Some interesting developments in the local sports scene this week, what with the firing of Josh McDaniels as the coach of the Denver Broncos. Soon as it was announced yesterday, several national media outlets were reporting that Troy Calhoun, coach of our local Air Force Academy Falcons, was on the short list of candidates to replace McDaniels.
Certainly, Coach Calhoun has the right resume for such an arduous task as taking over the beleaguered Broncos. He was a highly respected assistant with the Broncos during the Shanahan era, and was the offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans before being invited to coach at Air Force, his alma mater. He has led Air Force back to respectability and manages to field a more-than-competitive team despite the Academy's rigorous academic and height and weight standards. You know they're never going to quit and can run with anybody. More than that, Coach Calhoun really buys into the Academy's philosophy of "building leaders of character," which would seem to be rather rare in an era when a lot of big schools are dealing with numerous violations and rather low graduation rates. Air Force rarely sends a player to the NFL, but it sends all of its players into places around the world that protect the country's freedom. The NFL is entertainment. Academy grads play a real game against really dangerous opponents every day.
As soon as the story broke about Coach Calhoun being considered by the Broncos, a lot of us around here were certainly happy for him, but also a little concerned (selfishly so) about he and his family possibly leaving. We all wish the best for those who demonstrate the ability to achieve success and do it with integrity, and who among us wouldn't seriously consider an offer to take the reigns in a position at the top of our professions? It's flattering, and it's tempting, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, like Coach Calhoun, we're certainly qualified for the job.
It got me thinking, though, that pastors are as much prone to dreaming about hitting the big time as many coaches or business executives are. Many is the pastor who starts his or her career in a small, obscure appointment or as an associate pastor on a large church staff, but figures that it's a first step in a process that will lead to a lucrative position in a large church, with the accompanying prestige and paycheck that goes with it. Career-focused pastors tend to think of churches as stepping stones, just one stop on the road to the "real" church that deserves their amazing homiletical skill and charismatic leadership, and will pay them accordingly. Like a coach that strings together a couple of winning seasons and then jumps from the small school to the next tier, many of us pastors are always thinking about what's next.
I have to admit my own dabbling with that kind of ambition. I was in the midst of my first appointment when I foolishly believed that my future was in a larger church than my home conference could provide me, and sought a church that would showcase my "talents" for youth ministry (at the time), and allow me to pursue things like giving seminars and writing books. The senior pastor of the new church told me I could do as much, thus I left the church where I was an associate, left behind the conference, and took on this new "opportunity." The people I left behind felt not a little betrayed and, admittedly, I kind of blew them off in order to get to where I wanted to go. Rarely does a time go by when I don't regret the way I handled that transition.
A theological observation here, but over the years I've discovered that when God wanted to punish someone in Scripture, God usually did it by giving them exactly what they wanted. Israel wanted a king, for example, because every one of the nations around them had one. "You want a king? I'll give you a king in exactly the mold you want." We all know that Saul was a paranoid tyrant, and a pretty lousy leader. They got what they wanted, and it wound up costing them big time.
I feel their pain. I walked into a situation that I thought I was prepared for, that I was sure was "me," and soon came to realize that the reality was not as good as the fantasy. The longer hours, the myriad expectations, the politics of the larger organization, were crushing me. It took me three years, and the help of a good counselor, to realize that I did not have a good handle on my own self-awareness and ambition. One of the most important days of my life was when she said to me, "Let's talk about you."
I learned the hard way that it's so much better to bloom where you're planted or, as my mentor Randy Jessen would say, to make the place you are the place you've always wanted to be. Since that time, I've made and kept a vow that I would never seek out another appointment, but would stay in place and continue to lead and build up a congregation, wherever I was sent to lead, until such time as the Bishop or the church decided that I need to be elsewhere. Knowing that makes it so much easier to stay grounded in the present and give all my energy to the people I'm with, rather than to some mystical church with greener carpets on the other side of my imagination.
Eugene Peterson, in his great little book Under the Unpredictable Plant, says, "The pastoral vocation in America is embarrassingly banal. It is banal because it is pursued under the canons of job efficiency and career management. It is banal because it is reduced to the dimensions of a job description. It is banal because it is an idol–a call from God exchanged for an offer by the devil for work that can be measured and manipulated at the convenience of the worker. Holiness is not banal. Holiness is blazing" (5).
I think that's why today's statement by Coach Calhoun really resonated with me. I think he has learned a lesson that many of us need to learn: that where you are and the people you are with are really a gift. When we are motivated by a mission, rather than ambition, then our life and work will be anything but banal. When you make a commitment to lead a group of people, and you follow through on the that commitment, you are not only able to be an agent of transformation over the long haul, you will also affect people's lives, with God's help, for an eternity. Here's what Coach said in response to the media's reporting of the Bronco's interest in him:
“The Air Force Academy has tremendous General officers and staff members who are remarkably dedicated to the development of our cadets,” Calhoun said in the statement. “It's inspiring that an 18-year-old kid makes a commitment to embed the necessary character traits to grow into a fine young man or woman who honorably serves for at least five years. Our coaching staff and our families are proud to be a part of the daily lives of our nation's future officers. We certainly look forward to seeing our seniors graduate in May along with coaching the Falcons in 2011 and beyond.”
Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/calhoun-109148-denver-down.html#ixzz17UbZSbGR
I found that to be tremendously inspiring, and a real reminder to me that success is best defined by one's character than one's prestige, notoriety, and a bigger paycheck. Coach Calhoun sees those young cadets as his mission right now, and that mission trumps the illusory greener grass of Invesco Field.
Pastors, do you see the people in your congregation as your mission? Are you willing to delay the next move on your agenda to invest your life in them and the community? I can tell you from experience that you won't find true "success" until you do–success that isn't based on metrics that can always be measured and manipulated, but the success that comes from being faithful to the God who sends us and to the people to whom we are sent.
I don't think this is the last time the NFL or a major college will come calling for Coach Calhoun, and some day he might feel ready to make the jump. Good people are hard to find, and they will always be in demand. Same might said for pastors who are called to a new season of ministry.
There's a difference, though, in being released and called to a new place, rather than abandoning and betraying the old one. We do well when we first decide to make the place we are the place we've always wanted to be.
Thanks, Coach, for reinforcing that lesson today!
