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.