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.

Sharing the Gospel with Kids

I recently stumbled across this training from Jill Nelson and think it’s quite good.  A summary of the training is below but feel free to click on the previous link to hear the audio.

Ms. Nelson started off her presentation with a refreshingly direct challenge to those of us who work with kids.  She explains that:

“Our children are plunging towards hell.”

And, instead of giving them the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, all too often they are presented with false gospels.  Gospels which:

  • Put man at the center instead of God.

  • Present a plan instead of a person.

  • Comfort instead of convict.

  • Encourage submission to true facts rather than submitting to God.

  • Enslaves them to works instead of freeing them to do good works.

  • Calls for acceptance instead of repentance.

  • Is brought about by man’s decisive choice instead of God’s sovereign grace.

  • Promises affirmation rather than radical transformation.

  • Exalts man instead of God’s love displayed in Jesus.

Her assessment is both sobering and dead on.  In children’s ministries [sports ministries too] around this country and around the world, kids hear a watered down gospel which in the end is devoid of the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Ms. Nelson goes on to explain that , before we can present a God-centered Gospel to kids, we have to understand three themes regarding the gospel message:

  1. God is the starting point of the gospel.

  2. God is the vehicle of the the gospel.

  3. God is the goal of the gospel.

In short, the Gospel is all about God and what he has done – not about us and what we have done.

We must also keep four additional things in mind related to our role in presenting the gospel to kids:

  1. When it comes to sharing the gospel with kids, our role is to plant and water the seed.  We must pray to God that he would bring the growth.

  2. Sharing the gospel is a long-term prospect.  We must be patient when it comes to sharing the Gospel.  It is much more of a process than an individual event.

  3. We must remember that the hope is in the message not the method.  We must go hard after the message because it is the message that has the power to save.

  4. We must present the gospel to kids within its proper context.  The proper context for the gospel is within the whole counsel of God.  For example, the purpose of the Old Testament is to demonstrate to us why the gospel is such good news.

Below is a graphic of a summary of the Gospel that she went through.  Click here to listen to the audio of this.

3D Integrated Devotionals Resource Page

                                          

 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do  

  all to the glory of God.”     1 Corinthians 10:31  (ESV)

 

We realize that every area of our lives is to be dedicated to God but often struggle with compartmentalization.  By that, we see parts of our lives as more “spiritual” than other parts.  3D Integrated Devotionals help us teach spiritual truth in the context of sports in a way that helps us reinforce the truth that all of our life is important to God.

Explaining 3D Integrated Devotionals Further

The Why

  • 3D Devotionals are an easy and fun way to train your coaches to do devotions.

  • 3D Devotionals assist us in teaching Spiritual Truth in a way that reinforces that every area of our lives are important to God.

  • The philosophy behind 3D Devotionals can be applied to every area of our lives (i.e coaching, sports, work, home life, relationships, parenting, etc).

The What

  • The 3D Devotionals teach us the concept of integrating SPORTS-LIFE-TRUTH into our practice, game and devotion times.

  • 3D Devotionals are a proven method that are used by Sports Ministries across the country and around the world.

  • For example: 

    • SPORT – Passing – While doing a Passing drill, ask what is the most important thing about passing. They will have many answers like accuracy, speed, power, anticipation ….  All are good answers but not the most important thing!  The most important thing in passing is a willingness to give the ball away.  

    • LIFE – Sharing (Age sensitive) We all have things that are “ours.” (Give some examples like toys, our time, ourselves, etc)  If we are going to be a good friend or family member, we need to share what is “ours” with others.  This sharing of our things is just like passing the ball to a teammate, being willing to give it away.

    • TRUTH – Serving Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Christ gave himself supremely as an example or sharing/serving.  From the passing drill, if we learn to give the ball away, we understand more of the heart of Jesus in giving himself for us and the heart he wants us to have toward our friends, family, and teammates.   

The How 

  • To access 3D Devotionals for basketball, soccer, flag football, and baseball, find the folder called 3D Devotional Examples

  • When utilizing 3D’s, we encourage and ask Sports Ministers to write their own 3Ds.  If you’ve never written any 3D Devotionals:

    • Watch this video explaining 3D Integrated Devotionals

    • Pick a sport you offer in your ministry, choose an age that you will present it to, and then take the worksheet resource linked below with the three main points (Sport, Life, Truth). 

    • Pick a skill in the sport, like passing above, and think of a drill to teach that skill. Reflect on how the elements of the skill translate to that age group in such a way that those listening can identify. And apply a passage of Scripture that shows the integration of truth into their life and sport.

  • Talk with one of our partner churches who use the 3D Integrated Devotions

Become a partner church to get mentoring from either Jeff Fox, Ken Cross or Bob Schindler on this topic and for overall assistance in growing your coaches training and overall ministry, click here for more info.

Was There Competition in the Garden?

This is a very important question for every sports minister and athlete to ask.

If competition only came after the Fall in Genesis 3, then as followers of Christ we should move people out of competition and sports rather than into them.  Jesus Christ came to overcome all of the corruption from the Fall.  If competition is a part of this corruption, then, in our work as fellow laborers with Christ to build the kingdom of God, we should work to eliminate, not encourage competition.  However, if there was competition in the Garden, then the Fall didn’t bring competition into existence, it only corrupted it.   Our work would then be to overcome the corruption and restore competition to the original design, not to eliminate it.

To answer the question, we need first to define what we are looking for in the Garden.  The word competition comes from the Latin word competere, which means to seek or strive together.  In our culture, we typically think of competition as striving against.  In our search, we will look for the first idea – striving together.

I find at least two places in Genesis 1 & 2 where this striving together, this competition takes place.  The first comes in Genesis 1:28 where God says to Adam & Eve, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  These verses have been referred to as the Cultural or Dominion Mandate.

Have you ever asked, “What was to subdue if the world was perfect?”  While there was no sin, that doesn’t mean the world was complete.  It was raw, wild and chaotic outside the Garden.  No music, no art, no inventions yet.  Just raw material.  Adam and Eve were to subdue this rawness, this chaos.  To exercise dominion meant that they were to “manage whatever facets of creation God places before them….The Great King has summoned us (them and) each of us into his throne room.  ‘Take this portion of my kingdom,’ he says.  ‘Put your heart into mastering this part of the world.  Get it in order, unearth its treasures; do all you can with it.’”[1] From the Garden and into the chaotic world around it, Adam & Eve were to bring order from chaos, a non-conforming world to conformity to God’s purposes, and treasures from the raw material in creation – including themselves.

Notice, this command was given to both of them.  They were to unearth treasures together just as they were to multiply together.  This required cooperation, a striving together toward this end.  Here we see competition.  As they strived together, each one brought out more of the image of God in them.

I can imagine one day Adam says, “Eve, would you toss me an orange.”  Now Eve had never tossed before but she picks up the orange, reflects for a moment and throws it.  It is a little high and Adam has to jump up from his seat to catch it.  He has never jumped but reflexively does so.  “Hey that was fun.  Do it again only higher,” Adam says.  Eve picks up another oranges, thinks for a moment and throws it higher.  Adam has to really jump but stretches out and catches it.  On and on it goes with lots of laughter.

Do you see what is happening there?  More of the “treasure” within them is being unearthed.  Adam’s ability to jump and Eve’s ability to calculate angle, velocity, distance for a perfect throw are coming out.  Can you sense the joy?  The fun?  Can you taste this original game?  And in the process, God is glorified.  His image, Adam & Eve, are showing off more and more of the “glory” given them.

You may respond, “But that isn’t there in Genesis.  There is no tossing, no “original corn-hole game”.  It doesn’t say there is but I can’t help but think this happened because of the second place I find competition in Genesis 1 & 2.

Genesis 1:26, 27 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them.”  God is speaking to someone here.  Who is it?  Whoever it is shares creative power (us make) and image (our image). It doesn’t say, “Let us make man in my image.” or “Let me make man in our image.” There is an “US”.  But then it says, “So God created.”  Not “they created”.  A ONE.  An US and a ONE.  Seems confusing.

Most of us, because of our background, immediately explain, “Well that is the Trinity.  One but three.  The Father is talking to the Son and the Spirit.”  We need to remember that this idea of the Trinity or the Godhead was veiled in the Old Testament.  It is there but hard to see.  The coming of the Son lifted the veil.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:1,2, 14)

Yet much of the wrestling with Christianity has come over this issue of the deity of Christ and understanding of the Godhead, this Trinity.  How can one be three?  Without a hierarchy?  Equal but distinct?  How do they relate to each other?  We wrestle with this great mystery to this day.

In the second and third century, the early Church Fathers looked to explain this mystery.  They came up with the word perichoresis to describe the dynamic between the Godhead.  Perichoresis means to dance around.  “”Each of the divine persons centers on the others.  None demands that the others revolve around him.  Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight and adoration into them.  Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others.  That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love.” [2]

The Godhead dancing.  Ever thought about that?  C.S Lewis adds, “In Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing – not even just a person – but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.”  [3]

For us dance is choreographed movement typically to music.  Play is choreographed movement without music.   Could we even think of this as THE ORIGINAL TEAM, the Godhead, playing?  Creation was the result of the Godhead dancing, may we say even playing!

If Adam and Eve were made in this image, would play have been a part of their lives?  Absolutely!!!!

Lewis asks, “And, now, what does it all matter?  It matters more than anything else in the world.  The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way around) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in the dance.”[4]

Look around us and, without a doubt we are a long way from that original dance, that original play.  But if we don’t have this picture clear in our mind, if we don’t taste of this joy and fun, and the glory it gives to God, then when we attempt to take our place in the dance and ask,  “What does Christian competition look like?”, we find that it is like trying to restore a pile of metal into a ’57 Chevy , but we have never seen one!  We would be lost and confused.

To clear up the confusion, we need that picture.  We need to study it, to think about it, to envision it, to feel something of what it was like.  We need to “get back to the Garden.”

[1] Richard Pratt, Designed for Dignity, p. 34, 35.

[2] Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (Penguin Group, 2008), p 215.

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Simon & Schuster, 1980), p. 152.

[4] Ibid

Sport Life Faith Podcast Interview with Bob DyAr and Bob Schindler: Networking and Reflecting on Sports Ministry

Bob Dyar and Bob Schindler, CEO and COO of CEDE Sports joined the Sport Life Faith Podcast to share about new networking apps and a helpful book resource. Both will change the way you think about God and sports!

“Bob Dyar and Bob Schindler have formed an amazing partnership. Both are men of God who love people and know how to use the universal language of sport to point people to Jesus and toward engagement with their local churches. We talk with both Bobs about CEDE Sports, a sports chaplaincy organization and network now on five continents and in more than 100 countries. Information about CEDE sports can be found at CEDEsports.org and the CEDE sports app can be found by searching for the CEDE sports on the app store.”

–Sport Life Faith Podcast Episode Summary

. Click here to listen to the podcast episode. Click here to read about the companion blog post.

The Ultimate Question-Resource Page

The Ultimate Question Trailer

In this video, Bob Schindler asks coaches “Why are you coaching?” and outlines many of the typical answers. He gives the one compelling answer to the ultimate question that integrates all of what coaches do. The Ultimate Question is great for coaches training or for embedding on your website for coaches to watch when they can.

Explaining The Ultimate Question Further

The Why 

  • Our motivation for coaching is the most important question we can ask ourselves.

  • Our motivation for coaching will determine how we coach and how we react to winning and losing 

  • Most have never evaluated why they would consider coaching. Is it for my child? Is it because there is a need? Is it for the love of the game? Is it just for the fun of it? 

The What:

  • The Ultimate Question video is great for coaches training or for embedding on your website for coaches to watch when they can. 

  • This resource is a proven tool to help you understand their motivation for coaching.

  • Having everyone in the ministry watch this video provides a “shared vocabulary.” It provides the groundwork for unity of purpose and bypasses many “train-wrecks” of mixed motives.

The How:

  • Watch the video first with the aid of our handout linked below and digest what impact the content has on you personally. 

  • Share it with someone you trust and get their feedback.

  • Gather your leadership team and have them view and discuss the ramifications of this content.

  • Make it available in advance for your next development coaches meeting and have them discuss the discussion questions on the handout.

  • To access the free resources mentioned here you will need to register on our Church Directory. 

  • Register on our directory to get free access to all our Sports Outreach Ministry resources  

Handout

Video

Consider becoming a partner church and working with a CEDE Sports mentor, click here for more info or contact: Ken Cross (980) 333-1670, Jeff Fox (704) 941-8397 or Bob Schindler (704) 806-0559)

The Importance of Small Acts of Faithfulness

By: Jenny Young

Over the last several months, I have been challenged by this idea of the small unseen places in life and ministry. I believe our society unfortunately counts big things for the best things, not valuing that small things are needed, too. In the small moments, there is opportunity for growth and ways to cultivate fruitfulness. Work is happening there in the unseen. It's often in the small unseen ways that true real growth happens and sometimes that's hard to grab ahold of knowing that the big transformational things are often celebrated. As we know, Jesus worked in the small and unseen places. I continue to believe God is working in small ways - good things, sometimes hard things, yet worthwhile. 

We can grow and lead from examples from the life and ministry of Jesus in small ways. 

We are going to look briefly at one parable where the little things that are small in nature yet bring forth growing and significant impact. This will help us understand more of this upside-down Kingdom where things small and insignificant in our eyes are actually the things that God uses to accomplish great and growing things. The parable we are going to look at is The Mustard Seed found in Matthew 13:31-32. 

“He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

A few initial observations:

  • One of the shortest parables of Jesus.

  • Jesus compares the small size of the mustard seed to the Kingdom of God 

  • A Mustard seed is the smallest of seeds

  • When it is planted, it not only grows, it grows with the massive capacity for growth to become the largest of all trees.

God’s kingdom starts small. It has humble beginnings. I am sure most people didn’t give the disciples a second glance. The parable of the mustard seed teaches us that God's kingdom starts small but will grow amazingly large compared to its beginnings.

Sometimes we have no idea what God is doing right now. We are to have a mustard seed of faith and obedience. We may come to the place of feeling small, insignificant, down, confused, worried, lonely, unloved, or out of place. When we come to where Jesus is, we come to the right place – He seeks us and reminds us He is the source of all hope – He notices us – He grows us – He leads from the small places. 

So here are two questions for you to consider today?

  • What activities are you currently involved in that feel small and seemingly insignificant? How do the truths of this teaching encourage you or challenge you to think differently about those things?

  • Where may God be challenging you to have a “mustard seed” like faith? 

Being faithful in small things doesn’t come naturally to many of us. But don’t lose heart in the small things of life or ministry size. God is with you in those places. We can take small steps of faithfulness with daily habits of the heart, solitude, scripture reading, confession, prayer, and listening in obedience to God. The small unseen places and things matter!

How God Changed My Life Through Sports Ministry

By: Aubrey Coleman

As a freshman in college, I had little interest in anything spiritual. College felt like an opportunity to break away from my churched upbringing and live a different way. I avoided church on Sundays and ignored campus signs pointing to the current ministry events. Instead, I spent my time focused on studying for school, going out to the bars with my roommates, and playing intramural flag football with some girls from my dorm. While I was purposely positioning myself away from God and anything related to Him… He came and found me, instead.

I got to know the girls on my flag football team pretty well over the semester and after our games and practices ended, we would usually grab a meal together. As the season neared an end, I remember some of the girls on my team beginning to ask deeper questions like, "So, what are your religious beliefs?", "Have you ever been to church?", or sometimes even bluntly, "What do you believe about God?" I would typically answer generally and vaguely to not offend anyone, but also to avoid committing to beliefs I still was not sure about. Though the questions felt intense at times, I genuinely enjoyed my friendships with the girls and even continued to hang out with them after the season ended.

One day, a girl named Lindsey who I'd become close with from the team invited me to breakfast and asked if she could share what she had been reading in the Bible with me. I reluctantly agreed and joined her. She opened up and shared about her upbringing and how she became a Christian. She then opened up her Bible and read Romans 6:23 which says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Next, she pulled out a napkin and began to interpret the passage by drawing out a diagram showing how our sin separates us from God, but because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we are offered the gift of salvation, for our sin to be paid for in order to bring us near to God forever. I remember thinking I was hearing something brand new. I was in Sunday school and church every morning growing up and yet, this news struck me differently this time. "This is the gospel," she said as she smiled, "what do you think about it?" I didn't really know what to say, but I knew I wanted to learn more so, I asked if we could keep reading the Bible together.

Weeks passed and every time I opened up God's Word it hit me like a fresh breeze. I was seeing and savoring God in a way I had never known. I was realizing that life with God is all about knowing Him and not simply just claiming to be associated with Him. The greatest thing that held me back was the question of my past. I believed I had run too far from God or fallen too far from His grace. How could He receive me as His own after all I'd done? My friend texted me a verse to look up. There in my dorm room, I read aloud 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!" I cried with relief and joy and I knew I wanted to follow Jesus.

Little did I know the girls who started the flag football team were part of a Campus Ministry called Campus Outreach. They started the team with the hope and prayers of meeting someone just like me to share the gospel with. God used an ordinary flag football team as a vessel for ushering the truth of the gospel into my heart through the relationships I'd formed with my teammates. As a response, I grew hungry for God's Word and discipleship and I invested my college years in the local church and college ministry. I graduated and went on to study Biblical Counseling for two years to deepen my understanding of God. As years have passed, I have grown a deep love for the local church, discipleship, and the mission of the gospel. Though I am flawed and still learning, my life is hidden in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is my purpose and my prize. I never knew joining that flag football team would change my life forever.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to a world of broken and searching people. Sometimes it seems challenging to meet people where they are and build trusting relationships to create evangelistic opportunities. But the beauty of sports is that it provides common ground and a universal language. It can break down barriers of ethnic, social, and economic lines to unite people on a team. It provides a unique opportunity to level the playing field and share the truth of the gospel. Through those very means, God changed my life, and He is changing lives all over the world through sports, recreation, and fitness ministry.

Big News For CEDE Sports!

CEDE Sports has some exciting news to share with their friends, family, supporters, chaplains, and churches. They have “acquired” or “merged with” or “united with” International Sports Ministries (ISM). 

After over 20 years of ministry, these two organizations are merging under the CEDE Sports name. They have always been on the same team, and now the Lord has led them to combine their talents and personnel to accomplish more together than they could have separately.

“This is a unique opportunity to work together with another organization that has the same vision and desire to work with sportspeople.” Arménio Anjos, President of International Sports Ministries stated. “With this merger, we see a bright future ahead as we bring together resources and people committed to God and enthusiastic about sports and church ministry.” 

Because of ISM’s global presence, CEDE Sports saw this as an opportunity to expand their ministry to additional locations across the globe. With teams in Niger, Argentina, Portugal, Colombia, Paraguay, Italy, Angola, and Mozambique, they knew ISM would be a perfect fit to help them spread their ministry to people they have not yet reached. 

The idea of merging started over a year ago when Arménio and Bob Dyar, CEDE Sports Founder/CEO, met during the Global Sports Chaplaincy Summit. They immediately saw similarities in how they approach the work God put on their hearts to do with chaplains and churches. The more they talked, the more those similarities revealed themselves, leading them to this decision. 

In addition to the global expansion, they also look forward to other benefits in this merging. As they combine their back-office capabilities and share ministry resources, they can streamline processes, increase their effectiveness, and intensify their focus on doing ministry. 

For the past 25 years, Arménio and his wife, Elizabeth, have been involved in sports ministry in Portuga and the USA, among other locations around the world. He has served as an official sports chaplain at the Olympic Games, European and World Championships in Athletics as well as the All African Games. Arménio has been serving as the President of International Sports Ministries and serves on the board of the Major Sports Events Chaplaincy Commission. He will now serve as the Director of International Sports Ministries for CEDE Sports beginning April 1st.

CEDE Sports has been focused since 1996 on mobilizing churches and chaplains through sports. Before 2010, their chaplain ministry focused primarily on the Joe Gibbs Racing organization. In the last 10 years, CEDE Sports has taken on a very strong leadership role in these two key areas of sports ministry: churches and chaplains.

Since 1990, Bob and his wife, Connice, have been involved in sports ministry. While serving as Executive Director of Ministries at Christ Covenant Church, Bob led a team in developing the SOAR ministry. Since 1993, he’s served as a Sports Chaplain, first as Executive Director for Motor Racing Outreach and beginning in 1996 as the Lead Chaplain for Joe Gibbs Racing. Bob continues to lead CEDE Sports in now his 30th year of sports ministry.

We are thrilled to have Arménio and his team joining CEDE Sports. Together, Arménio and Bob are confident that this “merger” will not only well-serve their ministries, but help further their missions to mobilize churches, chaplains, and people through sports around the world.

Whats sporting luck got to do with Gods purposes?

The Rugby World Cup is slowly edging towards its climax and teams over the next few days will be grabbing their sport for the quarter finals. But there is a storm coming! Typhoons are predicted over the weekend which can have a dramatic effect on results. Ireland for example would be red hot favourites to win their game, but an abandonment will mean only a draw, and they will be knocked out the tournament. How does a player deal with his chances of glory being devastated by the weather? How does a player cope when a dream he has worked for years to achieve is destroyed by ‘lady luck’? The margins in elite sport are so thin between success and failure that often chance has a leading role.

The mistake that chaplains can make is trying to make sense of it. Attempting to justify to the athlete why God may have decided to allow that to happen. Such an approach is a spiritual quagmire.

It is interesting researching suffering how responses to it have changed over time. Now when suffering occurs it seems the prevalent question is ‘why did God allow that to happen?’ whereas in medieval times the question was ‘How can God help me in my suffering’ Perhaps this is the route that best serves the sports person, not to, in that moment get lost in trying to make sense of what has happened, but rather focus on the question ‘In my grief of loss Jesus how can you help me now?’

Stress, Coping and Well-being in Elite Sport - Stephen Mellalieu

How do elite sportsmen and women cope with the demands of training and competing consistently at the highest level of performance? How is this attribute developed? What are the factors that influence this development? What are the implications for managing stress and promoting well-being in other professional domains and occupations?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0xnPn59js

Prayer - Bible Study

Living in a fast paced, independent society will always work against cultivating an honest and consistent prayer life, but our lives desperately need connection with God. It can be difficult to honestly pray to Him if you’re hindered by guilty thoughts or incorrect teaching.

https://athletesinaction.org/resources/pdf/11.Prayer.Hurdle.pdf