Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Blog

While preparing for a pre-game meal and chapel talk one day, an assistant women’s basketball coach commented to me, “You’re not like most of the religious people I’ve known.” I smiled and replied, “Good. I don’t intend to be religious. I would prefer to be highly committed to Christ, but rather irreligious.” She said, “That’s interesting.” My reflexive comment to my friend was true and heart-felt and I’m still happy with it.   I’d like to explore the difference between being “religious” and being “highly committed to Christ.” Religious people carry the external trappings of Christianity as their defining marks. Highly committed Christians carry their commitment to Jesus internally as their defining characteristic and allow that commitment to find external expression in numerous, often less religious ways. Some examples of each may help us see the difference.   Religious people speak with each other in clichés and the King James language they learn at church. Highly committed...

What can we learn from a tattoo? What is to be learned from the ink below a person’s skin? Tattoos are seldom either profound works of literature or wondrous works of art. They do however give us a glimpse at the heart which is expressing itself through his or her skin.   The world of sport is rife with tattooed men and women. From the high profile sportspeople like David Beckham to the most obscure high school student-athlete with a hunger to honor a fallen teammate, tattoos are very prevalent in this culture. Many who follow Christ are quick to make judgments about tattoos and their propriety for other followers of Jesus. It is not my intention to make judgments either way, but to consider what a person is telling us from his or her choice of tattoo and the possibility that well worded questions about them can open a pathway to heart-felt discussions about the real matters of life.   In this season’s Team Building sessions with USA university men’s basketball and American ...

Have you had to endure some pain to compete in your sport? How much and how often did it hurt? How would you handle daily, intense pain and would you endure it for four solid years? I watched the toughest girl on the planet do just that as she played her heart out.   Wendy Goodman (Bauersachs) was a basketball player at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale from 2001 through 2005 and she played through pain every day, all day. She has a hereditary condition which makes her bones brittle and subject to stress fractures. It also is quite painful. Running up and down a basketball floor only adds to the stress and pounds the joints with every stride.   Early in her days at SIU the training staff tried everything they could think of to treat the condition and minimize the pain. They tried special shoes, socks, treatments and more. Finally the doctor told her the choice was to play with pain or don’t play at all. She decided to play and became a leader for her team throughout...

For the last fifty years or more Christian sportspeople have gained more and more visibility in their communities, in the media and in the general culture. Sometimes that has been good, other times not so good. Some Christ-following coaches and players have represented their faith and their Lord very well and others have become emblematic of words like “hypocrite.” The growth of sports media in the last thirty years has only amplified the issues on both sides through the growth of sports television, sports talk radio and web sites which are each 100% dedicated to dissemination of information and opinion on sport related matters.   The incessant drive to fill the 24 hour per day news and opinion cycle pushes the media to dig, to prod, to push and to provoke sportspeople in their search of a story. They seek a story. They’ll do whatever is necessary to get it, even if they have to invent the story so as to get a reaction from the coach or athlete, then that becomes the story. Sadly,...