Great Questions to Ask Yourselves, New Hires, and 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

How to Measure Success in Ministry ?

​​I came across this on the 9 Marks website. I really appreciated the tone of this because I fear the church looks to the business world and their metrics too much in trying to measure ministry. Here’s the principles they listed:

1. Measuring the supernatural? Supernatural fruitfulness cannot always be measured.

2. Success equals faithfulness. One of our most important criteria for success should be whether or not a man is faithfully preaching the Word and living a life of conformity to the Word.

3. More than heads in attendance. The number of people attending a church is not the only factor to be considered, but how much members are growing in holiness, how many leaders are being raised up, how many members are leaving for the mission field, and so forth. Such factors are far richer and more complex, and are often better indicators of the faithfulness and success of a man’s ministry.

4. Success not always visible. A faithful and “successful” ministry may not present obvious and immediate fruit. Adoniram Judson didn’t see a single convert for seven years. Moreover, initial responses can prove hugely deceptive over time (Matt. 13:1-23). And how much “fruit” did the prophet Jeremiah get to see?

5. But visible fruit should be considered. God gives different gifts to different people. It is entirely possible for a man to labor faithfully at something he’s not gifted to do. In such a case, there will be little visible fruit, which should be considered in assessing his long-term plans and support. Not all Christians should ask the church to set aside a portion of their incomes to support them for full-time ministry. Visible fruit is a part of that consideration.

6. What’s the bottom line? Success in ministry primarily means faithfulness, but attempting to humbly and cautiously evaluate the fruit of a man’s ministry should play a supporting role in weighing success in ministry.

At CEDE SPORTS, measuring success is one of the issues we help Sports Ministries deal with by developing an appropriate MEASURE for success (that includes some of the factors mentioned above), an appropriate METHOD for using that measure, and an appropriate MOTIVE for the whole endeavor.  Below is a video that looks at some of those ideas.

Going for the Gold: Measuring Success in Sports Ministry on Vimeo. If we can further help you in measuring the success of your ministry, please contact us.

Christianity–Before, During, or After the Game?

100 Division III athletes, all who identified themselves as Christians, were asked a series of questions that probed into the impact of their Christianity on their sports involvement. While the questions weren’t asked in exactly these three categories – BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the Game – the answers broke down into these three.

The good news – 100 of these athletes said their Christianity affected them BEFORE and AFTER the game. They prayed, they read something, they talked to someone specifically.

The bad news is how many of them said their Christianity affected them DURING the Game. How many do you think? By the fact that I call it bad news, the number is low. Just how low is it?

Zero.

That’s right. None of the players saw their Christianity as affecting them during their time on the court, in the field.

This seems rather too difficult to believe. Here are two supporting stories for you skeptics:

1) I shared this research recently at a Coaches Training. Afterwards, a young, tall woman approached me. Here is what she said:

I played D2 Volleyball at a “Methodist” school. We would ALWAYS say the Lord’s Prayer before the game as a team, I personally would pray for strength and safety as well before the game. If we won we would thank the Lord for the win—— But never once did we pray DURING the game. I found that every interesting and actually had never realized it until Bob made me think about it! There is no reason why we shouldn’t ask God for strength and endurance DURING a game! We should also give him thanks after a game (even if we lost) for him giving us the strength to do our best! Glory should be given to God before, during, and after all games win or lose!

2) In a Sports Illustrated article in February 2013, one collegiate athlete identified as being involved in a Christian Sports Ministry Group said in response to the researcher, Sharon Stoll of the University of Idaho, when she asked about the role of intimidation in sports:

“Ma’am, my job is to kick them in the head, knee them in the groin, stand over them and tell them never to get up.” Stoll then asked how the linebacker would play against Jesus. “And the guy looked at me and said, ‘Ma’am, I’m as Christian as the next guy, but if I’m playing Jesus the Christ, I play the same way. I leave God on the bench.”

“I leave God on the bench.”

What we are saying in all this is that God belongs outside the lines of the fields or courts, not inside. Once a player steps across that line and onto the field or court, we leave our Christianity behind.

However, that perspective is not the way God sees it!

“Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink (or play football or volleyball) do it all for the glory of God.” 1Corinthians 10:31 (with the parenthetical comments added)

God sees the largest to the smallest aspect of everything we do, including our sports, as connected with his glory. This is the way he designed all of life. This is why Paul calls us to this connection, in recognition of the difference between God’s and our perspective.

Yet, we shouldn’t point only to athletes in discussing this problem. The compartmentalized view of life with its secular/sacred dichotomy is alive and well all around today’s Christianity.

If you don’t believe me, look at the stats on how we treat money and what we give or how we treat marriage, or how we conduct business. God is often left out in these arenas and considered irrelevant just as he is on the athletic fields and courts. George Barna has done a great job of providing the stats to fully back up this assertion.

If you are troubled by all this, great. Honestly, I share it with you for that very purpose.

We need a cry for a different reality. We need a cry for a different paradigm – one where Christianity and the gospel aren’t segregated from or injected into sports but rather integrated with sports.

Reaching People Through the "Middle Ground" of Sports

Do you ever wonder – “How do I really go about reaching the people around me?”  or more broadly, “How does our church reach the culture in which God has placed us?”

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.”

Coaches' Creed

A creed is defined as “a brief authoritative formula of religious belief.”  Throughout the history of the church, creeds have been used to help Christians understand theology by preserving truth and pointing out heresy.  You can read about some of the more popular Christian creeds here.

With this in mind, here’s my attempt to create a Coach’s Creed.  In no way am I suggesting that this creed stands in the same company as those listed in the link above.  This is merely my attempt to articulate a formula for coaches that helps apply the gospel to their coaching.  I’m sure it will change over time.  I would love your feedback.

The Coaches’ Creed:

As a coach, I was created to image God but my coaching is broken because I’m broken.  Jesus died for my brokenness and is now calling me to spread the fame of God in my coaching as I display his character.

This is short intentionally.  It’s meant to be something that can be remembered and recited.  It’s meant to be something that could be prayed before a game.

The creed reflects what the gospel has to say about coaching through the big story of the gospel: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.

“As a coach, I was created to image God…” [Coaching through the lens of Creation]

From Genesis 1 & 2, we learn that God created us in his image.  All of creation is good but humans were very good.  We were the crown jewel of his creation and we were given a job, “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.”  This mandate is not just an agricultural or even a primitive command for early man.  Rather, it’s meant to be applied to every Christian of every age.  It’s just as applicable in the 21st century as it was at the creation of the world.  And, it certainly includes every realm of life, including coaching.

“…my coaching is broken because I am broken.” [Coaching through the lens of the Fall]

We know from Genesis 3 that sin entered the world through the choice of Adam and Eve.  Sin has tainted every good thing God created, not just humans.  That means that nature is somehow tainted by sin (see Romans 8).  It also means that the whole system of culture is marred by sin, including sports.  Including coaching.  It’s not a question of if my coaching is broken but how my coaching is broken.

Jesus died for my brokenness and is now calling me to spread the fame of God in my coaching as I display his character. [Coaching through the lens of Redemption and Consummation]

This is the good news of the gospel.  As Romans 5:8 says, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  1 Timothy 2:5-7 says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…”  Yes, Jesus died for my brokenness.  The cross though not only defeated death but also overcame all the curse of sin.  Jesus has reconciled all things (see Colossians 1:15-20).  This includes broken systems.  As a result, I am redeemed as a coach and my coaching can be redeemed.  How?  As Bob Schindler says, “The ultimate reason for coaching is to glorify God – to spread the fame of God in this world by displaying his multifaceted character as you coach.”  Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, I am able to display God’s character in my coaching.

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 4

Sports and Idolatry – In Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3 of “How do you know when sports are an idol?”, I have tried to make this connection and equip you to deal with this idolatry. I contend that three ideas are important to embrace when discussing sports and idolatry. They are

1) Understanding sports as an idol 

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory

In this post, I want to unpack the third idea – Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory.When I examine the deeper emotions surrounding my sports, one of the things I find when I go beneath even the deep beliefs in my heart is a passionate drive to excel or win. If I probe around about that longing, I discover this longing to excel is really a longing for glory – for greatness and the recognition by others of that greatness.

This is where it gets both interesting and hard. If I am really honest, even as a Christ follower this longing for glory is not very often about God’s glory but instead is very often about my glory. I want what winning and sports’ achievements bring from our culture – the respect, the honor, the admiration, the trophies – or, in other words, the glory, my glory.

It is hard to acknowledge this because to do so shows the self-centeredness of my heart – the orientation of my longings toward me. It is interesting to think about this orientation in light of God’s original design in Creation and the corruption from the Fall. We were created with glory, the glory of being made in the image of God, to represent God before all of creation. This greatness was bestowed on mankind by God and was intrinsic. We were to express this intrinsic glory as we moved in the fulfillment of the Dominion Mandate – to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. At this point, the orientation of our hearts’ longings was toward God and his glory.

However, in our pursuit to be “like God” without God, to experience the shalom of the Garden while being morally autonomous, in the Fall we sinned and lost our glory. We now “fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

One of the results was to turn the orientation of our hearts away from God and toward other things and ultimately toward ourselves. Paul says it this way in Romans 1:25 – “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever to be praised. Amen.” Paul is saying we worship or look to other things, including sports, rather to God for the fulfillment of our heart’s desires.

But he also is saying more. He is saying our hearts got reoriented. No, actually they got broken. Not broken like in being hurt but broken as in not working right. They are drawn away from God and to “idols” to satisfy these deep longings. When I understand this reality, I recognize that possibly the greatest struggle in dealing with the idol of sports is the struggle I have with ME – my self-centeredness, my selfish orientation to my heart’s longings, and in particular my pursuit of my own glory. At the core of diagnosing the idols of my heart in sports is this acknowledgement. My heart is broken – foolishly oriented to other things than God in my pursuit of glory.

Now the good news of the Gospel is that God not only forgives of all this idolatry, he also gives us a new heart, a heart of flesh that is alive to God, replacing our broken one, the cold, lifeless heart of stone. (See Ezekiel 36: 22-32) He makes it possible for us to experience not only our behavior to be modified in our sports, but for our hearts and the behavior they drive in our sports to be transformed.

This transformation doesn’t happen all at once. It is a process but this transformation process can be actuated in the exposing environment of sports if we move toward confession (acknowledgement of wrongdoing and the deep lies and self-centeredness driving us), repentance (the turning away from wrongdoing, the lies and the self-centeredness at work), and faith (embracing the truth in the place of those lies and moving in God-centeredness) in our sports, all the while asking God to enact this transformation of our hearts that he alone can bring about.

While the disease of sports idolatry is never fully overcome in this life, we can make progress in stemming the spread and actually reducing the impact.

So for the glory of God in redeemed sports, lets agree to 1) assume sports are an idol 2) examine our deep emotions around sports 3) own the passions of our heart. For God has promised –  “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant…I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” Isaiah 44:21,22  “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your idols.”  Ezekiel 36:25

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 3

Sports and Idolatry – In Part 1 and Part 2 of “How do you know when sports has become an idol?”, I have tried to make this connection and equip you to deal with this idolatry. I contend that three ideas are important to embrace when discussing sports and idolatry. They are:

1) Understanding sports as an idol

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory

In this post, I want to unpack the second idea – Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger.

We all know it – you can’t hide your heart on the field, the court, or whatever environment you compete in. Sports cut us open and what is in us comes spilling out at the referees, the players on the opposing team and our own team, coaches, even at ourselves. This exposing quality is one of the reasons I love sports.

While this reality is apparent, what is interesting is that I don’t find a lot of people who probe into what is underneath those thoughts and emotions, especially our emotions.And there is always something underneath our emotions. Emotions are never independent. They are always generated by beliefs.

Let’s take anger. It was Larry Crabb, Christian psychologist, who first alerted me to the fact that anger is the result of a blocked goal. It is my emotional response to the belief that the goal I am pursuing is being blocked. (A goal is something I believe I want or need to have and pursue.) When we don’t get what we want, when our efforts to achieve our goal are stymied, we get angry. The deeper the demand for that goal, and the deeper the resulting anger when it is blocked.

Now take that understanding to the athletic field. A coach gets really angry at an official’s call. Why? The official blocked the goal of the coach. What is the goal? While I am not sure, what I do know by the emotion is that, whatever the goal, it is important to the coach.

The depth of the emotion, whether expressed or not, is determined by the depth of the goal, the importance of that goal to the person. When I see deep anger, whether in me or others, I know the goal is really important – it is something I really need to have, have to have.

Now let’s tie that emotion to idolatry. Remember our definition of an idol – “If I have that, then I will be happy, valued, significant, etc.” I think I have to have “that” and “that” becomes an idol.

For most of us who play, watch or coach sports, the “that” is winning. (This is not the exclusive “that”, for even “having a good time” can be a “that” – a thing I have to have. Winning is just the “that” I will address now.) Therefore, when we don’t win, when someone gets in the way of our winning (including ourselves), we get angry at whoever or whatever got in the way. Anger reveals the reality of the idolatry in our sports, in this case the idolatry of winning. The deeper the anger, the deeper the idolatry, the more important the idol.

Next time you are watching, playing, coaching and you feel deep emotion, acknowledge it. Don’t run from it. Press into it by asking yourself, “Why am I feeling this?” Look for the beliefs that drive the emotion.

If it is anger, ask yourself, “What is the goal that is being blocked?” “Why is that goal so important that I feel this anger so deeply?”

The beliefs that you find underneath the emotions reveal the possible idols of our hearts. Acknowledge to God the “thats” (like winning) that you find, that were revealed through your emotions like anger. This is a confession. Turn away from, say no to these beliefs that take good things (like winning – a good desire but a bad goal) and make them ultimate things, making them idols in our hearts. This is repentance.

This begins the process of dealing with our idolatry of sports. In Part 4, we will look at how deep this process of confession and repentance needs to go if we really want to break the tie between idolatry and our sports.

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 2

Sports and Idolatry – hopefully you are connecting these two ideas.

In Part 1, I said there are three important ideas we need to embrace in order to diagnose the idolatry of sports. They are:

1) Understanding sports as an idol 

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory.

In this post, I want to unpack the first idea – Understanding sports as an idol.

To begin, let’s go back to the coach, who, when asked if he had a problem with sports as an idol, quickly and emphatically responded, “NO!!” The coach seemed to assume that wasn’t even a possibility by his response. This denial goes far beyond just this coach, however.

Tim Keller counters to such a contention or assumption in Counterfeit Gods –

“I am not asking whether or not you have rival gods. I assume that we all do; they are hidden in every one of us…. In Romans 1:21-25, Paul shows that idolatry is not only one sin among many, but what is fundamentally wrong with the human heart.”

Since the fall, our hearts have been idol factories, seeking something, many things, other than God to fulfill its longings for meaning, love, significance, security, and, what is often left off this list, glory. We were made for glory. We lost glory at the fall (remember Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”). We pursue glory in “all the wrong places” to fill that void.

Sports today demonstrate one of the most often used and clearest methods for establishing this lost glory. We strive to become champions, winners, first place, the best, the highest – whether it is in world class arenas for Olympians and Super Bowls or in neighborhood courts for a community league or a pick up game.

However, rather than looking into our sports for the reality of this idolatry because of what is “fundamentally wrong with the human heart,” we say things like, “I am just competitive,” or “I am just playing hard” and deny the reality of our idolatry.

When we won’t even consider the possibility that our sports are an idol, we live out what God says of idolaters in Isaiah 44. In verse 13-20, God uses a carpenter as an example. The carpenter takes what God has provided (wood) and uses part of it for his job, part of it as fuel to warm himself, and part of it to cook his food, all within the purposes of God.

Yet, rather than stopping there, the carpenter then takes the rest and makes “a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.” (verse 17)

Now, the carpenter doesn’t really understand that he is doing something wrong, nor does he contemplate the possibility. “Their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say….’Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’” (verse 18-20)

In the sports world, we don’t see, we don’t stop to think and ask, we won’t even ask, “Is this thing I play, watch, or coach an idol?”

So will you ask –“Are my sports an idol?”

Will you allow God to show you how you have taken his provision, sports, and not stopped with the design that God had in mind, but have fashioned it into a place for your glory, not his?

Will you ask God to open your eyes, to give you understanding, to give you the courage to ponder and be honest and ask the question, “Is this thing I play an idol?”

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series where we will unpack examining our deep empotions around sports—especially anger.

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 1

A fellow sports minister had a recent conversation with a coach where the sports minister asked, “Do you think you have a problem with sports being an idol?” The coach quickly and emphatically replied, “No!”

What is interesting about his response is that this coach had recently had several emotional and difficult confrontations surrounding his coaching.

This situation prompted me to ask, “How do you know when sports or a sport is an idol?”

You might be wondering, “What kind of question is that?” thinking that idols are those things in foreign cultures that people visit and bow down to.

While the Bible mentions making objects into idols, God doesn’t limit the definition of idols to just those lifeless statues. Consider the following from Tim Keller (from his book Counterfeit Gods):

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give….. An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

According to Keller, “anything can be an idol.” Even sports.

Just take out the key words to that definition and you’re left with:

• absorbs my heart and imagination

• gives my life meaning

• gives me value

• makes me feel significant

Put “sports” before each statement on that list, read them before a group of athletes, and ask “Which of these statements are true for you?” The answers would quickly show the power of sports to become an idol. Ask a whole culture like ours and you would not only see how powerful but how pervasive the idolatry of sports is.

More importantly, we can ask ourselves, “Which of these statements is true for me?”

• Sports (or a sport) absorbs my heart and imagination

• Sports (or a sport) gives my life meaning

• Sports (or a sport) gives me value

• Sports (or a sport) makes me feel significant

Just pause for a moment. Think about what is going on in your heart. How are you reacting to this article? Your reaction is important for you in diagnosing the extent of the problem.

Why? Because, if we are going to diagnose the reality of idols in our hearts, we must:

1) Understand sports as an idol 

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory.

Stay tuned for this 4 part blog series as we dive deeper into understanding sports as an idol, examining our deep emotions around sports, and owning the passions of our hearts.

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.