3rd Annual FCA Sport Chaplains Conference

The third annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes Sport Chaplains Conference concluded yesterday in Kansas City, Missouri. Almost fifty people attended from places including Virginia, Georgia, Delaware, Maryland, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Iowa, and even India. Among the attendees were volunteers working with high school teams and club teams, a four-time Olympic medal winner and deeply experienced chaplain at the Olympic Games, FCA staff who serve full-time as chaplains, FCA staff who volunteer with university teams, FCA staff who serve professional teams, FCA staff who recruit, train and oversee volunteer character coaches, and even a young lady of Chinese descent who plays ice hockey in Spain. It was a widely diverse crowd of men and women, all passionate to learn new ways to be impactful in their ministries.

 

Scott Pilkington from Southern Illinois served as the chaplain to the chaplains during the conference. His first address included such challenging statements and questions as, “Find God in the ordinary and then you don’t have to rely on the extraordinary.” “Is your axe head chopping down trees in the right forest?” “What is your life presently communicating?”

 

Scott’s second address, on Thursday morning, emphasized “Clarity of the Gospel” and this penetrating question, “Are you serving from the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?” The former leads to life, the latter leads to legalism.

 

Tom Brawner led us in a tremendous session related to Performance-based Identity. He was wise to urge us to receive this instruction personally before making plans to share it with others. There is no doubt that sport chaplains, character coaches and sport mentors are just as prone to performance-based identity as those whom we serve. A few of the big points in his talk included the order of God’s creation of Man. 1) Creation 2) Blessing 3) Command 4) Rest. He said, “We work from our rest. We don’t rest from our work.” We would be wise to start from a place of rest. “Sometimes rest is the most aggressive thing we can do in our ministries.” His use of a triangle diagram to illustrate the proper flow of life, from the Father to Identity to Obedience was powerfully applicable to everyone plagued by this malady. The diagram is taken from “Covenant and Kingdom” by Mike Breen.

 

Dr. Bill Moore and Dr. Nicki Moore of the University of Oklahoma shared some Counseling Guidelines with our conferees on Thursday morning. “Aikido Conversations: Guiding Momentum for Change with Coaches and Athletes” was the theme of their insightful presentation. Nicki spoke of “Motivational Interviewing” as a method to help people discover and to implement change for their lives. They led us in an exercise to demonstrate the interview process and shared some potential pitfalls in counseling relationships.

 

Mikado Hinson, Chaplain at the University of Houston for the last 12 years, made a presentation about: How to Communicate Effectively with the People of Sport. Mikado’s presentation included a list of resources and a solid list of tips including: 1) Invest in people… Professionally, Personally and Spiritually. 2) Never compromise the truth, but share/live the truth in love. 3) Don’t have a sense of entitlement. 4) Don’t be easily offended. 5) Seek to be an active listener. 6) Pray.

 

Roger Lipe from Southern Illinois FCA and chaplain at Southern Illinois University made a presentation on “Ministry in Moments of Crisis.” This discussion included a wide range of crisis situations and culminated in three principles from Jesus’ ministry at the grave of his friend Lazarus in John 11: 1) Be Present 2) Be Hopeful 3) Be Authentic. The presentation was followed by small group discussions.

 

At the beginning of each general session the conferees watched a video about someone who was pioneering Sport Chaplain ministry in his era, sport or area as well as an interview. Madeline Manning-Mims and Carey Casey were interviewed on Wednesday evening. They were both chaplains at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. Todd Worrell, former Major League Pitcher and the Pro Ministry director for FCA in Greater St. Louis, was interviewed on Thursday morning and Chris Rich from FCA in Maryland, an area which is exponentially growing the service of volunteer chaplains, was interviewed on Friday morning.

 

Scott Pilkington wrapped up the conference on Friday morning with a powerful address on, “Joy Stealers and Ministry Killers.” That list included: 1) Comparison 2) Regret 3) Insecurity 4) Fear 5) Anxiety – Communication Anxiety, Cash Anxiety, Conversion Anxiety, and Conflict Anxiety.

 

The FCA Sport Chaplain Advisory Team was wise to build the conference with plenty of open space between sessions. This allowed everyone time to process information, to network, to converse and to compare notes with their peers. Everyone in attendance was very appreciative of the efforts of FCA’s Jeff Martin and Jordan Barnes who facilitated and hosted the conference. Be sure to make time in your calendar for next year’s conference. It will be worth every minute of your time and every dollar you would invest to travel and to attend.