More than a point guard

I’m an A.I. fan.

The rows, the tats, the headband… I’m a fan of all of it. Here is a video of every one of AI’s 31 points in a recent game and some sweet assists he had.

You have to love the thunderous dunks Melo put down. A 5-2 guy can dream can’t he.

I’m identifying with Allen Iverson in several ways. The obvious ways are the cornrows and tattoos. He’s not a traditional point guard. In fact, he’s technically a shooting guard. His talents aren’t super flashy. He shakes and bakes, then drives - often ending up running into someone bigger. Then he gets back up and does it all over again. He can score with a long jumper or a quick layup. His do-you-believe-what-I-just-saw moments aren’t when he scores, it’s when he hits an open teammate for a thunder dunk or an alley-oop (which happened like 30 times in that video). He bears a good amount of the scoring load, but his team wins when the highlight reel is full of others scoring from his passes.

Pastors need to work that way (or at least this one does). They should have a variety of ways to personally score (connecting people with Jesus), but their best work should be getting others the ball. Up to this point, I’ve employed a laid back “here’s the ball, come and get it if you feel God is leading you to” approach. A handful have stepped up, but not too many. As I’ve been praying about getting the ball into the hands of others, I think it’s time to start actively passing them the ball, trusting that God is guiding the passes.

What does this mean?

If you’re part of our family at Branson Community Church, keep your eyes open… A pass might hit you in the head if you’re not looking.