Among the many areas of the USA which are developing Sport Chaplain / Character Coach ministry among volunteers are the Fellowship of Christian Athletes staff people in Maryland, Mark Stephens and Chris Rich. Their influence in this sort of ministry has extended all the way to Philadelphia as they have held several training sessions for Character Coaches there as well.
Please give this process careful consideration if you are investigating the possibilities of facilitating such dynamic ministry in your area. They are doing a phenomenal job! Thanks to Chris and Mark for sending this outline of their process.
Process for Recruiting, Training, Placing and Supervising Character Coaches:
We have seen that the best Character Coaches come from a great relationship with the coach. When a coach is willing to open up the program to the Character Coach and not just make it a "side show" is where our Character Coach has been the most successful.
When I supervise our Character Coaches I remind them that we MUST minister TO and then THROUGH the coach. Yes, we hold chapels, and character talks, and events for players even if the coach is not there but we must stay true to who we are and that is ministers to COACHES and ATHLETES!
Now, with that being said here is the process we work through:
IDENTIFY:
1. Prayer: Everything starts with prayer, I cannot tell you how many times I have been praying for a school and in no time at all a Character Coach comes out of nowhere and a coach is willing to have him.
2. Ask: We work through some of our local Church partnerships. I will go sit down with the Pastor, present the vision of the Character Coach ministry and then ask him if he knows anyone in his congregation that would be a good Character Coach.
3. Get2Know: Once I have a name of a potential Character Coach I will work through the pastor to get to know this person, where they will fit, what sport, etc.
RECRUITING:
We never post for an opening as a Character Coach. First of all, we are under the radar so posting a position is too out there. Secondly, this is a calling and it is important for me to know the person and place them where I feel led by the Lord that they will succeed. I never want to get applications for a Character Coach position. For many of our coaches this is the only interaction they have with a believer so it HAS to be the right guy.
1. Whenever I chat with someone who wants to volunteer within FCA I always share with them the Character Coach program and vision.
2. As I get to know new people I start to see if I feel like they would fit within the Character Coach program.
- Just as a disclaimer, not everyone fits within the program, some are fit to volunteer other places. Do not try and fit people in just to get a spot filled. I have tried and it doesn't work out well.
TRAINING:
1. Once we decide that someone would like to be a Character Coach we require them to go through a 3 hour training. During this training we train right out of the Chaplains Manual now put out by FCA. Three main part of our training are Presence, Attitude and Relationships.
2. In some rare cases we place someone before there is a training we will do a 1 on 1 training where myself or the local staff will take them out to lunch or coffee and walk through everything with them.
3. We give our Character Coaches a list of resources to use.
1. www.FCAResources.com
2. Roger Lipe's weekly emails
3. “Transforming Lives in Sport” by Roger Lipe
4. We have an email distribution list to all Character Coaches where they receive chapel outlines that others have done in the past.
PLACING:
1. THE BEST FIT FOR A CHARACTER COACH IS SOMEONE WHO HAS A INTEREST IN THE PROGRAM, HAS A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COACH, AND HAS A HEART TO SEE THOSE COACHES AND ATHLETES TRANSFORMED WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS.
2. The relationship between the Coach and the Character Coach is the most important thing. The coach must trust the Character Coach with his players.
1. I try to meet up front with the Coach and the Character Coach before they begin any ministry there. We lay everything on the table and ask how the Coach wants it to look.
2. REMEMBER: It looks different everywhere. There is no cookie cutter way. Some head coaches make it optional for their players so that they can use Scripture and make it a true "Chapel". Others say they are going to make it mandatory and they want it to be Character based. In some places we don’t even start with a message or chapel service we strictly start with the presence and just being there getting to know players. Sometimes it is before games, sometimes it is the night before, sometimes the Character Coach is allowed on the sidelines and in other places they aren’t.
3. So, we ask the coach how he feels. We ask him how he wants it to look. We are there to serve him and his team. We want an open line of communication from the very start.
3. Once we have decided that we are placing someone with a coach we can now begin to interact with the players in whatever way shape or form that coach allows.
Mark Stephens says "Placing a Character Coach with a team is like dating. Both parties have to want to date. There has to be a mutual like and respect for each side and communication has to be open in order for it to succeed. If one side doesn't want to date and we try to force our way in there with a Character Coach it is bound to have struggles or even fail."
SUPERVISING:
1. Constant Contact: I email or call all of my Character Coaches once a week while they are in season. I ask them how they are doing, what they are speaking on, what time they will be speaking, how I can pray for them, etc.
2. Visit Chapels: It is very hard to visit chapels because most of them are around the same time. But, I intentionally try and visit every chapel. Some this is more possible than others, but I like to be there. I will sit in the back of the room with a pad of paper and write down good and bad things the Character Coach did and then coach them up at the end of the time with the team. I can do this right in the room face to face, or take him or her out for coffee or even via our phone conversation in the coming days.
3. Online reporting immediately following chapel. We will be launching an online reporting tool coming soon that we will ask our Character Coaches to jump online that night or in the coming days and report a few things about chapel. You can see the outline for this at: http://www.frederickfca.org/character-coach
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