As a boy, I played Little League baseball (and dreamed of playing in the Majors). One year, our team had a player whose dad was also our manager. David was a first year player, so he didn’t play a lot and he let the world know he wasn’t happy about it. He would pout, stomp and storm about, embarrassing us, if not himself. But no amount of whining or cajoling could convince his father to put him in the game.

Until the game.

We were playing the division leaders and our team down by a run late in the game when we put two men on base. Due to an injury, we needed a pinch-hitter. As our manager made his way from the third base coach’s box toward the dugout, David was already up and moving toward the on-deck circle, bat in hand, clearly intent on inserting himself into the game. His dad looked down the bench even though he knew he had no choice: he had to let little David pinch hit. David had already figured it out. Helmet already on his head and bat in hand, he strode toward the batter’s box. Our opponents relaxed, the final out, in their minds, a sure thing, and we congratulated ourselves on how close we had come to beating the best in the league. But everything changed when little David put bat to the ball and stroked a double in the right field gap. Two runs scored. We held the lead the next inning and won the game.

With his little bat, and a lot of confidence, little David defeated the giant.

And yes, his name really was David.

You know where I’m going with this, so I don’t have to tell the story of the Bible’s “little David,” and the day when, with his sling and five smooth stones, he struck down the giant, Goliath. Suffice it to say that when the situation was serious and the experienced soldiers weren’t sure what to do, there was a young man on the bench who not only had a sling and five smooth stones, but he had a call from God to lead the way, an anointing to win the day, and a rock-solid conviction that that day was this day.

Both Davids have a point to make and that point very simply is this: It’s time to put David in the game.

I am a pastoral coach: I coach pastors, missionaries, ministers of all kinds. They are male and female. They are lead pastors, foreign missionaries, church planters, staff pastors, evangelists, ministers to people bound by life-controlling habits, bi-vocational ministers, even a missionary to public high schools.

My focus is the young minister, the Millennial.  I invest hundreds and hundreds of hours a year listening to them, talking with them, journeying with them as they do life and ministry.  I’ve walked with some of them for over seven years now.

The more I walk with these young Davids, the more I am convinced it is time get young ministers off the bench and into the game.

It’s time for young ministers to step into leadership, supported and encouraged by more experienced ministers. It’s time for lead pastors to fully engage their staff pastors, bringing them into leadership discussions, decision-making, and actions. It’s time for denominations to encourage young missionaries and church planters and their fresh approaches. It’s time for churches to listen to new ways of doing ministry. It’s time for churches to take a real look at Timothy as a potential candidate to be their next pastor.

It’s time to put David in the game.

And over the next seven days, Goliath’s David and I want to tell you why.