Pastor Appreciation - Dr. Gary Ball

The month of October is often set aside as "pastor appreciation month," a time when congregations and parishioners honor and appreciate their pastors.  The churches I have served always did a great job of making me feel appreciated during this time. (Canton First church did something special for me and my family every Sunday in October!) This time of year was always encouraging as people sent me cards and notes expressing their appreciation and love. I still have some of these cards close to my desk for days when I need a little encouragement.

This month I have decided to highlight some of the pastors that have helped to shape and impact my life and ministry. I hope you enjoy reading about these awesome servants of Gods Kingdom. I also hope you find a way to communicate to your pastor how much you love and appreciate him or her.

Dr. Gary Ball -

When I moved to Nashville Tennessee to begin attending Trevecca Nazarene University I started looking for a new church to call home. I visited several different places but I had a hard time settling on a church to call home. My roommate at the time started getting connected at Nashville Grace Church of the Nazarene and many Sundays it was easy just ride with him to church. Dr. Gary Ball was the pastor of the church and I really liked him. I enjoyed his style of preaching, the way he interacted with his people and his vision for the future of the church. I also enjoyed that he made college students feel welcome and even gave them opportunities to serve and belong in the church.

One particular semester I was enrolled in a pastoral ministry class that required each student to be paired with a senior pastor from the community for a several month internship. I was blessed to have been assigned Dr. Gary Ball at Nashville Grace Church as my pastor for the semester. I spent a good amount of one on one time with Pastor Ball in his office, at restaurants, and on Sunday mornings. As I look back on my time learning how to pastor from him there are several things that stand out.

Pastor Ball was a man of prayer and a man of faith. I know we expect our pastors to be people who pray, but Pastor Ball took things to another level. He prayed as if he thought God was really really listening, and as if God was really going to answer his prayers! He didn't view prayer as some casual thing but rather had a sense of awe, reverence and childlike faith when he spoke to God. I remember riding in a car with him and he would pray for the people around him on the road. He called this, "splashing prayer." I remember him dropping me off on campus after a great lunch when he grabbed my hand and prayed over me and tough decision I was about to make along with praying about a test I was worried about. He instilled in me that prayer matters, that it is a privilege to care for the people in our congregations by taking their needs to God though prayer.

Pastor Ball was also a great leader for his church. I learned from him processes and structures to put in place to help my church run effectively. I have used materials he gave me on developing a mission and vision for a church at all the churches I have lead. Once, several years after leaving college, I called him to brainstorm some ideas for a church board retreat. The best advice he gave for that weekend was, "make sure you have a lot of fun together!" The advice was simple and profound. I had planned a rigid structure for the retreat and ended up condensing things to focus on having fun and building relationship between my board members. We played games, told stories, laughed and relaxed together during that retreat and it help to solidify my board members as a team.

One other characteristic I valued in Pastor Ball was the care and hospitality he extended to the people around him. He is a generous man. During my internship I was required to participate in the various activities of the church; I had to preach, pray, visit parishioners and one Sunday I had to help serve communion. I was a poor college student at the time and I did what I could to get by. The one pair of black dress shoes I owned were falling apart and since I didn't have money to buy new ones I stapled them together and covered the staples with shoe polish! Apparently it was noticeable. Knowing I would be on the platform the next Sunday serving communion Pastor Ball talked to me in the lobby and asked me if I needed some new dress shoes. I pretended mine were fine until I noticed the shoe polish had worn off and it was abundantly clear that I had stapled them together! He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large bill saying he wanted to buy me a new pair of dress shoes. I wore those shoes until they had a hole in the sole because the reminded me of his generosity. My wife eventually forced me to retire them for a new pair! He didn't buy my shoes out of pride or arrogance, he bought them because he saw a need and he had the ability to help.

I almost had to leave school my final semester because I didn't have enough money to pay my school bill. Pastor Ball and his wife Brenda generously opened their home to me for almost three months so I could save money on room and board. They gave me my own bedroom and bathroom, cleared out a cabinet in their kitchen for me to have as my own and they even allowed me to sleep at night with their Cocker Spaniel Roscoe! Again he modeled hospitality and generosity to me. He did not view his "stuff" as his own but as tools that God had blessed him with to bless others. He extended this generosity to many other people in various ways. He appeared to live his life as if he were looking for opportunities to bless other people.

Today I extend my appreciation to Dr. Ball. Thank you for modeling to me what a good pastor and a good servant of Jesus looks likes. Thank you for opening your home to a needy college student. Thank you for teaching me the importance and power of prayer. Thank you for teaching me how to lead with vision and purpose. Thank you for teaching me how to care for others in need.