Feb 5, 2010
Hurry, We’ve Got to Get to the Hospital
Hurry, We’ve Got to Get to the Hospital
“Derek, this is PT (Pastor Ted). Could you meet me at the church building? I need to get to the hospital quickly. Within the hour, Kevin’s dad is undergoing emergency surgery. He has a life-threatening aneurysm. If we can, we’ll see him briefly. If he’s already been taken into surgery, we’ll spend some time with Kevin and his mom. You know that both of his parents are lost. I’d love to have you go with me.”
Derek agrees. On the way to the hospital I ask him, “If you were making this visit alone, what d’ya think you’d try to do?” Derek’s answer is good – he hits a double, but I need to bring ‘em in. So, I set forth some additional goals, suggest a strategy, remind him that things may
not go as we plan, park the car and pray. The visit was made. We got to pray with Kevin’s dad, spend some helpful time with our brother in Christ and his mom (showing her Christian compassion) and tactfully share the Gospel. The four of us took a short walk down the hall to the chapel, where I read a verse of Scripture and asked Derek to pray.
On our way back to the church parking lot, I asked my young pastoral student how he thought things went, what we could have done better, what he learned from the experience and if he wanted to sit in on a baptismal interview next Saturday morning. We prayed again for God’s blessing on the visit and said goodbye. As Derek was closing my car door, he said something like, “PT, thanks so much for thinking of me tonight. I learned tons! I have so much to learn but I must confess that experiences like this fire me up to be a pastor.”
The preceding story was partly factual but entirely realistic with regard to the pastoral mentoring component of MCTS. In addition to giving our guys a solid, theological education (“informed scholarship”), we believe God has also called us to mold and shape them pastorally – s.h.a.p.e. (shepherds helping aspiring pastors experientially). We’re so convinced of this responsibility that we actually give credit for a course called Pastoral Mentoring.
What could be better than sitting under gifted and knowledgeable seminary professors? The answer is sitting under gifted and knowledgeable seminary professors who are also your pastors – men who can take you into elders’ meetings, premarital counseling sessions, pastoral care meetings, funeral home visits, sermon preparation, family devotions as well as Starbucks for some “hang time.”
Concerning the council of Jerusalem we read, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The pastor-professors of MCTS are not Jesus. They just want to be like him, and hope their students will mature not only by hearing from them in the classroom, but by being with them in other settings. If you want to meet the real Derek or Mark or Justin or Brandon or Larry or Matt or…, let us know. We’ll hook you up.
Ted Christman
Pastor for Counseling and Mentoring
Comments
Brandon Queen on Feb 6, 2010 5:51pm
I love this. "S.H.A.P.E." is a great acronym. Who do I need to congratulate for coming up with that one?
Richard Barcellos on Feb 6, 2010 8:22pm
Someone much wiser (and older) than I.