I once heard an Aston Villa manager say about one of his players that he was a "consistent 7/10 in every game"; and that he didn't want any 9/10s or 5/10s, he was happy with 7/10 from him week in, week out. He didn't say much more than that but it really stuck in my mind and I've been pondering it since. "Could having a 'good' player be better than having an 'excellent' player?" I thought to myself.
I wonder if ministry is much like that, and Christian ministers like stroppy footballers. We want the dizzy heights of the 9/10s but to be quite honest, we can't really handle it. It's too close to excellence, to perfection. We have much more to grow in than we often care to acknowledge. We'd much prefer to defer to thinking we have it made. We prefer to be much closer to the ceiling of deity than we really deserve.
After all, as any young English player would testify, hit a 9/10 and the press will hail you as the new Christ of English football, then flog you when you fail to perform next time out. I wonder if the Kingdom of God was to be a football team, if it would be less of a Manchester City and more like a Aston Villa, its players more like Barry Brennans and Marc Albrightons than Carlos Tevezs and Mario Balotellis.
I'm grateful for the folk around me who, in wanting to encourage me, told me that I had done a "good job", or am a "good leader". By which I mean those who carefully and incisively told me I was 7/10, rather than using the lazy 9/10 language of "awesome" and "amazing". In any case, I know I think too highly of myself - and could totally use the humbling. Yet, paradoxically, I am probably more in need of the encouragement than I choose to let on.
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