“Clear your schedule. You’re going with me on hospital visitation today.”
When I had only been a student pastor for a week, my senior pastor, Steve, took me to do a visit in the hospital for one of our church members. I was just starting in ministry and didn’t realize I was on a training day for something I would do for decades as a pastor.
We drove an hour to the hospital, visited our church member, never sat down, prayed for them, and drove an hour back home. During the visit, he modeled for me and allowed me to assist in praying before we left.
To my shock, I was on my own the next week. I thought to myself, “How hard could this be? I got this.”
I had two people to see, Mr. Little and Mr. Rutland. I didn’t know either, nor their spouses. My fiancée rode with me to give me some moral support. The moment of truth came, and I walked into the surgical waiting room to speak to the first church member’s wife.
I offered up a prayer. She looked at me a bit strange, but I didn’t think anything of it.
In the hallway, feeling pretty good about myself, I asked my fiancée how she thought it went. She giggled a bit and said, “Well, you kept praying for Mr. Little by name to be healed.”
I said, “I wanted her to know I knew her and make it personal.”
She said, “You were speaking to Mrs. Rutland, not Mrs. Little.”
We are in a crisis. We have a generation of Timothys who need to be developed. A generation of Timothys with no Paul will result in a generation of churches with no pastor. In SCBaptist churches, we have over 180 churches without a pastor. Pastors must become intentional with urging men to obey God’s call to be pastors and saying four powerful words: “I see in you.”
Church laity play a crucial role in this development process, allowing young pastors to preach and to serve in the interim between pastors. Church leaders need to pray and encourage more than gossip and disengage when younger pastors are not performing like their former pastor. Churches will need to embrace younger pastors and extend grace while allowing them to make a few mistakes along the way.
Mrs. Rutland was very gracious to me that day. When I saw her at church, I apologized and she said, “Don’t worry about that. You were just so cute, I didn’t want to discourage you. And Mr. Rutland is doing just fine.”
Who do you need to take with you this week? Have an “I see in you” conversation, and go.
— Lee Clamp is associate executive director-treasurer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.