Greetings from Melbourne, Australia. The annual conference for Sports Chaplaincy Australia (http://www.sportschaplaincy.com.au/) just concluded on Thursday afternoon and I was privileged to share with them for the last three days on “Transforming Lives in Sport.” Below are some thoughts on what they do particularly well in SCA.
· This is an association of Sport Chaplains from a wide variety of sports. We worked with chaplains from Australian Rules Football, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket, Motor Racing of various kinds, Basketball, Tennis, Bicycling, Soccer, Net ball, Athletics (Track and Field), Life Saving and more….
· They offer training and certification to sport chaplains and then support them with resources, encouragement and further training opportunities.
· They are building some strategic partnerships with the organizations which they serve. During our conference we made a visit to the Victoria Institute of Sport, the Richmond Football Club and the Australian Football Players Association. With each of these groups we heard from their leadership about how the SCA Chaplains can further serve them and how they can be most effective.
· They network with people who have remarkable insight for their chaplains. We interviewed the wife of one of the country’s most high profile sports figures and learned a lot re: how to serve the high profile competitor, his family and more.
· The leadership of the SCA is engaged as chaplains and are therefore well in tune with everyone’s daily life and responsibilities. Cameron Butler – CEO of SCA serves as the chaplain to the Melbourne AFL team.
· They move their conference to various cities across the continent to gain a more complete view of Australian sport, its facilities and its cities.
· They had some of their own do various parts of the training. The president of their board led our daily devotions, their national training director shared with us daily and other board members served during their chaplain of the year banquet.
· They rewarded their long-term chaplains for their faithfulness in service. 5, 10 and 15 year veterans were celebrated and given a plaque for recognition and they each shared about their experiences as chaplains.
· During their chaplain of the year banquet, they had a panel discussion which featured a presently playing professional soccer player, a retired Aussie Rules Football player who is now a radio commentator and a sport chaplain from the USA.
· During one evening of the conference, they split the chaplains up into teams and played a sports trivia game. The competition was fun and built community among these folks who are normally separated by thousands of kilometers across the continent and only see each other annually.
· Next Monday, there will be two days of Certificate Training for prospective chaplains in Melbourne and I’ll be excited to share with that group as well.
· They are creating exciting new resources which share the Good News of Christ Jesus with those in and around the world of sport in Australia. These include Sport New Testaments and DVDs of sport persons’ testimonies.
· Check out their web site at http://www.sportschaplaincy.com.au/.
In summary, the SCA is doing a tremendous job of training, equipping, resourcing, encouraging and overseeing sport chaplains all across Australia.
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