Let’s Finally Talk About Rebecca

Previously: Called to AFC Richmond, Just One of Eleven, The Christening of Nate the Great

Episode: “For the Children” (Season 1, Episode 4)

It all comes out. Rebecca is the new owner of AFC Richmond after her divorce from the previous owner, Rupert. And for the first three episodes of the show, we have seen her do all that she can think of to sabotage the club, starting with hiring a football (read: American football, not soccer) coach to manage them. In subsequent episodes, she has tried to embroil him in a media scandal with Kelee, followed by hoping that Trent Crimm’s feature story would show him to be a hillbilly out of his depth. Both of these schemes fall through, but she has made it clear that she is doing all of this to spite her ex-husband, while also working through her grief about the divorce.

All of that finally spills over when it falls to her to plan the annual gala to raise funds for charity, which includes an auction of the players and high-profile entertainment, among other features. Unlike her attempts to undo the club’s image and success, she takes this event very seriously and frets over every element, from what she’ll wear to how well she’ll do as host. Ted and Kelee both provide assistance and encouragement along the way, which she appreciates.

But the big unnerving moment for her happens when Rupert shows up to the event, immediately sucking up a lot of energy and attention. She defers to him to lead the auction, and then slips away to attempt to compose herself. Here, she finally breaks down and confides her complex and overwhelming feelings about her marriage and its end. It’s a turning point for her relationship with Ted, but also for how she may approach her ownership duties.

When a new minister arrives, a congregation may be going through a wide variety of emotions related to the transition, but only some of this may actually be due to the beginning of a new ministry partnership. They also will be carrying emotional baggage regarding any number of issues going on in their personal lives, which may inevitably spill into how they process church-related matters.

As all of this swirls around within individuals in the congregation, some may engage the new partnership with hostility, wariness, anger, avoidance, or any number of other negative actions. While some of this may in fact be due to emotions regarding the actual ministry change, so much more of it could be due to matters that seemingly have little or nothing to do with the congregation’s life. Nevertheless, that may be how they manifest. A minister helping to listen and differentiate between these many concurrent transitional experiences will be necessary as the new partnership continues.

No fight club! Jamie and Roy’s issues continue. They almost get into a fight at the half of a match, and this inspires Ted to finally take more direct action as the coach. He has previously planted seeds in both Jamie and Roy individually so that they might resolve their differences on their own, This latest development shows him that he has his own active part to play as well, especially because he sees the rest of the players taking sides, causing further divisions among the team.

Ted arranges to have him, Jamie, and Roy all sit together at the gala, and directly names the division. He talks about mutual respect and finding common ground, not necessarily so they become friends, but at least to be able to coexist and play together as teammates. His first attempted exercise–getting them to compliment each other–goes nowhere, and they all get up from the table soon after.

Perhaps seeing again that he may have more success going to Roy separately, he asks the team captain to remember what he was like when he was Jamie’s age. Roy admits that he was as arrogant and selfish back then as his younger teammate is now. This seems to be enough for Roy to take initiative with Jamie to hash everything out. They each admit some truth to how the other sees them, and even own up to how they appreciate the other’s skill. They don’t exactly become friends, but things seem much more tempered between them by episode’s end.

It can be incredibly tricky for a minister to know when to take direct action and when to trust congregational leadership and other members to work out issues on their own. This part of ministry takes careful discernment. In most cases, the result will involve both, but the specifics of the situation will help dictate how much of each will be necessary.

For more about ministry transition, check out my new book, The Unintentional Interim: Ministry in Times of Transition.