This phrase always makes me think of the time I accidentally hit my sister in the head with an aluminum baseball bat, but that’s a story for another time. Suffice to say, I kept my eye on the ball that time at least. This phrase is usually used in connection with baseball, but it’s not uncommon to hear it mentioned quietly on the golf course (sometimes every hole if you have the misfortune to ever play with me), and it, like so many sports phrases has been commandeered for regular life use as well. It’s used to encourage someone or someones to stay focused on the main thing, or central priority in a particular situation. I think of it frequently in reference to my job, youth ministry. Here’s what I mean… American youth ministry is particularly cluttered with “stuff”. There are a million programs, strategies, events, conferences, concerts, studies, people, presentations, devices, and plans being hawked out there, almost all promising to achieve the wrong results. It’s very easy to loose focus in youth ministry when you are constantly bombarded by these clarion calls for the latest, greatest strategy for effective youth ministry. I have it easy actually, due to the fact that our church does not easily get distracted with such things and the entire pastoral staff have been Youth Pastors at our church, a wonderful reality that affords me a fairly rare resource in ministry. So, to the point, I was reading a blog that I sometimes go to and thought I’d share an interesting contrast in the form of two articles written by two youth pastors. I’ll intro both of them and I hope you enjoy… First is the article entitled “Learn”, cool format, easy to read, but some glaring items missing from the list: “Learn” Now it just so happened that the very next post from a different youth pastor was this article which does a very nice job of walking us through the purpose and goal of ministry… Btw, it’s written with Youth leaders in mind, but it’s a great article for parents as well… “Time Isn’t Enough” I normally don’t agree with much from youth pastor blogs, but this last article was a refreshing read and an encouraging one. It reminded me from Scripture to keep my eye on the ball… Geoff
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My Dear Wormwood