I love listening to sports radio in the morning. A little while ago, I was listening to one of my favorite shows, when the host threw out this statement. “Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks of all time, in fact, I think he is the best”. Well, the talk show instantly got bombarded with tons of calls from people that agreed and disagreed.
It was funny but for the most part the callers that disagreed, absolutely refused to look at things objectively. They only looked at the statement through the eyes of a fan of a particular player.
There were fans of Brett Farvre that said he was the best.
There were fans of Tom Brady that called and said that Peyton couldn't compare with Tom.
There were Steve Young, Ben Rothlesberger, John Elway, and Patrick Mahommes, fans that called in and voiced their opinion.
One guy that called in, said that Peyton Manning was "ok" but Joe Nammath was far superior than number 18. To which, the radio host replied "Joe Namath, are you kidding me? Are you on drugs? Joe Namath? Come on man, Joe Namath was good but he doesn't even deserve to be in the same conversation with Peyton Manning.”
When it comes to sports, when we are a fan of a player or a team, often times our "fanhood" skews our view of reality. So much so that you refuse to let go of the glory days of yesteryear when "Broadway Joe" was the talk of the town. Because we are a "fan" we refuse to look at things objectively and see that it is a new day and that other things, or other people in the present may actually be better than your heroes of yesteryear.
This is true in sports and in church leadership. It is very easy for us to be "fans" of a particular ministry, a program, a style of worship, or method of ministry that worked back in the day. If you are a fan of these things you'll find yourself saying things like "it was amazing", "you should have been there", "God really used this and it was incredible". You know all of those things may be true. But because it is the message and not the method that is sacred, we need to check our "fan-hood" at the door and look at everything we do objectively.
We are called to make disciples that make disciples. That call will never change. However, how we do it may need to change. We may or may not like it. But, this is a new day. The things that worked before may work again, however, they may not.
Far too many people in ministry, are like the person that calls into the radio show trying with everything within them to prove that "Broadway Joe" of yesteryear is absolutely the best. They fight to keep things the same and hold onto old ways. Because they refuse to look at things objectively, they are in danger of becoming much less effective accomplishing the task of making disciples.
When it comes to ministry, let’s look at things objectively, not as a fan.