Long-term, relational service of sportspeople

Today I’d like to share some thoughts about the value of long-term, relational service with sportspeople. I awoke this morning to a richly rewarding facebook message from a young man in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We met in 2009 at a Tae Kwon Do club where he was an aspiring TKD competitor in training. I had brought a friend and colleague to San Pedro Sula from Tegucigalpa via bus, complete with stomach distress and death defying roads. My friend is a 5^th degree black belt, a member of the Martial Arts Hall of fame, and a tremendous trainer. Our host a the club was very gracious and welcomed us warmly. He kindly received the sport devotional book we gave him and translated a page of it from English to Spanish for his students while we were there.

 

Among those TKD students was the young man from whom I received the following message. “My dear friend I’m writing you from Honduras. I was a taekwondo athlete. Now I’m a man of god. I’m in a dilemma. How I can take my sport taekwondo with design and path that god is leading me now? I need your advice and wisdom I really appreciate this. Huge hug from Honduras.”

 

I was thrilled to receive the message and replied with the thoughts below, copying my friend the 5^th degree black belt. “Bendiciones, mi hermano. Gracias para tu mensaje maravilloso. (Blessings, my brother. Thank you for your wonderful message.)

 

1. Meditate upon these scriptures: Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:23, I Corinthians 9:24-27.

    2. Pray, dedicating Tae Kwon Do to the Lord Jesus. Ask Him to enable you to compete in His name and to His glory.

 

3) Consider how you may make TKD training an act of worship. Expect to experience the Lord's presence as you train and compete. Expect to experience His pleasure with you as you train and compete.”

 

We met this young man and spoke maybe twice, several years ago. We left the devotional book. Its use was emphasized by the club’s coach and some of the club’s highest achieving competitors. A couple of years later, I took a number of the books to them in Spanish. We have been facebook friends for a few years now, occasionally sending a message or liking his photos from competitions. He’s on my list for weekly devotions in Spanish and he sees my daily posts of devotional thoughts for sportspeople in Spanish.

 

Even with these seemingly weak, distant, and infrequent methods of ministry, he has become “a man of God.” It’s like Jesus’ example in the parable. The man sows the seed on the ground and goes to bed. He awakens the next day and the seed has sprouted, all by itself. We sowed the seed of the Gospel years ago and with little personal nurture, it has developed into “a man of God.” Please commit yourself and your ministry to long-term, relational service to the people of sport and trust the Lord’s mighty Spirit to nurture and develop the seeds planted, even years and thousands of miles away.

FCA Sport Chaplain / Character Coach Conference - 4-6 March, 2014

Coming up on 4-6 March at the FCA National Support Center in Kansas City, Missouri will be the fifth annual FCA Sport Chaplains Conference. We would love to have you attend. Its cost is very reasonable and it’s built in such a way as to enrich the ministries of those who are already serving as well as to inform and prepare those who are just beginning.

 

Among the featured items are a presentation from Marla Williams, who serves with teams at Georgia Tech University, regarding sexual brokenness among sportspeople. We all encounter this issue, but few of us have a biblical understand of how to deal with it. This will be outstanding. I will be making a presentation on the most basic fundamentals of serving as a sport chaplain or character coach. The chaplain to our chaplains will be John Randles, who is a dynamic communicator with experience and insight for our teammates. We’ll also feature a panel discussion with a broad range of men and women with years of experience in such ministry sharing their wisdom in answering your direct questions.

 

One of the best things about how this conference is structured is that we build in time for small group discussions of each session as well as lots of “space” in the schedule to allow for informal conversations over coffee, lunch, and a whole evening at dinner together in Kansas City restaurants.

 

Please make plans to join us in Kansas City. Your ministry will be enhanced, your heart will be encouraged, and your soul will be enriched. I promise. Be sure to get registered prior to March 1. Registration information is attached, below, and at this site: http://www.fcachaplains.org/conference-registration

Using Technology in Sports Ministry

During the fall of 2009, I made a presentation to the Sport Chaplains Roundtable in Lansing, Michigan (USA) re: the use of technology in Sports Ministry. An outline of that presentation with some comments follows. I hope it is of value to you as you consider what technologies to employ and the values that shape how you use them.

 

Using Technology in Sports Ministry

• What to do? Which technologies can enhance our effectiveness in ministry with sportspeople?

• What should I NOT do? What is there about such technologies which could actually harm our ministries?

• How to do it? What are some values which should guide how we approach technological advances?

• Email – many of us use email all the time, but it’s used less and less by people under 30 years of age.
• SMS Text Messages – many people now prefer this mode of communication over all others.
• Facebook – there are many ways to use this wisely and many more to use it foolishly.
• Twitter – what of value can be expressed in 140 characters?
• LinkedIn – with whom do you connect on this site?

Guidelines for use of technology:

• Consider the purpose for your writing.
  • To encourage
  • To challenge
  • To console
  • To inspire
  • To inform

 

• Use proper etiquette.
  • bcc: in emails – few things are more annoying (and insecure) than seeing hundreds of addresses in the header of an email.
  • Please use proper grammar – writing badly does not enhance your ministry nor does it inspire confidence in you.
  • Check spelling – this is pretty easy, but if not done can lead to embarrassment.
  • Use photos and video wisely – especially in international relationships. There are a number of ways to use photos poorly and thereby jeopardize one’s friends in oppressive countries.

 

• Errors to avoid
  • Personal information of coaches or players – Don’t share personal information about sportspeople, ever.
  • Injury information – Your sharing of this kind of information can be used by gambling interests and in the USA is even illegal in itself.
  • Critical thoughts re: team, coaches or players – This is an express ticket to the loss of your privileges with the team or club.
  • Items meant to build your status – Don’t be a name dropper. Don’t post photos with high profile players.

 

• Inspire and encourage
  • Coaches – speak to their hearts prior to competitions and then afterward.
  • Athletes – challenge them to be their best before game time and then either congratulate or console once you know the result.
  • Chaplains – lead and encourage your colleagues as you know they are preparing to share the Lord’s heart with those in his/her charge.

Seasons in Sport

It is the nature of the sport world to divide the annual calendar into various seasons, not Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, but pre-season, on season, post-season, and off season. It is helpful for those who serve people in sport to have a strategy for each of these seasons. Below are some brief thoughts about different sorts of initiatives one can undertake in each of your team’s seasons.

 

Pre-season: This is the perfect time to learn all you can about the people on your team. Work to meet everyone who works with the team. Learn the names of players, coaches, and the support staff like physios, athletic trainers, equipment managers, operations people, office staff, strength and conditioning coaches, etc… I would challenge you to memorize the whole roster of players’ names, uniform numbers, and home towns. This is the time to lay the relational foundations for the ministry opportunities that will follow.

 

On season: This is when you execute the plans you have made and you work to fit into the rhythm of the team’s life. Listen well for expressions of spiritual hunger and seize each opportunity as it arises. Pray for a sensitive heart and wise presence with the team.

 

Post-season: Should your team compete well enough to make it to a set of playoffs or a post-season tournament, enjoy the ride. Treat this as a new season with unique opportunities and work to help each one and the team collectively to finish well. Most of the time these tournaments are one off events and while each team thinks they’ll emerge as champions, only one will. Be very present and self-controlled in order to serve everyone, especially if the team is eliminated short of the championship.

 

Off season: The easiest thing to do in the off season is nothing. It is far better to use this time to rest, to evaluate, to plan, and to prepare for the future. It’s wise to meet with the head coach to discuss and to evaluate your service of the team. Ask the hard questions like: What worked well? What did you like that we did? What did you not like? What would you like to have me do more? What would you like to have me do less? What do you most value from my role? How can I serve you and the team better? Use the information gathered from this meeting to make plans and to prepare for the next pre-season.

 

The seasonal nature of sport can be of tremendous benefit to us if we’ll understand the unique nature of each season and its opportunities to serve and to grow our ministries. The dynamics and rhythm of sports’ seasons diminish monotony and enhance our anticipation of the Lord Jesus’ movement in the hearts and minds of the men and women we serve.

The Power of Sport

I just returned from a brief trip to Kingston, Jamaica to work with our friend and colleague, Andre’ Virtue of Whole Life Sports. We had a remarkable four days of meetings with leaders of a seminary, schools, sports clubs, social agencies, sports federations, and even the Minister of Education.

 

David Pearson of Jamaica Theological Seminary quoted one statistic that speaks to the power of sports in their society and probably in the world at large. He said that there have been just two days in recent Jamaican history on which there were zero murders. One was the day the “Reggae Boyz” qualified for the World Cup of Football in 1997 and the other was the day Usain Bolt won his first Olympic gold medal. It seems that these two victories by their national heroes so captured everyone’s imaginations that it even dispelled the ever-present force of violent crime.

 

This simply reinforces my commitment to be among those who make a difference in the lives of sportspeople with the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Sport is a tremendous force in society; that can either be good or bad. The nature of those who wield such influence will be the determining factor. Let’s be agents of God’s transforming power and watch what happens.

Irreligious

Below is a reflection from January of 2012 which is also included in the new book, Free to Compete – Reflections on Sport from a Christian Perspective. (www.crosstrainingpublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-938254-15-4 paperback 176 pages) and now in Kindle version at (http://www.amazon.com/Free-to-Compete-ebook/dp/B00EQD7H0S/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379072937&sr=1-2&keywords=free+to+compete). I hope it both challenges and encourages you as you serve the men and women of sport.
 

While preparing for a pre-game meal and chapel talk one day, an assistant women’s basketball coach commented to me, “You’re not like most of the religious people I’ve known.”  I smiled and replied, “Good.  I don’t intend to be religious.  I would prefer to be highly committed to Christ, but rather irreligious.”  She said, “That’s interesting.”  My reflexive comment to my friend was true and heart-felt and I’m still happy with it.

 

I’d like to explore the difference between being “religious” and being “highly committed to Christ.”  Religious people carry the external trappings of Christianity as their defining marks.  Highly committed Christians carry their commitment to Jesus internally as their defining characteristic and allow that commitment to find external expression in numerous, often less religious ways.  Some examples of each may help us see the difference.

 

Religious people speak with each other in clichés and the King James language they learn at church.  Highly committed believers in Jesus are free to speak in the language of the subculture in which they are serving Him; in our case, that is the language of sport.  Religious people would rather sit in judgment over people whose lifestyles don’t fit their standards.  Highly committed Christian men and women demonstrate love and commitment to those they serve without respect to their lifestyles, wise or foolish.  Their grasp of their own wickedness of heart and the weakness of their own flesh keeps judgmental attitudes at bay.

 

I don’t shun the sinful or cluck my tongue at foolish speech.  I don’t Tebow because it’s trendy nor do I repeat or retweet every syllable uttered by John Piper (insert the name of any other celebrity preacher) as if it were holy writ.  I don’t pretend that attending my local church is the answer to everyone’s social ills and that if they simply walk through the door all their problems will be solved.  I don’t counsel new believers in Jesus to shun their former circle of friends and teammates in order to adopt a more suitable set of friends who won’t pollute their lives with wickedness.  I don’t wear WWJD bracelets and I haven’t burned my secular music recordings (Gasp!).  I don’t go to trendy “Christian films” which are simply gospel tracts on celluloid.  I’m bored with the passionless music poured out by contemporary Christian music stations and I’m repulsed by Southern Gospel music.  I prefer reading Seth Godin and Malcom Gladwell to Max Lucado and Joel Osteen.

 

This distaste for “religious” things and preference for “heartfelt commitment” often leads to my being misunderstood by others in the Church.  I’m fine with that.  I rather enjoy the questions asked of me about such things; the question asked by the assistant basketball coach being emblematic of such questions and the conversations which normally follow.  Please take the risk of being misunderstood and questioned about your lack of religiousness in favor of a genuine, passionate expression of your love for the Lord Jesus.  It’s worth it and we’re much less boring people with whom to interact.

Coaches Conventions

Tomorrow I’ll make a four hour drive to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend the American Football Coaches Association’s (AFCA) annual convention. This is a gathering of thousands of high school and college coaches from all across the USA and even some from abroad. The event is full of training sessions, discussions, dinners, lunches and our ministry hosts a worship service on Sunday morning, a fellowship time on Sunday night, and a breakfast on Monday morning (free of charge) for the coaches. There will be lots of awards presented through the sweep of Saturday through Wednesday and we will have a booth in the exhibition hall where we greet coaches who are either curious about our ministry or are being drawn by the Lord to Himself. Our being there is the key.

 

In the USA, much of the Church’s way of doing ministry is “come and see.” We hold our special events, our worship services, our dinners, or whatever else we think will be attractive to people looking for a church. In almost twenty years of ministry in sport, I much prefer “go and tell” ministry methods. I would much rather attend a coaching convention or clinic where I know coaches of all sorts will be than host one which will only draw coaches who are already committed to our Lord and/or our mission.

 

By simply standing at our booth, greeting coaches who wander by in the expansive exhibition hall, offering information or directions, chatting informally, and offering the simple resources we distribute, we open doors to relationship for ourselves and for our colleagues in the communities where the coaches live. We regularly network these coaches to our ministry partners and many times open new doors for ministry that may not have opened had we not been there.

 

This will be the ninth such AFCA convention for me and it’s always worthwhile, even if I have to drive hours or fly across the country to Texas, Florida, or California. This is where the coaches are and it’s where they are most who they want to be. To be sure, many are posing, many are simply hunting a job, many are secure and puffed up, many are hunting for free beers and available women, but some are actually spiritually hungry, but not sure for what. If we are there, engaged, and alert, we can be the ones who speak real life to their hearts and can awaken their need for a life transforming relationship with Christ Jesus.

 

For many others, they’ve just been fired, their head coach has been fired and they also are dispatched, while still others are in transitions of other sorts. Our presence in that culture is a point of constancy and emblematic of the Lord Jesus’ faithfulness; simply by showing up.

 

May I challenge you to do similarly in your sporting environment? Whether it’s a national, regional, state or even local coaches event; be there. Engage. Love the coaches. Watch for hungry hearts and attentive ears. Be the Lord’s presence in this place like you are in the life of your own team. You may find that your reach into coaches’ lives extends far beyond your local team, club, or community. You may find your phone’s contact list becomes populated by hundreds of coaches’ names and numbers as mine has. Your face to face interaction at the convention keeps the relationship warm and enables your text messages and phone calls throughout the year to have their intended results. You can speak to their hearts in any circumstance, anytime, and from anywhere.