Integration vs. Injection

Written by: Bob Schindler

When you think of Christianity and sports, which of these two words come to mind?

Historically, as in many other areas, injection is actually our practice. We inject some Christianity into our sports. We do this by:

• Praying before and after our games about things that have nothing to do with sports

• Saying the Lord’s prayer before and after games with no thought as to how it applies to our sports

• Putting bible verses on the walls of our gyms that either don’t apply to sports, rec, or fitness or are used out of context to try to make them fit

• Sharing devotionals with players and parents that have nothing to do with sports, rec, or fitness

• Sharing sports stories when applying a Scriptural passage that really don’t connect

• Sharing with participants from one’s devotional life before or after a sports, rec, and fitness event that has nothing to do with that event

This injection leads our players, coaches, and spectators wondering if sports, rec, and fitness and Christianity really connect and adds to the already very prevalent compartmentalization of our lives and Christianity. God has in mind the integration of sports, rec, and fitness and Christianity rather than the injection. He wants this integration to involve not just sports, rec, and fitness but every area of our lives.

In fact, we might say sanctification, the process of transformation God is authoring in his sons and daughters, is the progressive integration of different aspects of our lives into the gospel. Consider how you are doing at this integration in your ministry?

Consider God's Will in Your Ideal Outcomes

Written by CEDE SPORTS Staff, Hudson Belk

What is God’s will for your ministry in 2024? One thing I was encouraged to do leading into 2024 was to consider my Ideal Outcomes for 2024. So, I sat down and prayerfully considered the question, “if God did more than I could think or imagine in our ministry, what might that be?”

Above all, the exercise led me to worship, prayer and repentance. Though the idea is probably not new to anyone, I still found it helpful. First, it set my sight on where we wanted to go as a ministry before we started working on getting there. But, to figure out where I wanted to go, the practice immediately makes me think theologically about the different “Wills” of God in Scripture at a basic level. First, I considered the “Prescriptive Will of God” (what God has commanded). God has called me in my ministry, out of love for Him and others, to be faithful in my obedience to Him and His commands (John 14:15; Romans 12:1-2).

This first caused me to align my thinking and desires with what God has clearly called me to in 2024. Though it seems obvious in ministry, I’m not sure we always start there. Start with what God has declared, prescribed and what we know pleases Him! As I thought about what pleases Him, I thought of our obedience and faithfulness to His commands/commissions, His not taking pleasure in the death of anyone (Ez 18:32), and of His pleasure in accomplishing His sovereign, redemptive purposes (Eph 1, Rom 9).

As I prayed and meditated on this, it enlarged and grew my heart and desires for what I longed for in our ministry and gave direction for how I may faithfully minister this year. It gave me a target to then evaluate our ministry practices. However, it also pushed me to consider God’s “Sovereign Will.” Many of my Ideal Outcomes may not come about this year. Honestly, there is grief in my heart already knowing that. However, the practice made me run to King Jesus and rest in God’s Sovereign rule and plan. I am sure 2024 will not look like the story I wrote out in my Ideal Outcomes.

Yet, this practice allows me to set my course on God’s Revealed Will and my heart can rest in God’s Hidden Will (Deut 29:29). For God is good, and He is indeed in control! To me, this whole practice reflected the life of a Christian; an opportunity to worship, to repent, to realign with God’s purposes, pursue obedience by faith and to rest in God sovereign will. I write this excited to passionately give myself to the ministry God has called me to, but doing so in dependence on Him, resting in God’s supervisor and provision of everything that happens.

May the Lord bless 2024 for His glory and our good!

7 Ways to Encourage Evangelism in Your Ministry

An article on Evangelism.net focuses on how to get new believers involved in evangelism. However, to me, the list could apply to anyone who is a leader in ministry, whether a new believer or a well-seasoned one.

The list goes as follows:

1.)    Be an example—people are watching what you do, and they tend to pay more attention to what you do than what you say. When new believers see other believers evangelizing, it encourages them to do the same.

2.)    Evangelize in teams—pair a more experienced evangelist with a newer convert. Whether it be witnessing in a park, church visitation, or simply visiting a friend you think would be open to the gospel, take along a new believer. Your experience will help them, and hopefully their newfound joy will encourage you.

3.)    Pray with them for specific people who are not believers—praying for the lost increases our love for the lost.

4.)    Realize that it is not about the numbers—God tells us to take the gospel to lost people, but it is God who does the saving, not us. With that in mind, we don’t need to feel like a failure if someone doesn’t trust Christ after we have shared the gospel (1 Cor. 3:6–8).

5.)    Remind them that fear is normal—it is an experience that everyone deals with. The Apostle Paul even asked for prayer for boldness, something he would not have needed to ask for if he didn’t have fear.

6.)    Tell them it is okay if they don’t have all the answers—It is okay to say, “I don’t know.” Unbelievers are more impressed by someone that admits they don’t know an answer than by someone who makes up an answer or acts like a know-it-all.

7.)    Help them learn a basic method—there are many good methods, but having one basic method that they can always use is a must. It frees them up to talk and listen, instead of worrying about what to say next.

The Importance of Love

HOW DOES THE WORLD TYPICALLY THINK OF LOVE?

Written by: Bob Schindler

Emotion. A response we have to someone who makes us feel good.  Christians like to call this infatuation more than love. 

In response, we point to love as a verb not a noun.  We talk about commitment, choice, action.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives us a better way to look at love.

This passage is often associated with weddings and the love needed for a couple in marriage. But Paul wrote the chapter for quite a different purpose – for a local church and the love needed to keep the diversity and vulnerability he had just called that church to in the previous chapter.

In verses 1-3, he begins this look at love with a stern warning.  Someone can appear very successful in ministry and not have love as the motivation for that ministry.  The result of such a combination is scary – we become annoying to others in the body, we are nothing and gain nothing in the eyes of God.

Paul meant to rock the Corinthians as they heard these words.  God means it to rock us still today.

In verses 4-7, Paul then gives us this famous description of love.  As Tim Keller says, Paul wanted the Corinthians to think of two people as they went through this list.

FIRST, HE WANTED TO THEM TO THINK OF THEMSELVES.

In the previous 12 chapters Paul had outlined the poor behavior and attitudes he heard of in the Corinthians.  Most of the positive qualities listed in v 4-7 were exactly what the Corinthians were not and most of the negative statements defined exactly what they were.  He wanted them to see they were a people who often didn’t not possess love.

He didn’t want them to only see they weren’t behaving lovingly but that they didn’t possess love. If you look in verses 1-7, love is a noun.  The noun, love, is coupled with the verbs have not or is.  Love is not just a choice, it is not just a behavior. Love is something we have or don’t have because it is or isn’t.

So why this distinction? He wanted them to ask – “How do I get this love?” – and in doing so think about the second person.

SECOND, HE WANTED THEM TO THINK OF CHRIST.

Paul not only used a noun for love, he used a feminine personal noun. He personifies love. “Love is…Love does not…,” and gives attributes that we would say about a person – kind, not jealous, easily angered, etc.

When Paul begins with the idea – love is patient – he shows us something of where he wanted their minds to go.

The word for patient is “suffers long.”  Who suffered long for these Corinthians?  Who did he just remind them in chapter 11 took bread and wine on the night he was betrayed and said “This is my body broken for you.”?

He wanted them to think of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit wants us to think of him today – as the one who embodies love – who doesn’t boast as he is beaten, who isn’t self-seeking as he hangs on the cross, who keeps no record of wrongs as he cries, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing,” who always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.

Paul wanted them to think of Jesus in his love in order to face their lack of love. Why? So they could experience his love in their brokenness.

Paul understood you can’t give away what you don’t have.  You can’t just behave lovingly.  You can’t just take up this list in verses 4-7 as a list of to do’s to become a person of love.  That makes you at best a person who behaves lovingly and at worst a proud moral lover.

But this approach cannot make you a person who possesses love!  Only the power of the gospel in a person can have such an effect.  To make this list in 4-7 merely a list of do’s and don’ts diminishes the need for and power of the gospel to make us people of love.

Paul understood that.  He knew our self-centered tendencies.  So he personifies love so that we would resist this tendency when we look at our lives in the face of this list. Instead, he calls the Corinthians and us to look at this list and confess how little we love, to bring that to Jesus, and watch him work.  Watch him embraces us there, forgives us, and deposit his love in us.

THE GOSPEL IS AN EXCHANGE

My brokenness for his love.  This is the exchange of the gospel. Not just when we first confess our lack and embrace his love at conversion, but this exchange as an ongoing process in our lives. This exchange changes us, transforms us, into people who possess love.  Not in a way that makes us say, “Look at what loving people we are!” but in a way that says, “Look at what a loving Person He is!”

The week I studied this passage, I was sitting in Texas thinking, “I wish this guy would hurry up” (as he described an incredible move of God in San Jose California) and later thinking “I could do a better job than him” as a speaker challenged a group I was in. The words – “Love is patient…Love is not proud” – came to mind.

No one knew my impatience or pride – no one except me and the Holy Spirit.  Now the choice – confess or deny.  It all depended on whether I really wanted to be a person of love.

Would you pray with us at Cede Sprorts?  We hear the warning that we could be very successful in the eyes of the world and yet be bankrupt before God. It all hinges on love. Pray for the courage to confess our lack of love – deeply, regularly, vulnerably – and to embrace the one who says, “As the Father has loved me, I love you.”

What Have You Done For God Today?

Guest post by Carey Keiger

Years ago, my wife sent me a text message that simply stated: “What have you done for God today?”

I had to think about that for a second…Wow! Had there been anything I had truly done FOR GOD, and for God alone that day? I had a quiet time that morning, but it seemed pretty rushed, and I’m not sure I went into that quiet time thinking, “this is for God today.” I definitely didn’t consider driving to work in morning traffic, something that I could do for God. How about my daily routines at work? Had any part of my lunch break been used for God? There did not seem to be any part of my day that I had done FOR GOD. That really convicted me…not to mention, blew me away.

Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”

I found that there was very little that I did on a daily basis that was for God. Everything was done for selfish reasons, or out of obligation, or just out of routine.

But what if everything we did, we did it as if we were doing it for the Lord? What would that look like? What would that look like in our daily lives? Or now that I am working in Church Recreation, I wonder what that would look like in our ministry? What would that look like on our ball fields, basketball courts, golf courses, etc?

Too often we have our own agendas, our own desires, our own responsibilities…and sometimes we are just going through the motions. But if we truly did our work for the Lord, what type of difference do you think that would make? It’s not easy – partly because nothing in or of this world will support you in doing anything for God. It takes an intentional effort to keep our ministry from becoming routine or just careless acts. As the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air.”  In the same way, we should not run our ministry without goals or purpose…and that purpose must be in line with the will of God.  

We should do nothing apart from Him. Jesus said:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Why do we try to leave Christ out of certain areas of our life? Why would we want to be apart from Christ, even when it’s just on a ball field for an hour? Aren’t we even curious about what we can do with Christ? How much fruit can we truly bear, when we are in Christ? Our ministry, our churches and our homes desperately need to be for Christ, and need to remain in Christ.

So what have you done for God today?

Why Can't We See Our Flaws?

What are your flaws? Your weaknesses? The places you struggle against sin?

Many if not most of us are unaware of those weaknesses and, as a result, miss out on the opportunity to experience the power of God we all so long to experience.

Tim Keller reminded us of this reality:

But gifts and temperament in the service of idols—and this is our normal state—always are a mixed blessing. They have a good side—they produce virtuous behavior—but they lead the person into a corresponding sin or vice as well.

As a result, people cannot see their sins because they look only at their virtues. For example, someone may say, “I’m not abrasive, I just speak very directly.” It is true that a direct-speaking person may do good because direct, blunt comments are sometimes needed. But overall the abrasiveness is ineffective, and the person’s boldness and confidence comes to some degree from pride and a lack of love. And for this reason, many (or perhaps most) Christians do not work on the supernatural graces of the spirit that are not natural to us, and that mitigate or eliminate the dark side—the besetting sins—of our nature. (For the whole article, click here.)

What is the remedy? Keller gives three prescriptions:

1. Know that your worst character flaws are the ones you can see the least.

2. Remember that you can’t learn about your biggest flaws just by being told—you must be shown.

3. Be willing to listen to corrections and critique from others.

Why is this important? Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 that the way we handle our weaknesses determines our experience of the power of God in our lives.

WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

Guest Author: Dan Williams, Founder of Sports Serve

THE GIANT PUZZLE

I felt overwhelmed and paralyzed by the enormity of the task. This was my mental and physical state as I looked out over the scene. The task was familiar enough. Who hasn’t put a puzzle together? Every Christmas my family works on a puzzle together and it’s a great bonding experience.

But this was different.  I was in Orlando, FL attending an International Sports Leadership Conference with 100+ leaders from over 50 different countries. As a part of a full day of team building we had all broken into small teams for different activities. Now each team had been given over twenty giant puzzle pieces. The board was the size of a small ballroom. Our task was simple. Together all 100+ of us were to work together to piece the puzzle together.

A few brave leaders jumped to the center with an idea that each team appoint a leader to represent their team and to convene together to develop a plan. Soon decisions were being made. A small group began to shout commands. Each of us on our team began to look around not knowing who was in charge. It was a puzzle we collectively thought. We should just grab a piece and find where it goes.

So our group started. Still shouting from the center were others with competing commands. One person had an idea. Another had a new idea. While others like our group quietly worked to figure out where their pieces went.

DISCOURAGEMENT SETS IN

Time passed and progress was not made. Some began running around rearranging work that had been done. Finally, collective frustration began to set in. Next came despair and some began wandering around along the edge of the puzzle. The shouting continued. I guess they felt the need to shout to capture everyone’s attention. But as soon as they opened their mouths you realized that they were just as unsure as you were about what to do. So you stopped listening.

I’ve learned over time that no two people will necessarily take away the same knowledge from the same lesson. Educators say this is due to the many differences among learners including culture, preconceptions and other variations in the learning process. This was evident as we gathered as a large group to debrief our frustrating attempt to piece the puzzle together. We had finally accomplished the task. But the reality was that most had quit and left the task to a smaller group to accomplish.

I believe it was our many differences, including culture, preconceptions and other variations that were the main hurdle in our combined attempt to complete the task. Was this the result of the curse of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:5-8)? It sure did feel like it.

OUR CHALLENGE

This experience reinforced to me why it is so hard to work with others. But God sure does want us to work with others. For example, in Psalm 133 the psalmist writes, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Or in I Corinthians 12:12-31 where Paul writes, “we are all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body…” And again in Ephesians 4:1-13 he writes, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Jesus also prays in John 17:20-23, “My prayer is … that all of them may be one…”

Do I have a choice of going alone? Certainly I do. But it is very apparent that when I do try and work together with others that I partake in something special.

I love reading John 6:1-15. Looking out over a mass of 5,000 people Jesus asks Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip’s responded, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Then enters Peter. “Here is a boy with five small barely loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Then Jesus does something amazing. He tells everyone to sit down and after giving thanks he takes the loaves and small fish and begins distributing them out to everyone. And everyone had enough to eat with plenty left over.

BLINDSPOTS

Perhaps the one voice we were not listening to that day of the giant puzzle was our Master's voice. And why is this so apparent? When faced with the enormity of the task the only one who was not paralyzed was Jesus. The different cultures and perspectives were no match for Jesus. Just like feeding 5,000 was no problem for him. What fun it must have been for those disciples on that incredible day! What fun might it have been for our group had we pulled together with God to complete the puzzle?

Recently I participated in a webinar CEDE Sports facilitated about, “How to Play Sports for the Glory of God.” When I think about this topic I remember the day of the giant puzzle and how I was paralyzed by the enormity of the task. Even Bob Schindler who moderated the webinar commented, “I don’t think there is a more heady subject than the glory of God outside of the subject of God himself.”

With a subject like this it doesn’t take long for the many differences and preconceptions to begin to be injected into the conversation. We may become discouraged, or question why we would want to stay engaged in the conversation anyway. Perhaps even quit all together because we don’t think we can contribute.

OUR ONLY SHOT AT SUCCESS

Can I challenge you? Can I challenge myself? It’s about doing it with God. It’s about what we learn along the way. Let’s journey together with God to discover His perfect plan. Together, with God, let’s bring our piece of the puzzle to each other and listen for His voice of revelation.

The reality is that without God this conversation too will become our Tower of Babel. “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” Genesis 11:8

CEDE SPORTS STORIES: NOI FESTIVAL IN ITALY

Micheal, Nina, and Max serve as CEDE SPORTS country coordinators in Italy, particularly in Milan. They bring the wonderful news of salvation in Jesus to all people through means of Bible Study, preaching, events open to the community, and sports. Offering a welcoming environment, where people can feel included and discover God’s love for them, is fundamental to their ministry.

Two years ago, The Schaafsmas were part of a team that was formed with the leadership of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association International Field staff to plan an evangelistic event that would be called the “NOI Festival.” The festival would feature worship music and a gospel message from Franklin Graham.

Noi can mean “we” or “us.” The name is most fitting considering over 500 churches in Milan joined together for this event with the hope of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the 12,000 seat Mediolanum Forum. It started with contacting national church leaders and local pastors to hold training sessions in each church called Christian Life & Witness. The training  equipped Christians to speak of the hope they have in Jesus Christ and many of those trained served as counselors at the Noi Festival. Micheal Schaafsma was able to carry the role as Coordinator of classes and found great encouragement in hearing stories of people talking to their friends about Jesus and praying for people to attend the Noi Festival.

The festival was initially scheduled for early 2021 but delayed due to Covid restrictions. The event finally took place in October 2022 and had an amazing turn out of over 13,200 people! So many prayers were prayed and answered at this incredible event. The Schaafsmas held different roles along with others in their church to help make the event successful. Max Schaafsma was responsible for getting tickets into the hands of every person and making sure everyone fit without leaving a single seat empty! Micheal S. was responsible for coordinating the counselors and the follow-up of all the people who made decisions at the event to follow Jesus. Nina Schaafsma worked to translate so much literature, communication and music for the event with her favorite being the Kid’s book, “Jesus Loves Me!”

So many were blessed richly by the event and churches are still talking about it! We ask that you would pray for the many who gave their life to Jesus, that they would connect with other Christians, and they would continue to pursue Him with their lives.

What is Your Passion?

Finding The Answer

As I have searched myself and helped others along toward the answer to this “burning” question, I find it is important to know at least three things:

1. What is passion? Or to put it another way, “What exactly are we looking for?”

2. Where does passion come from?  Or “Where do we go to find this passion?”

3. How do we get this passion?  Or once at the source “How do we take ownership of what we have found?”

To begin our search, we will start at #1 – we have to know what we are looking for.  We have to know what passion is.

But that pursuit can be a little muddied.  Here is how one business coach put it:

We often talk about passion, but we tend to use it very loosely.  We usually refer to passion in passing – it is rarely the primary focus of discussion or analysis. I am just as guilty of this. A couple of months ago, I posted a manifesto for passionate creatives and never explicitly defined what I meant by passion.  In talking with people about this manifesto, I discovered that passion has an infinite variety of meanings.

Defining Our Search

Without clear definition, we see the word “passion” thrown around more and more these days. Just search the phrase “A passion for….” and here is some of what you find:

• A passion for jazz

• A passion for pipes

• A passion for paws

Then there are companies that use this word in their motto or slogan:

• Our passion is building

• Our passion is excellence

• Our passion is engineering

It seems that almost anything can be an object of passion and we are left even more confused.

So What Is Passion?

Look up the word and you find that, in a broad sense, passion is any strong emotion.  More specifically, passion is an intense emotion, compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.  Very specifically, some people would limit this emotion to a strong love or sexual desire.

My definition of passion is a little broader:

The emotional response to an attainable object of pleasure or desire that moves the possessor to pursue that object

There are several key words

• emotional response – Passion is not self-existing.  Passion comes from the presence of something or someone else

• attainable object of pleasure or desire – Passion comes from seeing something I can obtain, possess, interact, engage with that is pleasurable.  Hence the desire.

• that moves the possessor to pursuit – Passion is an intense and moving emotion.  Passion energizes.

In this light, there is another aspect of passion that is important to consider when you are looking for your passion.

The English word passion comes from Middle English, Old French, and Medieval Latin to describe Christ’s sufferings on the cross or any biblical accounts of these.  From there, passio in Late Latin came to be used for suffering and submission.

With this in mind, Barb Elyet says this about passion

On the surface, the word “passion” can stir emotions in us that inspire, motivate, and elevate us to live life at a higher, more exciting, fulfilling level. But just as the core of an apple cannot be separate from the apple itself, “suffering” is always at the core of passion. We cannot have one without the other.

Will Shipley, designer of Delicious Library, says this about passion –

“Passion is easy to define; you care so deeply about something that it wounds you if it’s done poorly.”

Here we find what we are looking for, this definition of passion – something we want, very deeply that moves us to pursuit and wounds us when not achieved. Wounds but not deters.  Passion may bring suffering but it also empowers us to press on – to persevere in our pursuit, as long as we see it as attainable.

Power Up–The Sports Ministry Podcast Interview with Bob Schindler: Moving Forward in Sports Ministry

Bob Schindler, COO of CEDE SPORTS,  joins Bill Houston and Tracy Hanson, on Power Up–The Sports Ministry Podcast to talk about moving forward in sports ministry.

“Bob Schindler has been involved in helping many move forward in sports ministry as COO of CEDE Sports. His passion is coming alongside and encouraging those who are serving athletes, coaches and others in the ever-growing, ever-changing world of sports. He also has a desire to help those who serve others in the Name of Christ through sports in the local church.”

Check out this encouraging podcast today by clicking here.

Competing for Christ Podcast Interview with Bob Dyar: Equipping the Church, Chaplains, and Athletes

Bob Dyar, CEO and Founder of CEDE SPORTS,  joins Ken Burke on the Competing for Christ
Podcast today to talk about, “Equipping the Church, Chaplains, and Athletes.”

What is the role of local believers of a church in the sports context, if any? Is that different than the role of a sports chaplain? This topic isn't touched on enough: appropriately equipping the local church and chaplains on sports teams, and what athletes can learn from each of these things. Dyar also discusses the vision/background of CEDE Sports as an international sports ministry organization that "seeks to impact people of sport through churches and chaplaincy".

Check out this encouraging podcast today by clicking here.

My Story with Sports, Life, and Truth

By: Alexis Gandy

Where It All Began

As a Charleston, SC native, I grew up in church and went to a Christian school from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. These environments were very foundational for my faith. There were many people who taught me about myself and my Creator and I have no doubt that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the school and church I grew up in. 

Throughout my years living in Charleston, I always participated in sports. I played volleyball, basketball and soccer all throughout high school and middle school. I have many memories from youth soccer all the way to my very last high school playoff game. I gained so much through sports including some of my best friends and many life skills through playing sports. 

“In Everything We Do..”

In my Christian school, we would pray before and after games with every team I was a part of. When I got to high school, we would even invite the other team to join in on our post-game prayer whether we had just won or lost. Often in high school, I was chosen to pray for the team and most of my prayers ended with, “…and in everything we do, I pray we would glorify You.” I was passionate about this, passionate about giving God the glory no matter what the outcome was. 

We also had team devotions when I was on varsity in high school.  Again, I was often chosen to deliver the devotion and to close in prayer. Our devotions were always held before practice or before games. We were always intentional about recognizing God before and after our games or practices. I loved that we did this  and I saw nothing wrong with it. 

As a team, we went to faith-based camps every summer before volleyball season began. At these camps we spent the day working on our skills and then each night we would have a chapel service. I loved these chapel services, training all day, and most of all I loved getting to do it all with my team. Again, I saw nothing wrong with it being this way. 

College Days

In my junior year of college at Winthrop University, I stumbled upon ROAR sports (the sports ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, SC) through a friend. I was coaching at a local middle school and I really enjoyed it. I saw ROAR as another opportunity for me to get to do what I loved, just with a different age group. I filled out the coach interest form online and one of the questions asked if I was willing to deliver a devotion. I immediately said yes. I had done this before for many years with my high school team and I had talked to kids many times in children’s church, so I thought it would be no problem.

At our new coaches training, they talked about the 3 D’s or 3D devotions. They explained that they would give us the devotion to do with our teams and I was happy about that because, if I am being honest, it meant less work for me. We went over what a 3D looked like, but I zoned out because I knew what a devotion was and I didn’t think I needed to listen. 

My Turning Point

Before my team’s first practice with ROAR, I was sitting down thinking about the devotion and trying to figure out what I was going to say. As I was reading through it, I realized there were many things I missed about what they said in the training, because pride had gotten the best of me.  I realized that the 3 D’s were more than just a devotion. They were a really good way of bringing together sports, life, and truth. From this moment on sports, life and truth took on a whole new meaning. I realized that this wasn’t something I was used to, but something I had a growing interest in. 
Fast forward to my last semester of college and I began interning with ROAR.  I continued to realize how important the integration ofsport, life, and truth really is. We compartmentalize sports so often. As I saw this tendency more and more, I realized, even at my Christian school, sports were compartmentalized. Unintentionally, but it was. We were focusing on God then going to play our sport, forgetting about God, then bringing God back into the equation after it was all over. Being a part of the ROAR sports ministry really helped me apply 1 Corinthians 10:31 to all of my life and to live it out completely. This verse states that whatever we do, we should do it for the glory of God. All things, including sports, are my “whatever” and all things should be done for the glory of God just like everything else in life.

How to Start a Spiritual Conversation

“If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain you would go to heaven?”

While this question may be helpful in the course of a spiritual dialogue, it is a rather awkward way to begin such a dialogue.  Tim Chester & Steve Timmis talk about this reality in their book Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission.

“Many of us know how to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” But we do not know how to begin a conversation about Jesus. Our only hope is a crass, awkward change of direction, like crunching the gears in your car.”

If you are someone who has felt this awkwardness, you may wonder, “Does it have to be so awkward?  Is there a way to go about starting a spiritual conversation in a more natural way?”

Spiritual conversations are like conversations in general. There is a natural progression of depth and intimacy. When we meet someone, we might ask questions like “What do you do?” or “Where do you live?”  This feels natural. It would be awkward to start that meeting off with questions like “How do you feel about the situation in Iraq?”  or “Why did you marry the person you married?” It seems awkward because the conversation moved into a deeper level of intimacy and vulnerability too fast.

This natural progression can be outlined in the following list of areas of discussion and questions for those areas:

– Impersonal Facts – “How did the Panthers do this past week?” or “What happened yesterday in Iraq?”

– Personal Facts – “Where do you live?” or “What do you do for a vocation or in your free time?”

– Opinions – “Why do you think the Rams cut Michael Sams?” or  “How do you think we should handle the situation in Iraq?”

– Feelings – “How did you feel when you heard another American had been beheaded?”

– Identity – “How do you view yourself at the core of your being?”

As you move down the list, the level of vulnerability and intimacy increases – from little or none to deep and complete. This progression normally takes time – lots of it – before the trust is built in the relationship and this depth seems natural.

Now think about that list and where the gospel speaks to people. It tells them they were made in the image of God, yet that image has been marred to the point that they are now sinners. Because of their sin, they are separated from God and there is nothing they can do about it. However, God, wanting to restore that broken and marred image, sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to die and redeem us so that restoration could take place.

These are deeply personal and intimate issues. Issues dealing with personal and deep feelings and that person’s identity. No wonder it seems so awkward if we abruptly bring up the gospel. We are jumping down many levels of vulnerability and intimacy.

So what do you do instead?

1. I have found that you just go through the progression. Start with asking more HOW and WHY questions in your conversations.  They will flow naturally after you start with the WHAT and the WHERE questions. For example, imagine you have just met someone and you ask, “Where do you work?”  They tell you and you follow up with the question, “How did you get into that field?”  Or if you talk about how long someone has lived in your town, you could ask, “Why did you move here?”  The HOW and the WHY questions gives the person a chance to tell you something of their story.

2. Drop a level first and then invite the person you are talking with to join you.  For instance, you may be talking about the Iraq situation.  You have asked them, “How do you think the USA should handle this situation?”  They have given their answer.  You could say something like, “I find myself really afraid or feeling insecure with all the conflict in the world today.  How do you find yourself impacted by all this?”

3. Talk about how you deal with your feelings, struggles, and problems.  As you discuss these feelings, it is natural to say something like, “When I am afraid like I am about the world situation, I find great comfort in God’s overarching authority over all of life.”  Tell them vulnerably where Christ and the gospel speak to you at the feelings and identity levels.  As you share your individual stories and deeper vulnerability, you will find you have natural opportunities to talk about your relationship with Christ.  You could also ask your friend, “How do you handle that insecurity or fear?”

While using the word natural to describe these conversations,  I don’t mean to imply there isn’t some angst even when it happens like this. Any conversation at this level with the possibility of speaking about eternal things is very serious. There is a soberness about these kinds of conversations that reflects the significance of the truths being discussed no matter how long you have known the person and how much trust and vulnerability exist.

Also, while using the word natural,  I don’t mean to imply that conversations like these aren’t supernatural.  Only God can open the heart of a person to the truths of the gospel. It also takes God’s works to open the heart of someone to us.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” With this hope in mind, pray for open hearts and start the progression.

Sports Don't Build Character, They Reveal It

We all have heard the phrase “sports build character.” In the face of this axiom, John Wooden objects. John Wooden is considered by many to be one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport. To demonstrate that greatness, some would point to his 10 NCAA championships, including 7 in row, in a 12 year period. Others would talk about his 88 game win streak. Still others would bring up some of the players he coached into basketball greatness including Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton.

Regardless of where you stand on John Wooden, a couple of things are certain. He got basketball. He also got people. But, maybe most importantly, he got life and the way sports and life relate. Hence his quote – “Sports don’t build character. They reveal it.” Unlike the person who says, “I become a totally different person when I step on that field or court,” Wooden declared that sports are where one’s true personality comes out. Sports strip away the facade and show what is real in and about us.

Wooden didn’t stop there though. Once revealed, Wooden would then use sports to “rebuild” what is “revealed.” For instance, he valued cooperation (one of the blocks of the pyramid). In an effort to “rebuild” cooperation in the face of the individualism he saw “revealed” in sports, he refused to allow any player’s number to be retired after they left the school, even though he arguably had some of the top, if not the top, collegiate players to ever play the game.

At CEDE SPORTS, we agree with John Wooden – sports reveal character. Once revealed, the character can be rebuilt through that same environment.

At CEDE SPORTS, when talking about this dynamic of revealing and rebuilding, we say that “Sports are a Laboratory.” A lab is a safe environment to experiment. In these safe experiments. things come to light, things are revealed. These laboratories also provide a safe environment to further experiment to see how to change what was revealed. Once lessons are discovered in this controlled environment, those lessons can be applied to a much broader context than the lab.

Sports provide this same type of “laboratory environment.” Sports are a place where things are revealed, particularly our character. They also give this controlled environment where character can be rebuilt once revealed. Things can be tried and, once learned more easily in that “safer” atmosphere, applied in other more chaotic realms of life.

One of the main things I keep getting revealed in my own sports is how often my sports are all about ME. I see this when asked what I shot in a round of golf or how I did in a particular qualifying. I see it when I realize how much pressure I feel as I tee it up with people who have heard I used to be a professional golfer. Golf reveals how much I am thinking about me, how much my heart orientation is in the wrong direction – inward rather than outward.

This “selfishness,” this inward heart orientation is a beautiful revelation from God. Once this wrong orientation is revealed, I can acknowledge that to God. God knows this admission, or confession,  is the gateway to repentance, a change of my mind and my heart orientation away from me and to God and his glory. He knows this admission and change of thinking is what brings with it the power of the Gospel to reorient my heart.

Then, right there on the golf course, I can try that reorientation out.  In faith in the power of the Gospel, I can fix my heart on displaying his character as I play. I can purposely show him off rather than me.

Golf not only offers me the opportunity to do this once but repeatedly during the round.  I can go through this process over and over again in those several focused hours. Through the ups and downs of good and bad shots, I learn. What I learn I can then take into the rest of my life because sports are a great laboratory.

This process – this confession, repentance, and faith cycle – is what makes the Gospel come alive in my heart and brings about the change that Gospel promises. All through the simple tool of sports, sports that reveal and can then rebuild character.

Combatting Compartmentalization: Sports for the Glory of God

We have established that we live in a compartmentalized world – with tragic results in life and in sports. Coaches, who appear calm and cool outside of sports, may lose it on the court or field. Players, who espouse Christian ethics and values, may cheat in order to win. The bigger problem is that few think this is a problem!

If you agree and see the compartmentalized life in contrast to what God intended, you hopefully are asking, “What can be done about this problem of compartmentalization?” 

The answer – INTEGRATION.

To integrate is to 1) bring together or incorporate (parts) into a whole; 2) to make up, combine, or complete to produce a whole or a larger unit, as parts do; 3) to unite or combine.

This is what Paul had in mind when he said, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

In saying “Whatever you do,” Paul points out the reality that life is full of all kinds of seemingly disconnected things – work, entertainment, sleeping, eating, church, returning email, voting in elections. The same could be said about sports – warm ups, cool downs, plays, time between plays, coaching.  There are many “whatevers” in “whatever you do,” don’t you think?

Yet, after affirming the diversity of our lives, he startlingly states “Do it all.” He calls us to resist the tendency to build walls between these activities and compartmentalize them and unite them, integrate them, bring them together and “incorporate them into a whole.”

How can all of life and sports – all the “whatever we do”– become a “do it all”?

Paul’s answer – by doing them all “for the glory of God”! Pursuing the glory of God becomes the key to tearing down the walls that compartmentalize our lives and bring them into one unity.

But what does it mean – “do it all for the glory of God”?

As I have asked people this question, the answers I get show why we are so compartmentalized. We don’t know what this unifying principle means, so how can we obey it, and see its power to bring this integration?

When it comes to God, the Scriptures show us his glory has two components:

• The inherent nature, the internal possession, the inner quality of his magnificence, his absolute unparalleled greatness – the glorious splendor of his majesty

• The outer recognition of this inherent greatness

We will call the first component – His flame.  The second – His fame.

Seeing these two components helps me understand this unifying principle. I don’t do anything for the first component of his glory, his flame. This splendor of his majesty is secure and stable, beyond tarnish by anything I do.

It is this second component, his fame, that brings “whatever I do” unity and meaning. Since God is worthy of “the whole earth being filled with his glory” – his acclaim, his praise, his honor, Paul says do all of the whatever we do for this fame.

Do you see what this means? Paul says that the way I do what I do can actually bring fame, recognition, honor to the greatness of God – no matter what it is that I do.  This means everything means something – when it is done for the glory of God. This glory, this fame is the unifying, the integrating principle.

Historically, when cultures have gotten this – the fact that everything is “sacred,” there is no second rate occupations, no secular activities, everything has meaning – it has transformed the cultures. Luther declared this truth through the Reformation and the result – some of if not the greatest music, architecture, and literature the world has ever seen. All from men and women who did “whatever they did, they did it all for the glory of God.”

Could we see another such revolution in sports? That depends upon each one of us to get it and then call others to get it. For each of us to resist the pull toward compartmentalization and to heed this call to integrate every aspect of our sports world under the unifying principle of the glory of the One who alone is worthy of such honor, such glory, such praise.

When we get it, when we integrate our lives under this grand ideal, everything matters. Every bit of every game, of every practice matters, and we are left crying out – “Not to us, not to us, but to your name give glory.”

Compartmentalized Sports

It is all around us.  Examples abound but the one we all have seen – leaders in various arenas of life who claim their private life failures don’t influence their public job performance.  They say they can cheat, betray, steal, and lie in the privacy of their home yet we are to trust that this won’t spill over into their roles on the job.  In other words, they claim that “over there doesn’t affect over here.”

As Christians, we often adopt this compartmentalized view of the world.  We use words like “secular” and “sacred” and advocate God’s greater concern for the things of life we put in the “sacred” bucket more than the things in life we put in the “secular” bucket… with tragic results.

You have seen the statistics.

• We are the wealthiest nation in the world with a significant number of us who claim to know the God (who is also known as the “Generous Outpourer” and who did not “spare his own son but gave him up for us all,” yet we give on average less than 4% of our income to charitable causes.

• Our attitudes and actions toward marriage, lying and other ethical areas of our lives mirror the world around us even in contradiction to the purposes and plans of God.

And our sports have not been spared.

For example, recent research was done with 100 Division III athletes.  They were all self-proclaimed Christians.  They were asked a series of questions about the impact of their Christianity on their participation in the sport.  The questions were basically in three categories or compartments, although not directly labeled as such.

The results were startling.  All 100 athletes said that their Christianity affected the way they acted before the game–they prayed or read something spiritual. All 100 said it affected them after they played–they prayed or went and talked to someone about Christianity.

The startling result was that NONE of the 100 athletes said by their answers that their Christianity affected them DURING the game–the way they played their sport.  The end result becomes Christian coaches who teach their players to cheat or Christian college presidents who alter star players' grades to keep them eligible for the championship just to name a few.

Compartmentalization at work again, but this is not the way God sees the world or the way he calls us to view it.

So, how do we answer the problem of compartmentalization?  INTEGRATION.

But how do we integrate all of life?  What is the one unifying principle that can connect every aspect of life? THE GLORY OF GOD.

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  1Corinthians 10:31

May we fight compartmentalization and pursue the integration of sports under the glory of God.

Should We Pray to Win?

“Should we pray to win?” was one of the questions from Christianity Today to the Houston Astros Spanish-speaking Chaplain, Juan Jesus Alaniz. The article ran during the 2017 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Astros eventually won in the 7th game. To that question in particular Juan responded, “Oh yeah. We’re more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.”

So should we pray to win? Just as with Juan, this is a common question asked of Sports Chaplains, athletes and coaches who declare themselves Christians, or anyone who is in Sports Ministry in general. I want to take a stab at this question and, in doing so, reflect on what can happen if we don’t pray and what can happen if we do. 

What if we don’t pray for wins?

Any athlete or coach is competing because he or she wants to win. That person may or may not want to win at all costs, but the heart desire of competitors is to be honored for their skill. This reality is shown by our longing for trophies like the one that went to the Astros.

With this in mind, if we don’t pray for the win, I would question how well we are acknowledging the desires of our heart. I would wonder just how honest we are being with ourselves or with God about what we really want.

If we do acknowledge this desire to win but don’t pray, we may be closing the door on the possibility through this prayer for God’s transforming power to change our hearts. This is significant. The Story of Redemption tells us we were made for glory and honor but lost that glory when we turned from God. Since that day, our hearts have been searching for glory, apart from God, seen so clearly in the realm of sports and our thirst for championships. Even when a person turns to God in response to his offer to redeem and restore them to glory in Christ, we still struggle with establishing this glory on our own. 

Our prayer for winning may be an expression of that struggle. We may find through our prayer just how badly we want to win. Our prayer may actually expose the self-centered nature of our desire to win and of our request. This realization could open us to our need for turning away from that self-centeredness to God and the pursuit of his will rather than our own.

If we don’t pray, we may miss the opportunity for this needed transformation. This exposing nature of prayer is one of the reasons the Scriptures has verses like the following: 

“Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6

Notice, the writer speaks about WHAT to pray. “In everything” includes the game that is about to be played. 

He also speaks about HOW to pray. “By prayer and supplication” implies a worshipful asking. Worshipful would include coming to God believing he hears our prayers and cares about our prayers. Asking would, in that faith, offer what is on our hearts to him, including our desire to win.

If you don’t pray, let me ask you, “Why don’t you pray to win?”

I have asked others this question and their answers typically boil down to two:

• “God doesn’t care who wins anyway so why pray.”

• “It is too risky to open up that desire. God may deny, even squash it.” 

If you resonate with the first answer, I would ask to think about how you know he doesn’t care and point you to a larger treatise of this subject in Chapter 2 of the book Does God Care Who Wins? 

If you resonate with the second answer, I would ask you to consider your view of God in light of the above verse and the one immediately following it:

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 

When the writer mentions the “peace of God” and guarding your “hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” he wants us to see the heart of God for prayer. Prayer is designed to bring us face to face with God, with the result being peace and deepened connection, not fear and distance. Not praying about winning removes us from that audience and the transformational nature of it.

What if we do pray for wins?

If we pray for the win and win, we ought to be free to embrace the win but careful not to let it establish something about our identity. God doesn’t answer the winners’ prayers because they are more deserving of the affirmative answer than the other team’s prayer. God answers these prayers because the wins and the losses are a part of his will, his kingdom coming to “earth as it is heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

With this in mind, winners are free to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all of creation, including the game, and accept His will with grace and humility embracing and enjoying the glory that comes from winning. At the same time, they should also acknowledge the win as undeserved and just a taste, an echo, of the real glory promised us in Christ, received at the consummation of all things. (Colossians 1:27 – Christ in you the hope of glory.) 

This perspective is important because of the temptation for the winners to let the win establish something about their identity or the quality of their prayers. If we are honest, we can admit an awareness of that temptation and even our succumbing to it by thinking we prayed better or are better when we win. This reality lies deep in our hearts even though it is wrong and is a great distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ (For a further exposition of this idea, see Chapter 3 of the book Does God Care Who Wins?)

The opposite side of this reality is just as prevalent. If we pray and lose, we can easily think God didn’t answer our prayer because there is something wrong with our prayer. Or worse, there is something wrong with us! Both of these ideas of deserved defeat are just as much a distortion of the gospel and God’s ways for his children as the distortion of deserved victory.  

If we pray and lose, we are instead called to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all creation, including our game, and trust that God had a higher, better purpose in answering our prayer the way he did. We can accept God’s will with grace and humility, allowing the disappointment to be real and owned. We can acknowledge and allow that disappointment to move us toward longing for the undeserved glory that will one day be ours in Christ at the consummation. 

Should we pray to win? Absolutely. How we pray to win matters. We should pray with an open, humble heart, willing to submit to God’s work of transformation of our hearts and our prayers and God’s good, acceptable and perfect will for us whether we win or lose. 

Great Questions to Ask Yourselves, New Hires, or New Volunteers

I recently ran across this quote from Paul David Tripp in a Resurgence blog that is an excerpt from Tripp’s book,

Dangerous Calling.

Because of what I do, I have heard church leaders, in moments of pastoral crisis, say to me many times, “We didn’t know the man we hired.”

As I read this I was struck by the application of this idea to a broader context than just pastors. First of all, ourselves. I so often see in myself and in talking with others that we really don’t know the person we are. This is also true of the volunteers we recruit and the other people we hire.

To avoid this tendency, Tripp contends, “But what does knowing the man mean? It means knowing the true condition of his heart (as far as that is possible).”

This is no small task, but to aid us in that journey, Tripp gives some great questions to ask ourselves and others. 

Here are the first 10:

1. What does he really love?

2. What does he despise?

3. What are his hopes, dreams, and fears?

4. What are the deep desires that fuel and shape the way he does ministry?

5. What are the anxieties that have the potential to derail or paralyze him?

6. How accurate is his view of himself?

7. Is he open to the confrontation, critique, and encouragement of others?

8. Is he committed to his own sanctification?

9. Is he open about his own temptations, weaknesses, and failures?

10. Is he ready to listen to and defer to the wisdom of others?(For the rest of the list, click here.)

To apply them to ourselves, they simply become:

1. What do I really love?

2. What do I despise?

3. What are my hopes, dreams, and fears?

4. What are the deep desires that fuel and shape the way I do ministry?

5. What are the anxieties that have the potential to derail or paralyze me?

6. How accurate is my view of himself?

7. Am I open to the confrontation, critique, and encouragement of others?

8. Am I committed to my own sanctification?

9. Am I open about my own temptations, weaknesses, and failures?

10. Am I ready to listen to and defer to the wisdom of others?

So let’s break this tendency and ask ourselves and others these questions. We hope this resource will be a helpful tool in your ministry! As you do, remember the qualifier Tripp adds “as far as that is possible” and cry out for insight to the God “who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” Psalm 33:14,15

Reaching People Through the " Middle Ground" of Sports

Do you ever wonder – “How do I really go about reaching the people around me?” 

At CEDE SPORTS, we want everyone in sports ministry to wrestle with these questions, whether you are in sports ministry as a vocation or as a volunteer.

To help guide us in answer to those questions, I ran across a webcast with Tim Keller and Gabe Lyons where they discussed the topic of living in a post-Christian world.  Below are some excerpts:

Tim Keller:

“My understanding of how you reach culture is Christians have to be extremely like the people around them, and yet at the same time extremely unlike them… If Christians are not unlike them, they won’t challenge the culture, but if they’re not like them, they won’t persuade the culture. Now, hitting that middle ground is hard.”

“Before the coming of Christ believers were culturally different…Christ comes, and now you can be a Christian in every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Jesus gets rid of the ceremonial laws and all those things that made Christians culturally strange. In that sense, [now] your neighbor is like you.”

“There’s got to be a balance. On the one hand … traditional Christian marketplace ministries have put all the emphasis on spiritual support, and that’s fine and very important…But rather than just simply evangelizing, recycling and nurturing people inside their vocation, they ought to be asking ‘how does the gospel affect the way in which I do my work, how does it shape my work?’”

Read more here.

First of all, in looking at what Keller says about being like but unlike, I thought, ‘what a great place sports provides for doing just this.‘

When we use sports as a bridge to allow people to get close to us, one of the most consistent comments I hear from converted adults is “I found out these people were just like me.” Sports can provide an arena of regular observation for the unconverted to cast down the stereotypes they hold about Christians – if we take the time to reach over the bridge of sports and get to know the unconverted and allow them close enough to get to know us.

Sports can also provide a great place for us to show that we are unlike them. If we tear down the idol of sports in our hearts, if we play for the glory of God rather than our glory, if we make it our goal to show God off in the way we play, then the unconverted will see something very different from themselves.

This difference goes far beyond outer behavior like pointing to the sky when something good is done.  It comes from deep within the heart of a redeemed person who has allowed God to sanctify them by spreading that redemption to the way they play, coach or spectate sports. Sports – because of its power to cut open the heart – gives us a great arena to display this difference.

With this redemption, Keller, in commenting about workplace ministries, emphasizes the need to focus not just on spiritual support but also asking the question, “How does the gospel affect the way in which I do my work, how does it shape my work?”

Agreeing with this idea, at CEDE SPORTS we apply that question to sports by asking, “How does the gospel affect the way in which I do sports, how does it shape my work?”

These two ideas – 1) being like and unlike  2) where our unlikeness is focused on my sports looking differently through the impact of the gospel – are why we focus on both the bridge (like) and the laboratory (unlike) of sports.

If you are looking for some ideas on how to better utilize sports to create this middle ground, contact us at CEDE SPORTS. We exist to “redeem the idol of sports and those who play them by leading a global movement of gospel centered sports ministries in local churches.”

Sports Ministry as a Tool for Mobilization

Story from guest author: M.L. Woodruff, Sports Outreach Minister at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Sports Ministry mobilizes people into gospel ministry.

This mobilization into ministry is one of the reasons we encourage Local Churches to get involved in Sports Ministry.  M.L. Woodruff recently shared the following story to vividly illustrate this point:

Marc Mader had been a member of Istrouma Baptist Church for over 13 years.  Marc would consider himself a committed Christian who loved God, practiced the Christian disciplines, gave willingly to the church and other God-centered ministries, however, Marc had never attended a small group with his wife or other men.

This past summer, our Istrouma Sports Ministry partnered with our missions team to offer a mission trip to Brooklyn, New York.  Our sports offerings included baseball, basketball, football and soccer. Marc, a lover of baseball and the Yankees, was the first to sign up.

After Marc signed up, our mission director contacted me and asked if I knew Marc.  She gave me the background on his love for baseball.  I contacted Marc and he told me his story and how he was connected to Istrouma and his love for baseball.  In the conversation I found out that I had taught Marc’s son while I was teaching and coaching in an earlier time of my life.

Marc had a wonderful time in Brooklyn and helped me coach a baseball clinic.  I noticed that he engaged well with kids and he had the unusual ability to coach the child’s heart.  I am not sure if he or the child was enjoying these moments the greatest.  I noticed his giftedness and asked if he would consider helping coach in our Istrouma Sports league.  He immediately said, “I will do whatever you need me to do.”

The Brooklyn trip ended and God used our team to lead over 10 participants to Christ.  God had used Marc in a mighty way on our team.  I had built a solid relationship with Marc and could see God using him in amazing ways.

“Whatever you need me to do”

Fast forward a couple of months, for our Istrouma Sports Football league, we were looking for football coaches to fill spots.  I thought of Marc and contacted him about being an assistant.  Instantaneously, he said, “I will do whatever you need me to do.” Marc became an assistant coach for the Raiders.  I again noticed what a wonderful job he did.  Midway through the season, we had a head coach who had to move out of state creating a coaching vacancy.  Once again, we thought of Marc.  We made the phone call and could you believe that Marc once again said he “would do whatever we need him to do.”

Marc quickly built relationships with his new team.  He gained their trust and was given the task of presenting the Gospel and asking kids if they were ready to receive Christ.  On that evening of practice, three of his players received Christ.

So Marc, a 13 year pew sitter, took an opportunity to go on a mission trip which led him to discover God’s gifts and abilities inside of him.  That would lead him to be an assistant coach and then to a head coach which in turn, God used him to lead 3 players to Christ.  

Sports Ministry mobilizes people into ministry. Jesus told us, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37,38)  Sports Ministry can and often is one of the Lord’s answers to those prayers.