“What got us here won’t take us where we want to go!”

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS“What got us here won’t take us where we want to go!”

The Context

I had coffee with a sports minister recently whose church recently went through a pastor transition after the previous pastor had been there for 40 years. The new pastor said in a recent message, “What got us here won’t take us where we want to go.”  This statement didn’t sit well with the sports minister. He loved the church and had been there for a long time. The comment seemed to him to disregard the past, the history that did get them to this point.  I may be reading too much into the comment by the pastor, and may be suffering from “growing old” syndrome, but I tend to agree with my friends assessment.  What do you hear in that statement? (Please respond in the comments below.)  

The Concern

I bring this up because I have noticed something lately. One of the privileges of my role at CEDE SPORTS is that I get a fairly wide perspective on the local church as I connect with churches in different parts of the country, from different denominations, of different sizes and worship styles, even different tenures of leadership. Amidst all that diversity, it seems there is a growing trend of what C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery” that values something merely because it is newer.  This conclusion on the comment by the pastor may be colored by my assessment. If so, I am asking God to show me my prejudice. If not, this tendency is a concern.  My concern stems from exactly what a person means when he or she says, “What got us here…”  If, by that statement they mean methods and styles may need to change, then I completely agree.  However, there are timeless truths and principles rooted in the Scriptures that always need to remain.  My concern stems from those who say or hear that statement and don’t discriminate between those timeless truths and time-sensitive methods. Without that discrimination, timeless truths can be set aside out of “chronological snobbery.”

The Question

What do you think?  “Will what got us here not take us to where we want to go?” 

Who Is The Gospel For?

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS

Being Gospel Centered – Part 5

Who is the Gospel for?  

Who is the Gospel for? Ask that question to a group of Christians and most of them would answer – “non-believers.” Ask a follow up question, “Why do non-believers need the gospel?” A typical answer would be, “To deliver them from the penalty of sin and get them into heaven.” From this perspective, the gospel is a two-chapter story – Fall and Consummation (Heaven).  The apostle Paul had a different perspective. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”  (Romans 1:16) Paul says the gospel is for everyone, not just for non-believers.  “Why is the gospel for everyone?” you might ask.  The gospel is for everyone because it brings salvation to everyone.  This salvation, this deliverance, come to everyone who believes – present tense.  

The Power of God in Redemption

Certainly, the gospel delivers non-believers from the penalty of sin, but it also saves believers from the power of sin. As believers, we still struggle with the power of sin in our lives. Every day. All through every day. Therefore, we need the power of God. We need the power of God to deliver us from the power of sin. Believing, present tense, ongoing, is the key to experiencing the power of God to save us from the power of sin.  Pause for a moment. Think about this reality in your life. Do you see your struggle against the power of sin? Do you recognize that battle even going on in you today? This battle is where we need the gospel.  Recognizing this reality adds the Redemption chapter to the gospel.  Longing for freedom from this battle takes us to Consummation, where we will finally be free from the presence of sin and this battle.   

God's Design

Creation is added to the story when we see that God designed us to live differently. In this design, we were intended to be honored image bearers who would act as God’s representatives on earth, fulfilling his plans by bringing out the treasures in creation in communion with one another and with God.    This is the design from which we fell, the Fall chapter of the Gospel. In our pride, foolishness, and rebellion, we rejected God’s good plan for our own, where we thought we could experience all the goodness of the creation without the Creator as our Head. We live with the results of that foolish and rebellious decision today. Look around you. All the corruption – the disease, the evil, the corruption – is a result of that decision and the myriads of others just like it that humans have made since then, including you and me.  However, God promises, on the heels of that rebellion, to one day restore that good design for creation and for us. God worked throughout the ages, primarily through the nation of Israel, to fulfill that plan that climaxed in the arrival of His Son, the Hero of the story, who, by his death and resurrection, would usher in our deliverance from the penalty of sin and empower us for our battle with the power of sin, along with the redemption from all the corruption in creation that God promised.    

A Four Chapter Story

With this perspective in mind, we have a four-chapter story – Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation. Paul writes Ephesians from this perspective. He shows us who we were in the Fall – dead in our trespasses and sins (2:1), who we are in Redemption – alive together with Christ 2:4, sons and daughters of God (1:4), redeemed heirs (1:7, 1:14), awaiting our inheritance and our full redemption (1:14) in the Consummation when God “brings all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” (1:10)While we wait, in Ephesians Paul acknowledges our struggle with sin and our need of the gospel in that struggle. As he tells us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received” (4:1) as sons and daughters, as members of God’s household, united with Christ, he acknowledges the tendency to live like we used to live, succumbing to the battle with sin (4:17-19). He goes on to tell us how to experience the power of the gospel to overcome this tendency. We are to “put off the old self…to be made knew in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”(4:22-24) In other words, we are to preach the gospel to ourselves and embrace the truths of that gospel to walk in God’s power to live out our calling.  

Easier Said Than Lived

While this is simple in principle, it is very challenging in practice. It is challenging to acknowledge the allure sin still has to us, the depth of our struggle with overcoming sin, and the doubt we still have to the gospel’s truth and power.  However, the challenge will lead us deeper and deeper into the gospel as we embrace it. We will journey deeper and deeper into our relationship with God, our union with Christ, our experience of God’s love and power, and our longing for the freedom promised in the gospel.Who is the gospel for?  Everyone.Who needs the gospel?  We all do.Why do we all need the gospel?  To to deliver us from the power of sin that is so deeply rooted in our lives.   

 

Blessed

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS

Being Gospel Centered – Part 4
We all want to be blessed

To be blessed is to be divinely or supremely favored, to be favored in a way that results in happiness and joy. Jesus appealed to this longing in his “Sermon on the Mount.” Nine times he begins a verse with “Blessed are….”. Each verse outlines a very provocative way to be blessed.  Paul also understood this desire to be blessed. As he begins his letter to the Ephesians, where in chapters 1-3 he gives an understanding of our calling in the gospel, he affirms one of the key truths of that gospel – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.This incredible statement – that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ – gives us a great principle for gospel centricity.  

Being gospel centered isn’t about gaining more blessings from God, but it is about living in the blessings we have already received in Christ.  

Blessed In Our Remembering

As we remember the gospel and our great Hero, we remember that we live not to earn more blessing, more favor from God. We remember that we live to experience the blessings that at ours in the gospel and its Hero, Jesus Christ.  Think about that for a moment. This means we can’t do anything to make God give us more blessing or we can’t do anything to make God give us less blessing. Every blessing is already ours in Christ. This truth, when embraced and lived out, brings freedom from the burden of works to impress or please God to get blessing and the fear that we might do something wrong to remove blessing.  

A Blessed Perspective

Recognizing this truth also brings into focus the struggle we all have in keeping this perspective. This freedom from the burden and the fear is a hard-won battle. We live in a world that constantly bombards us with a different story, a story that says we must do something to earn or keep blessing, sometimes very overtly and sometimes very subtlety. The world and our flesh constantly challenge us to let go of our grip on the gospel centered principle.  Therefore, we must remember. We remember the gospel. We remember the Hero of the gospel. We remember that we have received every spiritual blessing in our Hero.  

Blessing in Believing

Our remembering brings us to the place of believing, believing that we can’t earn more or lose these blessings because of our efforts or lack thereof, believing that every blessing is already ours in Christ.  We remember and believe to experience these blessings, to satisfy our longing to be blessed.  If you want to know more about those blessings that God wants us to experience, look in Ephesians at the verses right after the promise of receiving - received every spiritual blessing in Christ.  You will find a litany of those blessings in Ephesians 1:4-14.  You can also look at Ephesians 2:1-22 for even more of those blessings.   Remember.  Believe.  Experience – all the blessings we have already received in Christ because

Being gospel centered isn’t about gaining more blessings from God, but it is about living in the blessings we have already received in Christ.   

 

Remembering the Hero

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS

Being Gospel Centered – Part 3
In Him

When we talk about being gospel centered, one of the objections we hear is “Why don’t you use the idea ‘Christ centered’ instead of gospel centered?”  It is a good question. After all, if Jesus Christ is the one by whom and for whom all things were created, if “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17), then clearly He is the center of everything and our focus should be on being Christ centered.  Paul certainly had this perspective as he wrote Ephesians.  After telling us in 1:3 that God has “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ,” he then goes on to outline those blessings like:

  • Being chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s sight – 1:4
  • Being adopted as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ - 1:5
  • Having redemption in Jesus Christ – 1:7

Paul uses the term “in Christ” or “in Him” twenty-one times in the first three chapters.  (A great exercise is to find those occurrences that outline our new identity in Christ.). He is clearly writing from a Christ centered perspective.  

The Mystery

Having said that, Paul also speaks about “the mystery of Christ.” (3:4) He goes on to say that  “this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (3:6)  Paul ties the mystery of Christ to the gospel. The mystery of Christ is expressed through the gospel.  Through the gospel come the riches of Christ, those blessings in Christ that Paul mentioned in 1:3.  Paul goes on to say that he “became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace.” (3:7) where in other letters Paul referred to himself as a servant of Jesus Christ (Rm 1:1, Gl 1:10).  Once again, he ties the Christ and the gospel.  For Paul, to be Christ centered is to be gospel centered.  To be gospel centered is to be Christ centered.  These two ideas are deeply intertwined.  If that is so, why even use the term gospel centered?  Using the term gospel centered recalls the gospel as a story, not just a set of propositional truths, and Jesus Christ in the context of that story.  Just as any person’s story helps us to better understand that person, the four-chapter story of the gospel – Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation - helps us to see and understand Jesus Christ more clearly, more fully.  

Jesus - The Greatest Hero

Seeing that gospel as His story and seeing Christ’s place in the story as the Hero broadens and deepens our grasp of His work. Like any hero, he arrives on the scene and overcomes significant opposition to fix what is broken, restore what is lost, and right what is wrong.  Jesus is the Greatest Hero because He overcomes the greatest opposition to right the greatest wrongs, restore the greatest loss, and fix the greatest brokenness. Seeing Jesus as the Hero of this gospel story reminds us all that we are not the Hero.  Life is not about us.  Life is not up to us.  Yet, the Hero has given us a significant role in the story, a role e has uniquely fitted us to fulfill.  Our role is one he promises to empower as we walk in it.  Each of us, Paul says, “are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in.”(Ep 2:10). Being Gospel centered is about remembering, believing, and experiencing.  It involves regularly remembering the truths of the gospel. The greatest truths, the most central truths of the gospel that we must remember are those that surround the Hero of the gospel story – Jesus Christ, the GREATEST HERO!!!!! 

Regularly Remembering the Gospel

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS

Being Gospel Centered – Part 2

We use all kinds of ways to remember things:  

  • Reminders on our phones
  • Dry erase boards on our refrigerators
  • Note cards on our bathroom mirrors 

I have used all of these and many other methods over the years.  We come up with these “systems” for two reasons.  First of all, we tend to forget.  Secondly, we tend to forget even important things.  These “systems” remind us of what is important that we tend to forget.  

Believing and Remembering

In Part 1 of Being Gospel Centered, we acknowledged that being gospel centered involves believing and remembering.  The only imperative in Ephesians 1-3 is in 2:11 “Therefore, remember…”.  In giving that command, he didn’t intend this to be a one-time remembrance.  By using a present tense verb for remember, Paul is calling for a regular remembrance of the gospel truths in chapters 1,2, & 3.   This present tense, ongoing remembering, leads us to a very important observation about who the gospel is for.  The gospel isn’t only for those who are separated from Christ as a way to get connected to Christ and get to heaven.  The gospel is also for those who are connected to Christ so that we might experience the grace to presently live out the truths of the gospel.  That grace is experienced as we not only remember but believe afresh in the gospel.  Present remembering is to lead to present believing.  This believing leads to the present experience of the power of the gospel.  The regular experience of this power is why author Jerry Bridges says, “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.”  

How do you Remember?

With that in mind, what “system” do you have for remembering the gospel?  If you don’t have one, let me suggest a few.

  • Learn the four-chapter gospel outline – check out https://thestoryfilm.com/ for one example.  There are many other resources that give that similar outline of Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation.  
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to make real for you the truths of those chapters.  
  • In your regular prayer time, use this outline to review that gospel and your place in it.  
  • Focus on one particular chapter of the gospel and meditate on that chapter.  Use your thoughts as fuel for prayer.   
  • Take sections of Ephesians 1 and 2 to remind you of the gospel truths.
  • Be grateful for what you remember, believing afresh the truths you were reminded of.   
  • Ask one of your friends to go through this remembering with you.  
  • Develop a system of your own.  

Remembering – Believing – Experiencing.  This is the process Paul has in mind with his present tense command to “remember.”   

Position Available - ROAR Sports

ROAR Sports – the Sports Ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, SC – is looking for a new Director.  Here is the link to the Job Description and way to apply - https://wpcgo.com/files/5116/1193/8639/2021-director-of-roar-sports.pdf CEDE SPORTS has worked with ROAR and Westminster since the ministry began back in the late 1990’s.  If you would like to know more about the job than what you see in the Job Description,  please contact Bob Schindler at CEDE SPORTS at bschindler@cedesports.org.   ROAR Sports Website 

Being Gospel Centered

Written By Bob Schindler, Chief Operating Officer of CEDE SPORTS

Gospel Centered Ministry

At CEDE SPORTS, we talk about gospel centered sports ministry – for sports chaplains and for churches doing sports, rec, or fitness ministry.  In this blog, I want to introduce a series of several blogs where we will look at gospel centricity – what it is and what it isn’t.  This discussion is based on the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.  While he never uses the term gospel centered n this letter, as we look at this topic over the next several blogs, I think you will discover the concepts around gospel centricity are imbedded in the letter. 

Ephesians

The letter is divided into two distinct parts.  Chapters 1-3 form the first part with chapters 4-6 making up the second part.  The first part of the letter focuses on understanding our calling in the gospel.  The second part focuses on living out our understanding of our calling in the gospel.  This order of the two parts is no accident.   To reinforce that order, in the first part, there is only one imperative, surrounded by lots of indicatives.  Many truths to believe.  One command to obey.  That command is found in 2:11 – “Therefore, remember ….”  Paul goes on to tell us what to remember – who we were and who we are in the gospel.  We are to remember this.  We are commanded to remember this.  

Two Keys

With these thoughts in mind, I see two initial keys to being gospel centered.   

  • Being gospel centered begins with believing - believing the truths about the gospel.  
  • Being gospel centered involves remembering – remembering the realities of our life before and after the gospel. 

 Believing and remembering.  This is the opposite of the popular cultural phrase “Fake it till you make it.”  As you think about what it means to be gospel centered, keep these ideas in mind – believe and remember, who you were apart from the gospel and who you are in the gospel.   

The Value of Church Sports: A Great Historical Example

Written By Paul Emory Putz, Ph.D. Assistant Director, Sports Ministry Program at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary

Looking Back

One of my favorite examples of the influence that a local church-based sports and rec & fitness ministry (SR&F) can have comes from the life of Bob Pettit. If you’re a basketball fan and history buff like me, you know Pettit is one of the NBA’s all-time greats. Over his eleven seasons with the Hawks (1954-1965), the 6’9” forward from LSU averaged over 26 points per game and won two MVP awards.  And none of that would have been possible without a church basketball league. As a sophomore, Pettit was cut from his high school team. But with the encouragement of his pastor, he and a group of other young men formed a basketball league at Pettit’s church, St. James Episcopal. In his autobiography, The Drive Within Me, Pettit said the church league provided him with his first opportunity to play organized basketball. And as he played in the church league, his confidence and ability grew. By his junior season, he was ready to compete and star for the high school team. "I never forgot that the church saved my basketball career when it might have gone under without a ripple,” Pettit wrote in 1962. "And through the years I've come to learn that the church offers much, much more. I can't understand how a true believer in Christ can ignore the fellowship Christ instituted to continue His work on earth."

Looking Ahead

Of course, most church sports leagues aren’t going to produce a future hall-of-famer. But they can serve as a space to cultivate meaning, belonging, and community. They can provide an environment in which others are invited into deeper Christian commitment and growth.If we want church ministries to serve that purpose, we need to be intentional about our vision and plan. One helpful starting point for this is to learn from the past. For the last 150 years church leaders have been exploring how to integrate and include sports and recreation within the work of the church. By considering the theologies and strategies that have undergirded those efforts—as well as the major successes and failures—we can better understand our present moment and make wise choices about the future.    In short, we don’t need to try to develop NBA All-Stars. But we should be thinking about how sports and recreation can help us reach and shepherd people well. Especially in our fast-changing cultural landscape.  If you’re interested in exploring more of the history of local church SR&F ministry and discussing how it can inform the work of church and ministry leaders in the present, join me and Bob Schindler in February for a CEDE Sports webinar entitled: The History of Local Church SR&F Ministry - Looking to the Past to Navigate an Uncertain Future. You can either join CEDE Sports Webinar Mailing List for more info on this upcoming event or email rcurrie@cedesports.org for information on how to register for that webinar.And if you’d like to connect with me to learn more about my work as a historian with Baylor’s Faith & Sports Institute, you can follow me on Twitter (@p_emory) or check out my website (http://www.paulemoryputz.com).  

Planning for Personal & Professional Growth in 2021

Written by Jeff Fox, Church Mentor at CEDE Sports

Desiring Personal and Ministry Growth

As Sports Ministry Leaders there is always pressure on your time.  With recruiting coaches, training coaches, ordering jerseys and equipment along with taking care of any and all the “emergencies” that arise, time is always at a premium. Yet the scriptures make it clear that we need to make personal and ministry leadership growth a priority.  How do we make this a priority and make practical plans for this growth.

Takings steps to succeed

In our recent Webinar “Planning for Personal and Professional Growth in 2021” we discussed the need for growth and practical ways to plan and structure our time in order to make this a priority.  The Webinar includes discussion by current Sports Ministers along with resources to assist in growth.

Getting practical

In my conversations with Sports Ministry Leaders across the country I often hear,  “I don’t have the time or a plan for how to grow”.  In this Webinar I was encouraged by the discussion of practical ways and opportunities to structure growth into our existing schedules. There is hope in fulfilling your desire for growth!  Watch this video and contact us if you need more information.

[embed]https://vimeo.com/492228284[/embed]

On The Field Series: Russell Dulin

Out of a desire for you to understand more of what we do we decided to invite the people on the field to tell you themselves. In these blogs you will hear from the hands and feet of our ministry as they tell you how their story intersects with CEDE Sports. 

Meet Russell Dulin..

Russell serves as the Minister of Recreation at Hopewell Baptist Church in Monroe, NC. Q: How did you get connected with CEDE?

A: I was contacted by a CEDE Sports mentor many years ago while I was still a full-time public school teacher and part-time recreation ministry director about the possibility of meeting to discuss the recreation ministry. It wasn’t until I left teaching to lead the recreation ministry full-time that my schedule would allow us to meet. Since 2015 I have met with this mentor from CEDE Sports on a monthly basis discussing various topics of recreation ministry.

Q: What has been the impact of your involvement with CEDE?

A: CEDE Sports has provided a mentorship that serves both me and the ministry. My education and training was in education, not ministry. They took me from a mentality of athletic director to recreation minister. Helping to focus my priority on ministry first, sports second. Using the CEDE Sports online materials, book studies and monthly conversations has helped me stay focused on the opportunities we have to bridge the gap between the church and community using sports. Sharing the Gospel through sports is an effective way of ministering to people that may not necessarily hear to Gospel in a traditional church setting. CEDE has also helped me set yearly goals and cast vision for the ministry moving forward. Having goals and vision keep me from become complacent or stagnant in the ministry.

Q: Why would someone in sports, Rec and fitness get involved with CEDE?

A: I have had times in the ministry where I get bogged down in the logistics of recreation ministry; uniforms, schedules, coaches and referees. CEDE Sports provide online materials and resources to help with coach’s training. I didn’t have to move from education to ministry and “re-create the wheel”. Those online resources were quick and easy to adapt to my specific recreation ministry, which freed me up to focus on the ministry part of recreation. Meeting monthly with CEDE has kept me accountable. Their focus, is for me to focus on ministry first, sport second. Beyond the connection I have with my mentor, CEDE Sports has also given me the opportunity to connect with other recreation ministries, locally and nationally, through their website and the annual REACH Gathering conference.