

The Problem and the Tension
Why? Because the business of the pastor is our neighbor’s interest and growth in Jesus along with the way of life that Jesus recovers for us. The problem for us is that as a norm Jesus reorients us to Himself in a slow and simmering kind of way over the course of time among an ongoing acquaintance with the means of His grace. This slow advance in likeness to Jesus requires that pastors possess the kind of skills requisite for such gracious plodding.
And this is where the tension challenges us. Most of us have trained for pastoral ministry as if the “game speed” of the pastorate requires a quantity of results all at once. We’ve learned languages in thirteen weeks, skimmed books in thirteen minutes and mastered divinity in six semester bursts of adrenaline, reddened eyes, missed time with wife and kids and breath that both smells and depends upon coffee or mountain dew. Many of us also find ourselves in organizational ministry structures that likewise measure our daily ministry output on this same value of doing the most amount of work in the least amount of time for the biggest amount of influence.
We are prepared for a “game speed” that values results large and fast only to find that most days require our patience and our ongoing presence among unfinished people whom we can neither fix lightly nor heal quickly. Praying quickly, loudly and once doesn’t mend most things. Ours is a repetitious visitation of prayers and presence through the tragedies and triumphs of the handful of neighbors with whom we are to live as their pastor. This game speed needs players who are practiced in stamina, waiting, self-control, patience, listening, slow pacing, perseverance, silences, unfixed dilemmas and uncontrollable circumstances in Jesus.

Practicing a Jesus Pace
What kind of practice do we pastors need in order to equip us with those kinds of skills necessary for what a pastoral “game speed” often requires?
Jesus paces slow with us. He long suffers, waits for the right timing in our lives, bears us up and even though He has said something to us He teaches it again as we delay to understand His meaning. For most of us, Jesus has chosen a “game speed” that is generous in its mercy and strong in its ability to take a long view with us. Our souls are different than our events, programs and sermons. By their nature they require tending over a long period with frequent visits and lots of grace.