October 2025

Good morning,

Sometimes the world can describe pastoring better than we can.

The late Bob Uecker was one of Major League Baseball's least known players. As a backup catcher in the 1960's, playing on four different teams over six seasons, Uecker posted an unremarkable career batting average of just .200. He grounded into more double plays than home runs hit. In 1967, despite playing in only 59 of the 162 games, he led the league in passed balls.

However, in 2003, Uecker received the sports highest honor — induction into baseball's Hall of Fame.

Obviously, Bob wasn't honored for his sub-par career. Rather, it was the 54 years of fresh wit and comedic perspective while serving as the Milwaukee Brewers play-by-play announcer. Listeners loved his catch phrases. "Get up! Get up! Get outta here!" when a Brewers player hit a home run. And, when describing a wild pitch, "Juuuuuuust a bit outside."

His self-deprecating persona — so rare within pro sports — endeared him to his audience. He appeared 100 times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where we heard…

• "I was once named Minor League Player of the Year. Unfortunately, I'd been in the majors for two years at the time."


• "The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling around, and then pick it up."


• "My top salary was $17,000, and 11 of that came from selling other players' equipment."


• "I knew my career was over when my baseball card came out with no picture."

However, the Bob Uecker story that hangs in my mind was when he spoke about his son. Bob's reference was baseball, pure and simple. But it had a quasi-ministry feeling to it.

"The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my son Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was so proud!"

Every pastor has swung and missed more than a few times. We've all made costly errors in judgment. And we've all been the target of unmerited criticisms, even from members of our own team.

All of this came to mind as I was reading John 15.18. That was the occasion when Christ was prepping His disciples on what to expect as they served Him. "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you."

Later, Christ spoke to the Father on their behalf: "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17.14-15)

The repetition in Jesus' words underscores the fact that the hostility we often face isn't about us … it's about Him.

Nor did Jesus ask the Father to "take [us] out of the world," That's because our assignment wouldn't be completed if He did. Reaching the lost can't be done in heaven, only here.

The late Vance Havner said, "A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. The problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart."

In six words, Jesus gave the answer to Havner's pickle: "In Me you may have peace." (Jn 16.33)

This divine peace is as different as heaven is from earth, because it comes with a supernatural boldness. The Book of Acts is filled with examples — Stephen (chapter 7), Philip (chapter 8), Ananias (chapter 9), Barnabas (chapter 13), Silas (chapter 18), and Paul (chapter 26).

So, to borrow from Bob Uecker's story, God is sending His own sons (you and me) back into the battle to fight the good fight, to finish the course and to keep the faith. (2Tim 4.7) And I can almost hear Him saying, "Gosh, I'm so proud!"

Blessings,