I Am a Pastor: Things I Learned From Mr. Scott

Last night, I learned that Bob Scott passed away. In the history of the world, there have no doubt been countless men named Bob Scott, but there has only ever been one Bob Scott. As a husband and father, he was surely among the best. For those who wanted to learn, he was a superb math teacher. (For proof of this, ask my wife. She hated math, and Wendy S and I did not help the matter! But Mr. Scott came to her desk daily to make sure she understood.) And as a coach, there can be few who have left a much greater legacy than Bob Scott.

You see, Bob Scott was a living legend. While at Winona State, he ran track and helped pioneer the cross country program. After college, he became a math teacher and coach. For 43 years, he coached four different high schools, 39 of them at North Fayette High School, where I graduated. There, he started the boys’ and girls’ cross country program and girls’ basketball program, and he coached the track and field team. His girls’ cross country program won one state title and five second-place finishes. His boys’ track team finished four times among the top three teams in the state and won its conference title every one of his last thirteen years as coach. No other team in the conference has ever accomplished such a thing.

In short, while Mr. Scott’s teams may not have been champions every year, you could never count them out until the year was completely done.

There were reasons why Mr. Scott was so consistently successful, and in those reasons are a number of lessons which can be applied to life in general, and ministry in particular.

1. Be a team player.

Many people think cross country and track are individual sports, and in some ways, that is certainly true. The individual runs the entire course or event, and often, they are all by themselves as they do it. Even in relay races, teams perform one at a time. Yet, Mr. Scott drilled into his runners’ minds the fact that they were a team. He made sure that everyone understood how the team scoring worked, trained them on the cross country course to stick together for as long as possible so they would finish closer together, and challenged them regularly to cheer for everyone on the team, even when they were not competing. And demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach, in 2006, Mr. Scott’s boys’ track team won a state title without winning a single event. Truly, his runners competed as a team. Even if they did not all cross the finish line at the same time, when even one person won, they celebrated as a team. When even one person lost, or was injured, they did that as a team, too.

Pastors certainly know what it feels like to be all by themselves. Even though they have denominations and networks and ministerial associations, pastors often feel like they are out on the course alone. But it does not have to be this way.

Pastors need to understand how the team wins. Typically, this is quantified (Being a math teacher, Mr. Scott would have loved that word!) in terms of salvations, baptisms, offerings, construction projects, etc. We understand that. What is less clear, I fear, is how each pastor contributes to the team to help it win. For instance, denominations and associations often celebrate those churches who post the most salvations and baptisms. This is appropriate, but it also means that all of the spotlight goes to the front runners. Just as Mr. Scott helped his runners understand that even the last runner on the team contributed to the win, we need to help every pastor, regardless of the size of his or her church, understand the part that he or she plays – or can play – to help the team win.

Pastors need to celebrate when even one person wins. To do this, pastors must stop begrudging the pastors and churches who are leading the way. Not long ago, I sat on a panel with several other pastors to answer questions of some local ministerial students. One of the questions was how our churches minister in the shadow of the local megachurch that everyone knows. One of the other panel members responded by accusing the megachurch of shallow teaching and ineffective ministry. Apparently, he had never read Mark 9:38-41: “Whoever is not against us is for us!” Mr. Scott taught us day after day that, rather than lament that we were not as fast as the lead runner, we should endeavor to get just a little closer to him. Pastors, celebrate with those who are seeing success, and try to be a little more like them each day.

Conversely, pastors need to stop ignoring the pastors and churches who are trailing the pack. Often on a cross country course, the runners are followed by a chase vehicle to ensure that no one gets lost or hurt. The worst place in the world is to be the runner in front of the chase vehicle. You can hear the crowd cheering for the pack in front of you, but by the time you arrive, everyone is gone, and you cross the line in silence and disgrace. Mr. Scott drilled into our heads that we did not leave the course until the last runner crossed the finish line. We were expected to spread out along the course and cheer for that person so that they were never alone. Pastors, how encouraging would it be for those who are struggling to have someone who is more successful come alongside not to chide them or offer tips on how to do things better, but just to cheer them on, to celebrate their successes, meager as they may be, and to mourn with them their hurts and losses. To help them know that, whatever is going on, they are not alone.

2. Set realistically high expectations and keep raising them.

After every cross country and track meet, Mr. Scott would hunt down each of his athletes and make sure they knew the time they had run or the height/distance they had thrown or jumped. As he debriefed the runner, he made sure to point out PR’s, a.k.a., personal records. And he would tell the athlete what he thought he or she could do next time and what needed to be done to make that possible. Between competitions, then, Mr. Scott would routinely challenge athletes to practice at a pace just beyond what they had ever run. I still remember the first time I saw my name in a group that was slated to run a ridiculously fast pacing exercise during cross country. I complained loudly that I had never run that fast, and his response was that I would need to get over that if I was going to catch the 800m record on the track. Mr. Scott’s high expectations extended beyond the course, though. His runners were expected to excel academically and in civic activities. Truly, he set the bar high, but never quite out of reach. And each time we reached it, he would raise it that much more.

Pastors need to take this lesson to heart. Too often, they err toward one of two extremes, setting the bar either too high or too low. When set too high, the unachievable goal becomes a source of discouragement and defeat. Bitterness sets in, and the pastor inevitably burns out. When set too low, the pastor skates along in mediocrity, at best.

Neither option is acceptable.

I did not learn this lesson right away. Rather, I learned it the hard way. As a sophomore in college, I skated through a literature class. At the end of the semester, I received a C by the grace of God and Dr. Edwards. Then, when it came time to graduate, I missed graduating with honors by a couple of hundredths of a grade point. How often is it the pastor’s own lack of ambition which keeps him or her from achieving what God has called them to!

On the other hand, as a rookie pastor, I set some goals for myself which were plainly outrageous. I truly believed that my church would immediately experience explosive revival and growth simply because I had arrived. When that did not happen in the first year, I decided it would probably take three or five years. When it still did not happen, I really struggled. I had to realize that the church already had a Savior, and I was not him. And I had to go back to Mr. Scott and learn how to set realistically high expectations and keep raising them.

3. Sometimes, you have to take a break.

Every day, Mr. Scott would post the workout regimen outside the locker rooms for his athletes to see. Every day, we would study the regimen to make sure we knew where we were going and what we were doing. And every day, we would groan when we realized that, yet again, the root word of workout was “work.” I still remember the first time I read “Airport Extended” on the regimen. The route which we knew as “Airport” was four miles long, out of town to the north, east on the road that went past the airport, and back into town on the highway. Airport Extended kept going past the airport onto gravel roads, winding through the countryside for more like eight miles. I had never run that far before! Another route that we took only a few times, “Airport-Cannon” was even longer. And then there were the days when we ran a shorter route to “warm up” and then worked on pacing. It would be impossible to count how many times we ran the half-mile from the back corner of the school property to the berm above the football field or scaled the great sledding hill behind the elementary school. But I also remember the first time Mr. Scott came to me and asked how the guys in my group were doing. When I told him that we were dragging, he ended the practice immediately. We told him that we would finish the workout, but he insisted that we needed to take a break.

Sometimes, pastors have to take a break. Several years ago, I read a study which indicated that pastors who work less than 52 hours per week are dramatically more likely to be fired. Many work dramatically more than that. It is ironic because the first thing which God called holy in all of Scripture was the Sabbath, and throughout the Old Testament, one of the key distinctions of God’s people was the fact that they took that weekly break. Moreover, three times per year, Jews were expected to take a longer break and celebrate a feast. And let’s not even start on the co-vocational crowd!

I believe pastors should work hard. I try to work hard. God did work six days and rest one. But I am also convinced that pastors are supposed to press against the cultural norm of overworking by resting well, too. Resting well distinguishes God’s people from the rest of the world. It is a key part of being holy. It helps us get more done when we are working. And it just helps us be in a better mood.

Conversely, not resting leads to a bunch of bad things, including burnout.

So take a break. Obviously, the ideal is a day of Sabbath every week and probably three weeks of vacation scattered throughout the year. Perhaps, though, that is not feasible for you. I would suggest the minimum should be a half-day every week and a week of vacation every year. The point, however, is to plan to take regular breaks from work, and then actually take them.

You know, I could probably pull out more lessons that I learned from Mr. Scott. I have not, for example, even considered what he taught me in math. The bottom line, though, is that he was a legendary coach who changed the lives of countless men and women over the years. I am privileged to count myself among them. And the lessons he taught carry far beyond the classroom or the track. If we want to be the best at what we do, and if we want to make a difference in the lives of others, then they are lessons we should apply every day in ministry.