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Soul Training - 7 Keys to Coaching the Faith of Elite Sportspeople - Part 10

For the next number of weeks, I will be sharing excerpts from my new book, Soul Training - 7 Keys to Coaching the Faith of Elite Sportspeople. https://www.crosstrainingpublishing.com/shop/soul-training





Teach, Mentor, or Coach Faith Development?

In my earliest years of helping sportspeople develop their faith, I used a teaching approach. Having gone to schools in the USA, and having been raised in a Baptist church, teaching was the primary and only available model for intellectual and spiritual development. I started with the swimmers who attended the Sunday School class I was teaching in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Many years later, after having succeeded a little and failed a lot, people began to seek me out for wisdom and for mentoring. They seem to value my experience and expertise, though I largely discount it. We sit and chat over coffee, I listen, tell stories, and offer options for their growth.

Most recently, I have begun coaching people who are seeking to develop their faith and those pursuing their calling to ministry. In this mode, I ask questions to help this person discover how he or she can pursue a call from God, develop a ministry, or simply be a more effective follower of Christ.

In developing the faith of sportspeople: Some people teach faith development. Other people mentor faith development. Still other people coach faith development. Which do you do? One, two, maybe all three? How are they different? What are the advantages of each? What are the liabilities of each?

Teaching faith development

When we teach faith development, we take an academic approach to training. It’s about the delivery and processing of information. We assign books to read, make presentations, deliver lectures, and otherwise aim to improve the trainee’s knowledge of the subject. The focus is usually on principles and practices. It may include research, writing papers, or making presentations to demonstrate the knowledge gained by the trainee. Teaching of Sports Chaplaincy happens at universities, in seminary classrooms, in sports ministries’ meeting rooms, and via virtual learning platforms.

If you teach faith development, teach it effectively. Go for depth of understanding. Train minds and hearts to serve wisely. We need you to help the sports chaplaincy community be a healthy, intelligent, and well-integrated form of ministry.

Mentoring faith development

We who mentor people in the development of their faith do so with an eye toward continuing personal and professional development with our mentee(s).  Most often, the mentorship takes place on an individual basis, rather than with a group. It can be delivered in person or via electronic media. Mentors in faith development provide a broad view, lending perspective across a career.

Mentors are less involved in the teaching or coaching of techniques, methods, or strategies than they are in sharing their insights, experiences, and expertise. This often leads to telling stories, asking challenging questions, and occasionally directly sharing wise counsel.

If you mentor sportspeople in the development of their faith, be sure to help your mentees gain perspective. Keep their overall wellbeing in mind. Help them develop their own vision, set goals, determine best practices, and lend wise counsel, as requested. Your mentees may gather great value by simply spending time in your altruistic presence.

Coaching faith development

 We who coach faith development focus on the development of skills, and use questions (Socratic method) to help the trainee discover the why and how that shape their expressions of it.

We who coach the development of faith in sportspeople strive for understanding and processes that deliver excellent ministry. As we discuss ideas, options, strategies, and methods with trainees, we aim to help them apply the ideas to their local context, the community, the club or institution, the team, the coaching staff, and the competitors.

If you coach faith development as your method of training, do it with patience and thoughtfulness. Coaching takes time and intentional leadership. Coaching the development of faith in sportspeople will lead to depth of service, excellent ministry, and long-lasting results.

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