Proclamation - continued...

Encourage genuine expressions of faith in your team – When you see a player or coach expressing his/her faith or even an interest in spiritual things, encourage and feed them. Find ways to steer conversations to spiritual matters. Ask a good question about what you see. Feed their interest and watch their responses. Here are some simple things that often are indicators of faith or at least an interest in spiritual matters:
· Carrying a Bible.
· Attending a team chapel.
· Soliciting prayer for some matter.
· Attending church services or asking you about where to attend.
· Praying at meals.
· Asking questions about faith, even sarcastic or cynical questions.
· Reading anything with spiritual content.
· Family members who ask you about chapel, prayer, etc…

15 Minute Chapel Format

· Welcome by chaplain (30 seconds)

· Opening prayer by a player or coach as solicited by chaplain
(30 seconds)

· Introduction of guest speaker by chaplain (if applicable)

· Chapel talk (5-7 minutes)
o 50% inspiration (love God) 50% motivation (compete greatly)

· Prayer by players and coaches as facilitated by chaplain (5-7 minutes)
o For the Coaching staff
o For the team’s Offense
o For the team’s Defense
o For the Special Teams
o For the game Officials
o For the team’s Opponents
o Closing prayer by chaplain
(Categories from American football, adapt to make appropriate to other sports.)

Proclamation, continued...

Express the message of Christ Jesus in terms relevant to the team’s sport culture – It may help if you think of yourself as a cross-cultural missionary. While most of the Christian world thinks of how to communicate about faith in Christ across various language barriers, your task is to clearly communicate in the culture of sport. This will mean that your vocabulary should be full of the words and expressions that are common to the sport. This is the language they speak. Al Miller, Chaplain to the national football (soccer), net ball and track & field teams of Jamaica, says it this way, “Speak the language of your sport.” Your illustrations of spiritual matters should also come from the sport in which they compete and to which they have given so much of their hearts. Your witness to the love of Jesus Christ must be shared in the context of sport to be most readily understood and most strongly integrated into their lives as a whole.
Asking good questions is especially important to the process of proclamation. Well considered questions can help determine a person’s level of spiritual development and his/her orientation toward sport so that the Chaplain or Mentor can speak most appropriately to the hearer’s life.

Proclamation

Express God’s heart for the men and women of sport – This is your high privilege and sacred duty. You are both the prophet and the priest for this community and you are charged with the expression of God’s love and will for them. You can make your expression through at least three ways:
o Through your speech - You can be used of God to inspire, to challenge, to correct and to comfort.
o Through writing – You can write cards, letters, notes, prayers, thank you notes, email messages and more.
o Through physical expression – Sometimes your posture, a gesture from the sidelines or a simple touch is the most profound form of communication available. An arm on the shoulder after a tough loss, a hug in celebration of a victory, handshakes, pats on the back, kneeling in tears, holding a hand on an athletic trainer’s table, sobs, guffaws, sweating and even bleeding speak loudly to people of sport and communicate messages that words are too weak to bear.