OK, now that I've got your attention with that title, let me elaborate:
One of the current buzzwords I keep seeing and reading in sports coverage is "coaching tree." I guess technically, that would be a buzz phrase. But, you know what I mean. A "coaching tree" refers to a single, respected, and successful coach and his/her assistant coaches. The assistant coaches then move on into other coaching jobs, eventually becoming head coaches themselves. They are then evaluated on how faithful they have been to the original coach's philosophy, and how successful they are in terms of Wins and Losses. This phrase gets tossed around a great deal this time of year in the NFL, as teams are in the midst of firing head coaches and hiring new ones, as well as promoting others and tweaking the coaching staff.
It's very possible to trace the coaching trees in the NFL. I started to wonder if we could apply this same theory to pastors. It's not an exact 1-1 comparison, but it may be helpful. I don't know. After all, I know that I had professors at the Sem I really respected. I have mentors that I look up to and call on. And, getting back to the professor part of it, it's no secret that different profs have "cults of personality" around them. On a bigger scale, there's always the stereotype of, "No wonder you're like that. You went to (insert seminary of choice here).
The next aspect then would be tracing your pastoral philosophy to people you influence. Maybe this only works on a personal level. I'm not sure any of my profs or mentors is famous enough in my church body to have begun a "ministry tree." How would you know? How would you judge success?
