From my weekly article at WorldMag.com:
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| photo credit: Boston Public Library via photopin cc |
The Minnesota Twins fooled me until about the second week of May. I thought they might surprise me this season by being good—but no. They are terrible after all, but as I wrote about before the season started, there are perks. I have been able to follow some of the up-and-coming players in the minor leagues. It hasn’t been this way for the past several years for the Twins—that’s a significant reason why they have been so bad in recent seasons. They simply haven’t developed young talent.
One of the things that has lodged in my mind as I’ve followed the careers of these minor leaguers is the parallel between training church leaders and developing baseball talent. It might sound like a stretch, but let me explain. One of the main reasons baseball teams go from good to bad is because they put too much trust in current stars without developing anyone to replace them when the time comes. So when a player changes teams, retires, or is lost to injury, there is a gaping void. Churches fall into this same trap with leadership whether it is the senior pastor, worship pastor, elders, or even Sunday school teachers. Rather than having a ready stable of trained and gifted replacements, churches suffer when a leadership position is vacated.
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