Coaching, Cussing, Swearing, Loving

I love watching football. I don't want to love it as much as I do, but one of the most wonderful things in the world is to cuddle up with my wife on that couch and lazily enjoy a game. Lately I have been paying more attention to the way different coaches act and respond. Some yell, some swear, some throw things, some look like they have no idea what they are doing, and some look like little kids playing with their friends in the back yard.

It makes me think of pastors. Some yell, some get angry, some laugh, some seem preoccupied with other things, some look confused or awkward, and other appear to be filled with childlike joy. Specifically, it seems that there are some who feel that the way to motivate people is make them feel like crap. Both coaches and pastors use the negative approach at times (yelling, judging, threatening, and putting the fear of God in people). While others can be overly positive, so that even when a person screws everything up its as if the coach or pastor didn't even notice.

In football, a good coach should know what their players need. Some players perform the best under coaches who cuss and swear and yell at them. But other players will never be able to flourish under that type of coaching. And then there are some players who become their best through encouraging and positive coaching, while others would never be motivated by that style. The coaches job is to help their players be the best they can, so they must learn to coach them in a way that most resonates with the player.

Pastors often have one style, and assume it is what their people need. I have heard some say that people ought to leave church aware of their sinfulness (almost leave feeling guilty and fearful), while others do everything to make sure their people leave feeling really good about themselves. Both rub the other the wrong way, both seem to reject the other as a true representation of the Gospel. But maybe, as leaders, it is more important to know our people and lead in a way that helps them the most.

All this to say that I love me some good old fashion preaching filled with fear and trembling, but I am pretty convinced that is not the mode or message that the Gospel can most effectively be communicated in my neighborhood. So I want to learn more and more how to know the People God has placed around them, to catch a vision with them of what God's dreams for them are, and then to work with them to live into that dream. I don't want to be a yeller, I don't want anyone to fear anything, I don't want people to live in or act out of guilt. I want to inspire, I want to encourage, I want to re-imagine being human in the way of Jesus. I want the Good News to be mind blowingly good. I want to guide us together to the path of peace, to the life giving way of Jesus, to love, to hope, to joy.