Below is a link to the recording of a Zoom Video call featuring Ross Georgiou of the Global Sports Chaplaincy Association.
Some links to sites mentioned in the call:
Monday, April 27, 2020
Friday, April 24, 2020
Observe and Perceive.
The
place of greatest impact for my ministry in sport for almost twenty-six years
now is a team’s practice and training venue. When I go to practice,
opportunities for life transforming ministry are at hand. I have been asked many
times, “When you go to practice, what do you do?” For me the answer comes down
to two simple ideas: observe and perceive.
At
practice I observe. I observe things like body language, gestures, facial
expressions, effort, how people speak to one another, how they receive
coaching, how they coach, how they relate to teammates, how they interact with
support staff, how they lead, and many other relational aspects of their lives
together. I observe with my eyes, my ears, and most importantly with my soul. I
aim to connect intuitively, emotionally, as deeply as possible. Sometimes I’m
only there for fifteen or thirty minutes, but while I’m there I’m 100% locked
into observation.
At
practice I perceive. I ruminate on the meaning of all that I am observing. What
shall I read into a subtle gesture, a coarse word, an encouraging expression,
half-hearted effort, full-throated approbation, broad smiles, or
passive-aggressive postures? I perceive with my soul. I perceive with my
intuition, though I often distrust it. My perceptions shape my interactions
with those I serve.
To
observe and perceive enables me to speak directly to the hearts of the coaches,
competitors, and support staffs I serve. Rather than simply tossing clichés
around, my observations, leading to perceptions, allow me to scrape away a few
layers of calloused flesh covering one’s heart and to ask a probing
question or make a soul penetrating statement.
Please,
when you attend practice, observe and perceive so as to have the most
transformational impact possible.
Monday, April 20, 2020
April 20 Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Zoom call
Below is a link to the recording from the April 20 Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Zoom call. Topic = Mentoring.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Who is My Neighbor in Sport?
Jesus’ words are always
impactful, wise, relevant, and timely. Often they are also very challenging if
we contemplate them and deal with their implications. Among such challenging
speech comes in the context of a lawyer’s snarky question in Luke 10:25-29.
And a lawyer stood
up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” 26 And He
said to him, “What is written in the Law? How
does it read to you?” 27 And he
answered, “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to
him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will
live.” 29 But
wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
While the lawyer asked his question, “And who is my
neighbor?” to justify himself, I would like us to ponder just that question. In
the world of sport, who is my neighbor and what does it mean to love him or
her?
The first people who come to mind are surely the coaches and
competitors we seek to serve and to love. It’s also pretty easy to see one step
beyond them to the support staff of athletic trainers, equipment managers,
administrators, directors of operations, etc. If we look further still, we
suddenly see the sporting officials, conference or league administrators,
media, and even sports fans.
Remember Jesus’ challenge? Love your neighbor as yourself.
It’s not that tough to love those with whom we connect well and find pleasant,
but with those who annoy us, reject our service, or outright oppose us, it’s
much more difficult. Jesus’ words are the same, love them as yourself.
Hang on, it gets tougher. To illustrate His point, Jesus
tells the story of the good Samaritan. In so doing He makes a man of the Jews’
most hated ethnic group, Samaritans, the hero of the story. Amazing. Humbling.
Challenging. Think of the people in and around sport you find hardest to love,
or to even tolerate. Jesus says to love them as you do yourself. Ouch. Suddenly
it’s very personal.
Let’s follow Jesus’ way and not the way of the
self-justifying lawyer. Let’s love the men and women of the sporting world as
Jesus calls us to.
Friday, April 10, 2020
Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
Earlier
this week we hosted a Zoom video conference call with Character Coaches and
Sports Chaplains (available here -
http://sportchaplainsportmentor.blogspot.com/2020/04/video-of-character-coach-sports.html?m=0) from around the USA, the Philippine
Islands, Trinidad, and Ukraine. During the call as we were discussing what we
were learning from this odd season of life under COVID-19 isolation, Russ Talley,
the team chaplain for Northern Illinois University Football (American Football)
insightfully made reference to Jesus’ instructions to His disciples regarding
their response to the Roman soldiers and their privilege of forcing Jews in
Palestine to carry their gear
for up to a mile.
Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him
two. Matthew
5:41
Russ challenged
us to take the same attitude toward our government’s requirements of us as
Jesus did of His disciples in that day. That leads us to ask, what is the second
mile for us in this circumstance? I will not even attempt to answer it for you,
but would like to have you deal with it, as I am.
Please take about
40 minutes to watch the video and listen in to this insightful discussion between
faithful servants on multiple continents and a couple of islands.
Monday, April 6, 2020
Video of Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Call re: Learning in COVID-19 Season
Video of Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Call re: Learning in COVID-19 Season
Click on the link below to access the recording of the video call.