The Mind of a Scout

I love baseball.  Just last night I had the opportunity to attend a triple-A minor league game.  The reason that it was such a joy was that the manager for the major league team was at the game.  He was there because the major league team did not have a game that night so he wanted to watch some of his “future stars”.  They put on a good show for the big boss.

Sitting with the major league manager were most of the scouts with the organization.  It was fun hearing their stories and just talking baseball.  Did I tell you that I love baseball?

The scout is the most important position a winning professional baseball team.  Every pastor, every minister of education, every youth minister, and every Sunday School Director needs to have the mind-set of a professional baseball scout.

Sean McAdams said this about scouting.  “The stakes are higher, the cost is greater, and the secrets are fewer. But for those that make their living as scouts, beating baseball’s bushes for amateur talent, the charge is still the same; find — and sign — as many good players as possible.”

For those of us serving the Lord’s work we can say for sure that the stakes are high!  This about heaven and hell, eternal life!  It doesn’t get much more serious than that!  You ask any leader in a growing church and they will tell you that the cost was very high!  A growing healthy Sunday School just doesn’t happen, there is a price to pay!  The truth is that having a growing Sunday School is not rocket science.  It is just hard work!  Have folks ask me, “What has been the secret to your success”?  The answer is simply “WORK”!

Notice what Sean says about scouting, the goal of scouting.  He says that goal is finding as many players as possible.  Notice what else he says, he says good players.  He doesn’t say great players or hall of fame players; he simply says find some good ones and coach them up to be great players.  I think too many times we as church leaders are looking for that perfect Sunday School teacher when really what we need to do is find the good and then train them to be great.

The work of the professional scout is just the beginning point but it is vital to the success of the team.  We need to be more like scouts.  Always looking for new Sunday School leaders.

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