We Need a Pitcher, Not a Belly-Itcher

Written by Dan Istvanik

Do you remember the old school yard baseball game chant – “We need a pitcher not a belly-itcher”?

Did you ever have the traumatic moment playing some version of baseball and have a group start chanting that at you?

It usually happened after a couple bad throws or after you had lost your “heat”. Sometimes it was just to mess with you.

The phrase however has been ringing in my ears lately, when it comes to teaching my jr. high students.

In a slightly different way, but it still held some of the same emphasis and thought.

Am I “on the ball” when it comes to my teaching or am I just throwing out lesson that are “belly-itchers”?

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears (*and bellies?) they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions..” 2 Tim. 4:3 (NASB)

Wiffle Ball

I love wiffle balls. Who doesn’t? It is how we all started playing baseball.

My 6 year old son just loves to grab his little toy pitching machine, load it up with wiffle balls and slug away in the backyard.

They are fun, easy to hit and great for younger players.

They also hold great memories of childhood but if you are going to play a serious game of baseball as an adult you can’t stay playing with a wiffle ball.

So, are we wiffle ball teaching our middle school students?

Are we creating and teaching lessons that are based on childish and immature things (I Cor. 13:11)?

It is easy to offer up a nice fun lesson on an easy to handle topic that our student will have no problem “knocking over the fence”.

There is a time and place for that, but junior high is also the time to dig deep with students. It’s a critical age that sets them up for the rest of their teenage years and beyond into young adulthood.

It might be time we step up our game and warm up the arm for something a bit more.

Church Softball 

Church softball is a bit more intense and competitive than wiffle ball.

There are more rules, teams, and the ball is pitched (no wiffle ball stand). The game is a step up from wiffle ball. However, most of the time spectators are half paying attention, texting and chatting as they watch the game.

What are our lessons about and what are they like?

Are our lessons just a quick lob of a few big topics, wedged in between fellowship and relationship building?

I can’t count the number of times I have heard that junior highers don’t listen, and they won’t remember what we teach – so just do whatever because relationships are the point anyway.

What would happen if while building solid relationship and fellowship times, we also took on some hard topics in a way that was interesting, intelligent and informing?

Our world is playing hardball with our students.

Are we pitching them lessons that are going to prepare them to start making some solid hits?

Hardball


You ever got a solid hit off of a great fast ball pitch?

The feeling of a hard ball coming at you is scary and exciting at the same time.

You want to hit it and not get hit.

The skilled, strong pitcher stares you down and then gives it all he’s got.

It comes in hard and fast near where you are standing.

It is at this point that we move from the wiffle ball of childhood topics, incorporate some of the church softball of fellowship and fun, and move on to something that makes a big impact.

It’s time for us to include some hardball teaching.

It is important to hit our students square in the head (in a good way).

We as skilled, prepared pitchers of God’s Word.

It takes wisdom to take aim at where are student are at.

The hope is that they will be able to handle it and take a good solid swing at what we are throwing.

If they don’t get a good hit, they might also learn just as much by getting hit in the head with the power of God’s Word being taught (Heb. 4:12).

It is time to start playing more hardball!

Reflection

So how’s your game?

What are you pitching this coming week?

What are the hardball topics that need to be taught that you are working through?

What are the ways we can move each other from “itchers” to “pitchers”?

Dan Istvanik is 38 years old and has been married to his wife Melissa for over 12 years.  They have two children, Jenna (8 years old) and Kaleb (5 years old).Dan is currently the “Jr. High Youth Pastor” at Berean Baptist Church in Mansfield, Ohio where he has been serving for over 8 years. He has been doing youth ministry for close to 19 years. Dan is a regular writer and contributor to both “Group Magazine” and “Youthworker Journal”. Besides being a curriculum writer for JuniorHighMinistry.org, he has also written some curriculum for other sights as well.