Ministry Presence with Sports Professionals

Below is another installment from an interview with Walt Enoch, long-time sports chaplain to professional athletes and coaches in St. Louis, Missouri – USA. I pray that his insights are of value to your ministry.



Presence –

• Because the chaplain is given entrance to places most people cannot go and thereby comes by information that most people don’t have, I asked Walt about how to handle this privilege. His answers follow:

• Moments of crisis are particularly important for the chaplain to be available to the team or individuals. He mentioned the in-season death of a player and the respect that he was shown by the club as they flew him to be with the team.

• It’s important to protect the players and the club with the “inside” information you may have. Do not share information like this:

 Injuries


 Personnel at practice


 Salaries


 Contracts


 Trades


 Agents


 Who the Christians on the team are.


 Who attends chapel or Bible studies.

• Be very careful with any information you post on facebook, twitter, in emails, in blogs, ministry newsletters, public talks or on your web site. Don’t betray this trust.

More on Ministry with Sports Professionals

Below is another installment from an interview with Walt Enoch, long-time sports chaplain to professional athletes and coaches in St. Louis, Missouri – USA. I pray that his insights are of value to your ministry.

 

Attitude –

• I asked Walt about some necessary character traits and attitudes for a sports chaplain to develop and he listed these:

o A servant’s heart

o No favoritism (treat everyone the same)

o A reliance upon Scripture

o Be invisible to outsiders.

o Know your place and stay in it.

o See yourself as a guest of the club.

o Be mindful of who you are working for, God, and serve Him.

• I asked about some attitudes to avoid:

o Don’t ever think of “using” players only serving them.

o Using the players for personal gain, rather than serving them.

o Using one’s relationship with the team to raise his profile.

o Being too forward in approaching players.

o Do not act like a fan.

o Don’t ask them for contributions. Ever.

o Don’t become involved in their finances.

o Don’t refer financial services to the players unless the player asks you for your opinion. Don’t serve as the agent for a financial manager, especially one who approaches you.

o Don’t get entangled in dealing with sports memorabilia, photos, autographs and such.

o Don’t talk with them about their on-field performance. They have coaches for that.

 

FCA Sports Chaplain Principles and Best Practices

for serving Professional Sportspeople

Walt Enoch – as told to Roger Lipe on November 24, 2009

Walt Enoch began serving professional athletes in 1970 when only the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had chapel leaders. He was already serving the St. Louis Cardinals when Baseball Chapel began its ministry. Walt also served the St. Louis Football Cardinals before their move to Arizona and has served the St. Louis Rams since they arrived in town. For two years he had a ministry with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. For many years he worked to oversee all of the baseball chapel leaders in the Cardinals minor league cities.

Ministry with Sports Professionals

Below is another installment from an interview with Walt Enoch, long-time sports chaplain to professional athletes and coaches in St. Louis, Missouri – USA. I pray that his insights are of value to your ministry.

Relationships –

• One should not expect a strong sense of community among professional sports teammates off the field of competition. Once out the locker room, it’s seldom that they spend a lot of time with their teammates.

• As one is building his relationship with players, it’s important to not be seen as a part of the club’s organization. If one is too closely tied to the management, it could compromise his trust among the players.

• I asked Walt about how to handle transitions for players and coaches (trades, free agency, waivers, firings, etc…) and he said that if your relationship is strong one should call the player or coach. Arrange to meet with the player or coach. Encourage, counsel, console and work to maintain the relationship if at all possible. Though it’s difficult, some relationships have been able to last for many years beyond the player’s career in sport.

• Walt made a point to not forget the players when their playing careers are over.

o He arranges a separate Bible study for former players. (It’s best not to mix current and former players. It’s awkward for both sets of people.)

• With professional sportspeople, serving their spouses and children is an important part of effective ministry. Many times it’s the most mundane tasks which win the chaplain favor and trust with the family and consequently, the player or coach.

o Driving family members to the airport to drop off or pick someone up.

o Helping families move into their new home or to move out when traded, fired or waived.

o Helping families find real estate agents, schools, day care, family doctors, churches, etc…

• Walt and his wife have found that holidays (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and others) were outstanding opportunities to serve players’ and coaches’ families through hospitality. Having them in their home made a real impact with the players and their families.

• We discussed the high profile nature of many players and how to deal with those who fail publically, especially moral failure. How should the chaplain handle those situations?

o Love them.

o Seek them out.

o Don’t confront their behavior, rather be available to them and when they open the subject, be clear, loving and direct.

FCA Sports Chaplain Principles and Best Practices with Professionals

Walt Enoch – as told to Roger Lipe on November 24, 2009


Walt Enoch began serving professional athletes in 1970 when only the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had chapel leaders. He was already serving the St. Louis Cardinals when Baseball Chapel began its ministry. Walt also served the St. Louis Football Cardinals before their move to Arizona and has served the St. Louis Rams since they arrived in town. For two years he had a ministry with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. For many years he worked to oversee all of the baseball chapel leaders in the Cardinals minor league cities.


Walt believes that, “FCA should be the vehicle for serving the people of professional sports.” Walt describes the role of the sport chaplain in this way, “to bring Christ to the players, coaches and support staff in their life situation and to serve them however you can.”


Among Walt’s core values for serving in this role are:


• Love


• Service


• Acceptance of others (teach it to them)


• Christ-centered ministry


Walt’s points of emphasis for effectively serving professional sportspeople will be listed under the following categories:


• Relationships


• Attitude


• Presence


• Strategies, Methods and Resources


Relationships –


• In NFL Football – the chaplain serves at the pleasure of the Head Coach. That relationship is most important. Walt says, “He runs the machine. I’m just a spark plug.”


• Walt opens these relationships with a letter of welcome to the head coach, by arranging to meet with him and by offering to serve. The Head Coach then tells him what he wants the chaplain to do.


• He makes it a point to introduce and offer service to all in the organization, trainers, doctors, office personnel, etc.


• With NFL players, Walt recognizes that the pro football player comes from a college atmosphere where he is considered highly. Don’t be put off by it, but understand who they are.


• In Major League Baseball – Baseball Chapel appoints the chapel leaders and works through an application and interview process.


• The Baseball Chapel leader mostly relates to the players. Seldom do coaches, managers or support personnel participate in chapels.


• With MLB players, Walt recognizes that these players come up through the minor league system with very little money and a tough road to reach the major leagues.

Hunger

One of Solomon’s most insightful proverbs is listed at chapter 27 and verse 7, “A sated man loathes honey, But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.” This proverb has had greater impact upon me since I’ve been serving internationally with sportspeople. This last week was a refresher course for me on the power of hunger; physical, intellectual and spiritual.

From 24-30 May I had a team with me in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to work with the Softball Federation and the Tae Kwon Do Federation and their respective coaches and competitors. They are hungry in almost every way. Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, but is populated with some of the friendliest and most gracious people. It has a terrible problem with gangs and violence, but also has one of the fastest growing churches in the world.

Making up our team was a softball coach and his wife, a professional softball pitcher and a professional catcher, a fifth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and an 54 year old FCA staffer (me). The coaches, players and martial arts master brought with them their accumulated years of experience and credentials and those attributes were met with the Hondurans’ immense hunger. That made for a tremendous set of clinics, practices and demonstrations. We worked with the best players in the country and with high school girls who had a total of three days of experience with the sport. I even worked with a group of young men who are playing American Football in their country. Their desire to develop the sport in their country and to improve their individual skills was overwhelming.

Our team marveled at how eager to learn everyone was. One group of young women would not quit on the pitching drill in which they were engaged even though we were in the middle of a downpour. They were hungry, even bitter conditions seemed sweet! A couple of Tae Kwon Do instructors, one from Cuba and one from Honduras, received copies of “Corazon de un Campeon,” a devotional book for sportspeople in Spanish from their visiting instructor. They were thrilled! They asked the author to sign it and profusely expressed their thanks. The next day we found the Honduran instructor using the book with his students at the gym. He read from it, discussed it with them and continued for forty minutes prior to their workout. This is hunger on a couple of levels.

Hunger makes our work immeasurably easier. “To the famished man, any bitter thing is sweet.” Even people with modest abilities (like me), giftedness (like me), and intelligence (like me) are able to make a real impact because of the hearers’ hunger. People who are sated, without hunger, are much tougher with which to work. They are indulged, bored, ambivalent, melancholy and otherwise unmotivated. They loathe honey.

Rather than beating up the sated ones who loathe the sweetness offered them and being angry at their fullness, I have learned to seek out the hungry. I look for the ones who want to learn, those motivated to grow, those who desire to develop and are ready to receive more from the Lord. I find that with this group I am at my best and even the simplest attempts to assist are met with gratitude and enthusiasm.

This would be my challenge to you today. Don’t waste too much time with those who seem bloated with fullness. They don’t want any more. Seek out the ones who are hungry, who see even the most bitter thing like the sweetest thing on the earth. You and they will experience the best in sport, faith and relationship as you do.