Character Coach / Sports Chaplain Blog

Since the summer of 2010, my family has been walking through a difficult, significant, and occasionally traumatic process. On a hot August afternoon my wife and I made a hurried trip to the emergency room where her mother was being treated. It was obvious to me her condition was quite serious and we spoke very directly about the likelihood of this being a terminal situation. By mid-November, she had begun hospice care and she soon passed while I held her hand bedside.   In more recent days, we observed my father’s cognitive and then physical decline across three years, and then more rapidly across a couple of months, prior to six days of hospice care in an assisted care facility. My dad passed as I was standing with my mother beside his bed.   Earlier this year, my father-in-law also began to decline in health and passed in mid-September. For the last five years or so, Sharon had been caring for him as he lived alone in his home. Despite numerous physical and cognitive conditi...

  I was privileged to be a guest on this podcast -   The Athletes Edge; Coaches Edition. Check it out on any of these platforms. Thanks, Tony Everett. Spotify -  https://open.spotify.com/ episode/ 6MCsOPoXUWNdU5wdDmpcvl?si= 02IqXXV7Ty-zWgoBCr38SQ Youtube -  https://youtu.be/sZMXh9ZnYvM Apple Podcast -  https://podcasts. apple.com/us/podcast/the- importance-of-character- coaching-in-sports/ id1785277679?i=1000685127634 Amazon Prime -  https://music.amazon.com/ podcasts/458848df-2501-4dc6- b894-32f894f5fb54/episodes/ 46bd0b8a-a6bb-42f7-968d- b0cc1e573f99/the-athletes- edge-the-coaches-edition-the- importance-of-character- coaching-in-sports

          Sports chaplaincy, primarily understood to be pastoral care for people engaged in the world of sport, has been a growing form of ministry for more than sixty years. In most places it is called just that, Sports Chaplaincy, however in other environments different language is used to describe what is essentially the same thing. Our ministry, Nations of Coaches, calls us “character coaches,” other ministries use language like, “life coaches,”  “sports shepherds,” or even “sports buddies.” The language is less important than the quality of service provided.          I will not attempt to offer a history of sports chaplaincy, but to simply reflect upon its past, its present state, and the future for this dynamic ministry opportunity across the globe.          Past – It seems that sports chaplaincy first emerged as a grass roots attempt to offer Christian ministry to p...

It’s amazing, I keep getting older, but the young men I serve are always eighteen to twenty-three-years-old. When I began, I was thirty-eight-years old, just a little older than the players, and no one had a cell phone. In my forties, I was suddenly old enough to be their father and it required a different style of communication, this was prior to text messaging. In my fifties, things changed again as more people communicated digitally, and talking face to face became more of a challenge. Now almost through my sixties, I am like everyone’s grandfather. This has demanded I find new ways to communicate with another generation of young men.   I am constantly challenged to listen well, to perceive wisely, and to communicate effectively. It is challenging, but certainly possible. I believe I can continue to adjust, to learn, and grow for many years. Some keys to such communication are listed below.   Listen to understand.  It’s most common for people in conversation to wait fo...