Leaders participate in God’s mission of declaring and demonstrating His Kingdom purposes when they intentionally look around to see others who need someone to believe in them before they even believe in themselves. One of the books I’ve been reading for fun these days (do you read for fun as well as for work?) is the latest book on the life of one of my boyhood heroes, Mickey Mantle. Growing up in Nebraska in the 1950s there was no professional baseball team to root for (there still isn’t today), so you had to look around the country and pick a team. For some reason, I had become spellbound with Mickey Mantle, so I chose the New York Yankees. Playing center field, number 7, Mickey Mantle.
To this day, even though I know of his sin-filled living style, part of me still loves the Mickey Mantle I knew growing up; the one who only played baseball (not the drinker and womanizer I later discovered him to be), the one who played center field with the best combination of speed and power the game has ever witnessed – all on one good leg due to a knee injury suffered during the 1952 World Series and hindered him the rest of his career. Mickey Mantle, number 7. My first and last names have seven letters each, I was born on October 7th, and I’ve always worn number 7 in my sports career (baseball and basketball) whenever I could. Mickey Mantle. Maybe it was ordained that as a young boy I was to fall in love with Mickey Mantle as my boyhood hero.
Having read most other books on Mantle, I naturally ordered the latest treatment on his life, The Last Boy. The first third of the book is a sad story of Mantle’s trying so hard to live up to the expectations of his dad and his first manger, Casey Stengel. Neither man ever encouraged him or affirmed him to his face; they simply reminded him of his greater potential and how he was not fulfilling it. Then at that 1/3 point in the book comes the story of the new manger for the Yankees in 1961, Ralph Houk. Houk had been a coach for the Yankees so he knew Mantle. And what he did in spring training of 1961 not only changed Mantle, but leaves one wondering what could have been if Houk had been his manager from the start of his career.
Houk saw something in Mantle that Mickey did not see in himself. Mickey had only and ever thought of himself as no one special and as a follower, not a leader. Houk though, saw that the other players would follow Mantle and he believed in Mickey. He called Mickey into his office that spring of 1961 and told number seven he was going to make him the team captain. Houk told Mickey, “You should be the leader of our club because everybody respects you and you don’t like to lose. You just go lead in your own way” (The Last Boy, Kindle edition, 2010). Mantle agreed; and then went out and had the greatest start to any year of his career, even better than his triple-crown winning season of 1956.
The author notes that the biggest difference between the regimes of Stengel and Houk was Houk’s selection of Mantle as team captain because it caused Mickey to rethink himself. Mantle said in an interview, “Ralph is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.” Imagine, said one teammate who was close to Mantle, what kind of career this one-legged Hall of Famer would have had with two good knees and confidence.
A leader who is intentional about looking around to see who needs someone to believe in them before they believe in themselves can cause someone to rethink him or herself. This in turn, can cause the course of someone’s life to take a turn for the better and lead them further into the purposes of God for their lives.
I had just such a person do that for me. Ralph Houk came into Mickey Mantle’s life; Charles Miller came into mine. Charles is a Lutheran pastor (now retired) who had been commissioned by the LCA to travel and facilitate charismatic renewal in the Church. By God’s grace he became my dear friend and mentor in the early 1990’s. I was privileged to travel nationally and internationally with Charles while I served as a youth pastor in Rapid City, South Dakota. At some point something began to stir in me and I became frustrated with being a youth pastor, which confused me because I had seen myself as a career youth pastor; one who was going to finish strong in what I considered a critically important function of ministry. I was frustrated and confused. Charles wasn’t. He saw something in me that I did not see in myself – that I was being called out of youth ministry into a different function of ministry, which would included equipping and encouraging adults in God’s call on their lives.
So, Charles and I are in Alberta, Canada one year where he was speaking to pastors and seminary students at an event called the Leadership Training Institute (LTI). I was along to play guitar, lead worship and just spend time with Charles. One day during the LTI, the one o’clock afternoon session was to be a workshop on the topic of “Vision.” Charles knew I had been doing quite a bit of reading and writing on this topic, and though the senior pastor of my own church had not initially noticed it nor been willing to make a way for me to put it to use once he did become aware of it, Charles saw something he believed needed to be given a platform. When we came back after lunch for the afternoon session he looked at the gathering and said, “I’m supposed to speak on the topic of vision this afternoon, but there’s someone here who can speak to the issue better than I can. Mike, come up here and speak to us about vision.” I thought Charles was joking and so did everyone else, evidenced by their laughing at Charles’ “joke.” But Charles wasn’t joking. In fact, he was walking toward where I was sitting. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Just go share some of the things you’ve been telling me about, with them.” I stood up on shaking knees, walked to the front of the room, stood behind the podium, sheepishly looked out at the startled faces and said, “We’d better pray.” We did, and four hours later, after some sharing from me, some time for discussion, and much prayer ministry between class participants, we were done.
This was my first step out of youth ministry (a ministry I still love and have high regard for) to what I am doing now – serving as the president of a seminary and the director of a church network. All because a leader was intentional about looking around for someone he could believe in before that person even believed in himself.
Who is it around you that God wants you to be intentional about believing in? Who is it you can help “rethink” their own self-talk and sense of identity? Who is it you can create a platform for and help launch into the further purposes of God for their lives? As God shows you who that person is in your sphere of influence already, or who it is as He brings them into your life, please take the time and make the effort Charles did for me. What Ralph Houk did for Mickey Mantle changed his life. What Charles did for me changed mine. What you do for someone who needs you to believe in them will change theirs too.
