Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Blog

Over the last twenty years there has been a rapid increase in communication, mostly digital in nature. While this has made it faster, more convenient, and allowed communication across the globe, virtually instantly, it has come at the expense of the immense value of communication on paper. I’d like to have you consider some thoughts as to how written communication, on paper, can be of even greater impact than an email, an SMS text message, a tweet, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat message. Hand written notes – Much like a text message or tweet in content, the value here is that it feels more personal to the receiver of the note. As poor as your handwriting may be, there is no comparison to the impact of such a note when it conveys your heart, your thoughts, and your prayers for the recipient. What’s more, it will likely be kept, posted on a wall, folded into a book, or used to hold a place in a Bible. Finding proper occasion for such notes is helpful. I use them often to congratu...

REGISTRATION DEADLINE AND UPDATE : Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity , York St John University, UK, 24-28 August 2016   Just 7 months to go until the Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity , York St John University, UK, 24-28 August 2016, see : http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/IGCSC2016/    Encouragingly delegate registrations and abstracts submitted for the delivery of 20-minute oral presentations have come in from academics, practitioners and clergy that are diverse in content, and are, from across the globe: US, UK, China, Canada, India, France, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Slovenia, Poland, Belgium, Thai-Land, China, Australia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Ireland, and a number of African countries. Three things to make you aware of …………………… Delegate Registration The deadline for Congress Registration (which includes payment) has now been set and is on the Congress web-site: 6 th June, 2016 . No registrations will be accept...

During the summer of 2014, my wife and I were at an airport on the way to New Orleans for some vacation. As we sat at the airport I was thinking about how we encourage competitors, athletes and coaches, to pray about their lives in sport, but we seldom if ever give them any good models for such prayer. I was grieved by the situation and thought someone should do something about it. Since I was the one thinking about it, I determined I would give it a shot. I further thought, Jesus gave his disciples a model, why should we not? While at the airport that day I wrote about sixty situations in a sportsperson’s life when it would be most helpful to know how to pray. That began a process of contemplation, prayer, writing prayers in my phone, testing them with competitors via text message and on this blog, and through discussions with sports ministry colleagues, pastors, and friends. That process and those 75+ prayers have now been released in book form. The Competitor’s Book of ...

Registration is now open for FCA’s annual conference for Sports Chaplains, Character Coaches, and University Campus Directors – April 11-13, 2016 at FCA’s National Service Center in Kansas City, Missouri. This conference is a good fit if you are a volunteer serving sports teams at any level, if you are a sports ministry staff person with chaplaincy responsibilities, or even if your role is 100% with a team or a university campus. Sports chaplains from any and all stations of service are welcome and will find their ministries enhanced. This conference is always very well done with inspiring plenary sessions, informative breakout sessions for those serving in various settings, and lots of time built into the schedule for networking and sharing of best practices between individuals. Simply control + click the underscored links below to go directly to the registration pages. All the conference information can be found at www.fcachaplains.org . More information re: bre...