Skip to main content

Worship and Sport

If we in the Church and in the Sports Ministry community value worship as much as we say we do, how many hours of any given week should be given to worship? It is a valid question for contemplation.

1.5 hours per week (an average church service) = 1.33% of a week's waking hours.

If we were to learn to worship God while engaged in sport, we who live in the sporting world could really live out our stated value.

20 hours of training and practice per week (The NCAA mandated training limit for collegiate sport in the USA) is almost 18% of one's waking hours. That is a much more appropriate portion of time to engage in worship and doesn't even include worship services, personal devotions, Bible studies, etc.

How do we develop a sense of the Lord Jesus' presence and pleasure; a consciousness of His lordship over sport and all our relationships in it? How shall we engage our minds, bodies, and spirits in worship as we train and compete? How can we encourage, inspire, lead, and challenge our teammates, coaches, opponents, and the officials in our act of worship on the court, pitch, track, field, mat, or in the pool? I would offer a few simple, but dynamic suggestions.

A) Build simple spiritual disciplines into the course of our daily training, practice, travel, and rest.
   1) Weave prayer into the fabric of our lives in sport. (Pray for and with others in your spirting world. Compose and implement simple prayers for the myriads of situations in sport to invite the Lord's presence, provision, or protection. Stressful moments often leave us not knowing how to pray. I Thessalonians 5 :17)
    2) Read, study, memorize, and meditate on the scriptures in our sporting environments, in our training gear, in the changing room, on the pitch, the field, in the pool, or on the court. (Take scripture portions with you on paper, on your mobile phone, written on your shoes, tape, or skin, or in your mind through memorization. II Timothy 3:16)
    3) Practice Christian community with our teammates and friends as we live together in our sporting lives. (Share meals and pray together. Care for teammates and others in distress. Seek ways to connect more deeply with those in your sport community. John 13:34)
    4) Speak about our lives in Christ with those around us, both those following and yet to follow Jesus. (Invite teammates to attend church or a small group with you. Share your experiences of God's grace with others in similar situations. Let others observe the spiritual disciplines being woven into the fabric of your life in sport. I Peter 3:15)

B) Work to fully integrate our lives in Christ with our lives in sport.
    1) Define and employ Christ-honoring values and habits on and off the field of competition.
    2) Develop godly relationships with family, friends, teammates, coaches, opponents, officials, support personnel, and the local Church.
    3) Embrace the stability and assurance of our identity in Christ over the fickle and temporary nature of an identity based in our sporting performance.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sport Chaplains at the Olympic Games

Today marks the official beginning of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London with the Opening Ceremony this evening. Among the thousands of people in the Olympic Village throughout the event is a collection of our colleagues from around the globe. There are sports chaplains, carefully selected from a wide variety of ethnic, national and sport backgrounds, speaking many different languages and from both genders, who are officially recognized by the London Organizing Committee and provided uniforms and credentials. They work through the Olympic Village’s Religious Services Center and have already been in London for over a week. They will also stay beyond the Olympic Games to serve in the Paralympic Games.   Please pray for these, our colleagues and fellow-servants, as they serve our Lord and the people in sport in these days of exhilarating triumph, painful defeat and even crippling despair. Some of these people were themselves Olympic competitors in past years and are thereby...
1 comment
Read more

Retirement announcement

On 30 May, I will officially retire from my service as Character Coach Director for Nations of Coaches ( https://nationsofcoaches.com/ ), a ministry to college basketball in the USA. The health challenges my wife, Sharon, is experiencing have led to this somewhat abrupt change. At this point in our soon to be 50-years of marriage, she needs me more than I need to work. The spring and summer months will reveal how strongly she will recover and that will determine if and when I can resume some level of ministry. She is my highest priority. I am contemplating making myself available to sports ministry leaders for mentorship, coaching, and consulting. I will provide more details as they become available. In the short term, I am available for chats via telephone or Zoom, if I can be of service to you. Sharon and I are moving from our home in Carbondale, Illinois to an apartment near our son’s family in Southeast Missouri. I plan to continue to produce content via blog posts, Bible studies, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Reflections from the Front Lines of a Cancer Battle - Week Four as a Widower.

Week Four as a Widower. Formerly, I had to work hard, schedule well, and plan wisely to achieve some solitude. Now, retired and widowed, solitude surrounds me, all day and all night. I, the incurable and unapologetic extrovert, find myself alone…. a lot. In crowds, alone. At church, alone. Waking up in my bed, absolutely alone. I am not as emotional about my loss as I was a few weeks ago. I am more emotionally numb than anything at this point. I have enough tasks to keep me busy presently, but I know after the sale of the house is closed, the banking is completed, and I return from the Congress in Texas, a lot of open space and unoccupied time awaits me. That is worrisome. I have a number of people with whom I correspond daily. I send one set of folks battling disease scripture and prayer. Another few receive a daily prompt for devotional reading. Dozens of sports chaplains across Latin America receive a link to each day’s post of my devotional book in Spanish, which they in turn share...
1 comment
Read more