Watching someone grow

One of the things first-call pastors don't have in our ministry toolkit is the wisdom that comes from watching people grow over time and learning through observation how personal transformation that sticks actually happens.

I've see people makes lots of short term changes in four plus years. Folks come into the church, talking a great game. I've been privy to soul-searching moments, halfway or halfwitted initiatives at personal transformation, pledges to serve or pray or worship every week. I see lots of lightning flashes. They come and go.

I'm just now realizing that long-term change and growth in your congregants is where a pastor's greatest joy comes from.

Had coffee this morning with a person I've known for a few years at church. He has always impressed me with his intelligence and sense of humor. He's come and gone a bit over those years--like a migratory bird, he'll have seasons where he stays and some where he's a stranger to the place. But always I knew there was something going on in him. I always knew something... I just never knew whether it would be a spiritual awakening, or whether the light would flicker out and I'd never see him again.

This morning, the light shining from him was brilliant. Beautiful, elegant phrases, flowing from his lips, evidence of the deep exploration he's been doing about his past, his gifts, his life. There was joy, even jubilance, in his voice as he talked about his passion to pour his life into the places where his deepest values are: service to the poor and friendship.

He was on fire. Reminded me of the way I was when I first was found and called by my own name.

That he trusted me to pour out these riches before me was almost embarrassing.

He's not much for "formal" religion or religious language, but I'd swear that I've never seen a person who so seems to have fit that phrase from John 3, "born again." This was no ecstatic experience--this was Spirit-ed change in a human life. I didn't tell him for the sake of not wanting to embarrass him. I don't claim any credit in this transformation, but it sure did make me happy all day long. Not just happy--joyful.