Resignation

Over the last few weeks I have walked through some of the darkest days of a friend’s career in sport. She had never failed at anything, but the last two seasons of her coaching career had been a constant nightmare.

My friend’s coaching staff had disintegrated, several key players had left the program and still others had been actively seeking her dismissal. All these factors led to great frustration and more than a little discouragement.

This coach battled through these factors and tried to right the ship, but its crash seemed inevitable. As we talked over coffee it was apparent that she was considering resigning her position. We talked over her options and I could see the pain on her face and I could hear it in her anguished voice. This felt like total failure and it was terribly hurtful.

A few days later, the severance package was negotiated and her resignation was announced. I grieved like someone had died. My friend took some time off to rest, recharge and to gain some focus for the future. I took some time to think about resignation.

Resignation looks to me like the exhaustion of physical, emotional and spiritual resources needed to accomplish a task or to fulfill a role of leadership. We resign from something when we’re completely spent and we’re bankrupt of the necessary capital for the daily grind.

This is a hard spot for those of us who play our hearts out. We refuse to quit or to give up, so resignation feels like total failure. It hurts us deeply and assaults our hearts. It’s almost like a moral failure to our souls and we feel shame at having lost the battle.

Here’s a word of encouragement from one who has resigned more than once in life, but has lived to tell the story. You can come back. You can do like my friend and wisely consider your options, form a plan of action, resign and then retool, refresh your heart and regain your focus for the future. There is no shame in resignation, only in cringing from the despair which barks at your heart’s door. Chase despair away with loving friends, wise counsel and then come back to play your heart out again.

Volunteer Character Coaches / Sport Chaplains

Last weekend I was in Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia (USA) for some conversations and a training session with some of my Fellowship of Christian Athletes colleagues who are developing a new strategy for their areas. They are recruiting, training, equipping and mentoring a set of volunteer Character Coaches / Sport Chaplains for area schools, sport clubs and more.

Both David Gittings (Brunswick) and Ed Pulkinen (Savannah) have done a fine job of finding people to serve in this way and they have even found volunteers who can be the trainers and ongoing mentors to the others.

I spent a couple of hours with each of the trainers/mentors and then on Saturday, in Savannah, we did 6 hours of training in 3 hours. They were marvelously receptive and I believe with the long-term commitment and mentoring, they will do remarkably well in serving the coaches and athletes in their respective communities.

If you’d like to have more information about how this works and the processes we’re developing, please contact me or my teammates in Georgia. Thanks.

Battle with Cancer - update

Back on January 8 I wrote the first of three updates on my developing relationship with an area coach who is battling cancer. He has made it beyond one of their goal dates, the graduation of his daughter from high school, and continues to battle. He sent me an SMS message last night that he’s making his return to on the road, overnight recruiting this week. Another huge milestone.

Below is one of the latest emails I sent to him with scripture to read and a prayer to pray. Please consider this simple, direct, personal method as an effective way to touch a sportsperson’s heart.

Coach,

You would have been proud of how Nathan E’s team handled their run to a state title over the last couple of weeks. He led with great poise and got the best out of his players. That’s no doubt a reflection of your coaching investment in him over his career at the university.

Psalm 139
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can't take it all in!

Prayer –
Merciful Father in Heaven,
My life is an open book to You.
You know everything about me, even what I’ll say before I say it.
I feel Your presence ahead of me, behind me and beside me.
I even feel Your kind and gentle presence inside me, in my heart.
I feel Your presence, but don’t really understand how.
Your gracious presence and powerful Spirit are more than I can comprehend.
I surrender! Live powerfully in me and do Your will.
I commit myself to Your care again today and trust You fully.
In Jesus’ kind and compassionate name,
Amen.

Chaplains Roundtable 2009 Update

Charlotte October 7th…Indianapolis November 10th…Lansing December 1st

“Sports Ministry for Our Generation” that’s the theme for the 2009 Chaplains Roundtable Conferences in Charlotte, Indianapolis and Lansing. God continues to provide a wonderful list of speakers. Please visit our webpage to see the complete list of speakers.

http://www.geocities.com/chaplainsroundtable/welcome.html

Charlotte Roundtable @ the Church at Charlotte-October 7, 09
Keynote Speaker: Victor Lee-Author and Speaker http://www.victorlee.org/

Indianapolis Roundtable @ the Media Center of the Indy Motor Speedway-November 10, 09
Keynote Speaker: Barry Collier-Athletic Director @ Butler University http://coachbarrycollier.com/

Lansing, MI Roundtable @ South Church-December 1, 2009
Keynote Speaker: Jeff Totten-Chaplain-Detroit Tigers
Born and raised in the Detroit Area, Jeff began SCORE Ministries in 2000 following 20 years of pastoral staff experience. SCORE stands for Sharing Christ through Outreaches, Resources, and Encouragement. Jeff has served as the Baseball Chapel Leader to the Detroit Tigers since 1991. He has also worked with the Detroit Rockers, the Detroit Fury, and other professional and amateur athletes. In 2002, Jeff was selected to serve as a chaplain to the athletes in the Olympic Village at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Cost to attend this year is only 10$ per event, per person...this increases to 15$ for those who register within two weeks of the event(s) they would like to attend. This will cover the cost of the meal which is provided. Checks can be made payable to: Chaplains Roundtable…and mailed to:

Bill Houston
9749 Parameter Ave. NE
Rockford, MI 49341

Note: please indicate on your check which event(s) you will be attending. Thank you.

Thank you for your prayers for the Chaplains Roundtable Ministry. Looking forward to seeing you later this year. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to give me a ring. It is always good to hear from you!

For Him Alone,
Bill Houston
Sports Spectrum Radio
Chaplains Roundtable Ministry
616-974-2583-office #

Ambition

Ambition is a word which evokes strong reactions from people. Some see it as a powerful tool for accomplishment while others see it as a terrible vice to be avoided at any cost.

Which are you? Does ambition seem to be an insidious evil or a genuine virtue to be developed? The real issue may be toward what ends is the ambition aimed? Are we ambitious for selfish gain or for the good of others? Are we ambitious toward superficial fame or lasting significance?

This quality, like many others, is given its moral weight by its object. If I’m only ambitious toward power, fame, money, and personal pleasure, my ambition will bring out many of the worst parts of my nature. However, if I am ambitious toward matters like altruism, service, philanthropy, building community among my teammates, the development of others and a legacy of truth and love, the best of my heart will be fully engaged.

Toward what are you most ambitious? What characterizes your highest priorities and most lofty goals? When realized, do they most fully serve your interests or would they benefit others? Do you compete your heart out to win MVP awards or team championships? Are you more ambitious for individual recognition or for team achievement?

May I challenge you to check you ambitions and to purposefully direct them toward your teammates and friends? You can then play your heart out with no pangs of conscience due to latent selfishness or personal ambition. You will have directed ambition wisely and properly toward the betterment of those you love and respect, your teammates.

Connections

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to have lunch with one of our university baseball players. He is a junior pitcher from a local small town. He is very unremarkable to look at, 5’-11” in height and about 165 pounds with a boyish face, but he can throw a baseball 95 miles per hour. He is the team’s closer and has rewritten the team’s record book for that position with a perfect record this year and he has tremendous prospects for the future.

He’s young in his Christian faith, has made some mistakes and now his young fiancé is pregnant. We have been meeting together periodically to discuss baseball, being a father and husband and how to grow one’s faith. I count this as a great privilege.

On this particular day we were discussing some wedding plans and the likely results of the professional baseball draft due to arrive on June 9. I asked him what his chances were for being drafted and he said that others tell him that he would probably go between the 3rd and 5th rounds and that he would probably be offered a signing bonus between $100,000.00 and $300,000.00. I about choked. How can a 21 year old handle that kind of money and responsibility when he has struggled with simpler matters? It was rather an intimidating situation to him.

I offered the help of an acquaintance who had played 12 years in the Major Leagues who also grew up in our area and maintained his “Southern Illinois” identity and values, even with millions of dollars in annual salary. I was thrilled to connect these two by phone and they enjoyed a 30 minute conversation about the whole process of the draft, agents, coaches, team management, maintaining one’s identity and more.

This is often our role in ministry when subjects are outside our areas of expertise. Let’s be humble and wise enough to connect our friends with others who can serve them with their particular knowledge or experience. This in no way diminishes our value to the player or coach, rather it enhances it and further builds trust. Let’s first and foremost serve the needs and opportunities given us with those around us and we’ll watch them become all the Lord has purposed for them to become.

Building Team Unity

Last week a friend and colleague of mine, Johnny Shelton from Virginia Tech University, called me and we discussed the problem of division among players on certain teams. There were apparent divisions between the white and black players on a team and we were looking for solutions, how to develop unity where division exists.

As we talked I reflected on how we have done that with Saluki Football and how I’ve heard others attempting to do it. A brief summary follows.

For our football program, we approached it relationally. We reasoned that for a championship team we needed players to be committed to each other, but people won’t commit to those whom they do not trust and they certainly don’t trust people they don’t know. We knew we must start at the “who are you?” level and work our way up. Our process looks like this:

Facilitate a discussion with the whole team, broken into small groups of around 8, introducing about 1/8 of the team per session.
Ask questions of the player about facts – name, uniform number, home town, field of study, etc…
Ask questions of the player about the sport – anything which can evoke the player’s passion for the sport.
Ask questions of the player about his or her heart – anything which can reveal the person’s core values, most important influences, etc…

The fact questions help us know who the player is – Who are you?
The sport questions help us begin to trust the player on the field of competition – Can I trust you?
The heart oriented questions help us begin to commit to the player – Can I commit to you?

This sort of relational “team building” activities have helped us bridge wide gulfs of division related to race, socio-economic barriers, class, region, etc… They have helped us reach unparalleled success on and off the field of competition. We’ll discuss in the future some other strategies employed by other coaching staffs for overcoming division and for building team unity.