Two guys in particular bear mentioning about pastoral ministry.
The first was a senior pastor named Pat. As I came to his church, I was a probably more of a nightmare than a dream come true. Like a radiator in a dark room, I had a lot more heat than light (passion without solid content). In fact, at one point he wryly quipped, “You’re high maintenance.” But he wasn’t dissuaded. He gave me books, time, training and an opportunity. And more importantly, he gave me access to him so I could learn and grow.
The second guy was a church planter named Bob. He had just started his church and we were in the planning stages of planting Emmaus. Instead of seeing us in any way as a competitor (we are in the same city), he embraced me as a brother. He opened up his church’s playbook and gave me and my team complete access to everything they do. I met with their pastoral team on many occasions and peppered them all with questions.
What is so unique about both of these relationships is their desire to see me succeed. They both gave up what is most valuable (time, resources and so on) in order to serve me. Not only does this deviate from what you see in business, it is different from what you see in many churches.
