Reading List

I strongly believe that reading is a vital part of our preparation for serving well. That is certainly true of reading the Scripture, but it is also true of reading books related to the various sports in which we serve. If we will read about these sports, their players, coaches, strategies, and values, we will be better able to understand who they are and how to better serve them where they are.

We will probably not like all that we read, but we will be better informed related to the culture in which we’re serving. I am sure the prophet Daniel didn’t necessarily like all that he saw around him in Babylon, but he was well informed, engaged and even embraced the culture in which he lived. Thus he was able to be used of God as an agent of transformation in Babylon. May we each be such agents in the world of sport.

Below are some books I’ve read in the last couple of years which could be of interest to you:
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, tells the story of a kid from Memphis, Tennessee who becomes a college football player. He is just finishing his career at the University of Mississippi now. It is very insightful into the world of college football and all that went into his arrival in it.

Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes is a good book to either affirm your life disciplines or to challenge you to build some new ones into your lifestyle. It reads like a sermon series (probably because it was…), but it still has real value.

Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL by John Feinstein is a very insightful book as the author spent a year with the Baltimore Ravens with access to everything and everyone. He tells us a lot about the players, coaches, management teams and more. It also contains some less than flattering information about how sports ministry is viewed by sports professionals.

The Starfish and the Spider : The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman, Rod Beckstrom is a brilliant book from the business world about networks and how they operate. It contains tremendous insights for us as we network people and ministries together to accomplish the Lord’s will. Focus in on its descriptions of how “the values ARE the organization.”

I am now reading, Every Week a Season : A Journey Inside Big-Time College Football by Brian Curtis and I’m finding it to be quite good. The author spends a week with nine different major college football teams with unfettered access to the programs. He tells the stories and gives us a look into the guts of such teams.

The Man Watching : A Biography of Anson Dorrance by Tim Crothers is one of the most insightful books I’ve read in years. He is the head coach for the University of North Carolina Soccer program, the winner of dozens of national championships in the USA. The book contains tremendous information for those of us who work with young women as well as cautionary tales for us in terms of how relationships with players and their parents can become terribly broken. This is not a “Christian” book. It contains more F bombs that many of us could handle.