The last four years of
developing some key volunteers to help me serve area coaches and their FCA
Campus Ministries, have now allowed me to refocus my attention for the next ten
years of my ministry here. Please walk along with me through the thoughts which
have resulted in the redesign of how I serve coaches and athletes in my 23
county area of Illinois.
1)
By developing the FCA Campus Ministry Volunteers, I have cut the personal list of
counties I serve to 2 and ½. When I started twenty years ago, I was traveling
through 28 counties. This is better. Each of the volunteers serve 4 to 7
counties of schools and their FCA huddles. That is a manageable amount of
travel and time for them as they are each retired coaches.
2)
I am now able to focus more strongly on the
campus at Southern Illinois University.
School has been in session for less than a week, but here’s what is happening
already:
a. A new weekly
Coaches meeting with university
coaches. We will meet in one of the staff’s conference room, we’ll use FCA’s
new book, “3D Coaching,” as a platform for our discussions on coaching. The
coaches are inviting their colleagues for these 30-45 minute discussions.
b. The new
semester’s FCA meetings began at my
home Tuesday evening. We had student-athletes from Volleyball, Football,
Swimming, and Softball teams present. This group discussed all the logistics of
how they would like to encourage and serve each other and their teammates
through the coming semester.
c. The SIU
student-athletes agreed to do a monthly, large
group meeting in the football team’s auditorium. They will soon design,
plan, promote, and execute these events. Ideally, they’ll be 100% student-athlete
led.
d. Saluki FCA also had a number who were
also interested in a more intensive
Bible study. We are now deciding the when, where, how often, and subject
matter for these studies that will require more reading and preparation.
e. In
addition to all that, I am polling the Salukis to check their interest in my
setting aside one day per week for 1 on
1, personal mentoring meetings with them and their teammates. There seems
to be good interest and I’m brainstorming which day and a good location for
such meetings.
3)
Transformational
Coaches is a group of area high school coaches and others
in either my or their networks. This group grew out of two conversations with a
couple of area coaches who were college baseball teammates and are now head
coaches in their respective schools. We met the first time on Wednesday
evening. I expected 14 to attend, but 21 coaches were in attendance. We ate
some pizza, told stories, networked like crazy, compared notes, and heard an
excellent presentation from one of the coaches who helped design the group. The
room was full of energy and vision was shared broadly among these coaches who
are deeply impacting the lives of their players.
4)
Sport
Chaplaincy at SIUC. My twenty-first season of serving Saluki
Football began back on August 2 with five sessions of Team Building, two early
morning chapel talks, and many visits to practices and team dinners. I will
again serve Saluki Women’s Basketball
as October arrives, and I anticipate serving Saluki Baseball as well beginning in February or March. Other
opportunities may arise from our meetings with coaches and from deeper
relationships with other players in various sports.
I am immeasurably blessed to
be actively engaged in the ministry I believe God created me to do. Twenty
years ago I could never have dreamed wildly enough to imagine even the most
pedestrian of my daily activities. I would challenge you to never quit, don’t
give up, press on, stay the course, ignore the pain, strain toward the goal, and
to seek the Lord’s purposes above all things and at any cost. The arrival at
the goal is worth it all. Not just for your own satisfaction and joy, but for
the lives you impact upon arrival.
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