Does God Care Who Wins? - Resource Page

If your answer to this question is , “No,” maybe you are thinking like many others who say, “God has more important things to concern himself with than our sports.” This is the common reason given, but this answer trivializes sports and limits God’s love, leaving us wondering what else isn’t important enough in our lives to garner God’s concern.

If you say “Yes,” maybe you are thinking like coaches or athletes who declare, “God blessed our efforts,” or “God’s favor is on us,”  both after wins, insinuating that God’s favor is on a particular team or person – the winning one.  

This answer trivializes God and makes his love conditional, leaving us ashamed – wondering what we have done wrong when we lose – or proud – thinking of all we did right when we win.  

Does God Care Who Wins? challenges each of these common answers and discusses their implications while encouraging more dialogue on the question. In the book, Bob Schindler gives what he sees as the answer that not only honors God but also brings meaning and passion to sports.

Hear what other readers have to say –

“This DGCWW question is a great conversation starter within our ministry with Istrouma Sports coaches, parents, older players and also coaches outside of our ministry. My heart is to use the question to glorify God and have the Holy Spirit reveal the heart of the one I am having the conversation with to himself. 80 percent [of those I ask] are emphatic in saying no. So the next question I ask is what else doesn’t God care about? In ministry it leads to conversations regarding so many topics: God’s great care, God’s great creation of gifts, talents and abilities, Why Sports?, Win or Lose for What?, Glory, Winning as desire, Brokenness of sport, our insecurities revealed, sport as worship, redeeming sports. All of these topics are used to bring the conversation to a personal level and through the relationship that has been developed see where the Lord is in their life.” – M.L. Woodruff, Sports Outreach Minister at Istrouma Baptist Church

“I’ve read a lot of articles and books on the integration of faith and sports. IMO, this is the best resource out there on the subject.” – Tim Briggs, Church Planter/Pastor of Steadfast Church

“..to say that this book made a change in my life is an understatement. After reading this book, I am awestruck by the amount of love and care shown towards me in even the smallest of things by my Creator.” – Seth Wright, Student Athlete

“Bob Schindler forces us to wrestle with what appears to be the superficial and how God views us and our desires.  He takes us to a deeper level of understanding God and how He wired each of us for His glory and purpose, even when it comes to winning … and losing.  My love for God grew as Bob unpacked his own life journey as it related to his desires, goals, disappointments, and his dogged pursuit of knowing God.” – Gary Pine, Director of Athletics Azusa Pacific University

“I entered [reading the book] as a ‘former’ athlete; expecting the finer points only to apply in hindsight. Boy was I wrong!  God cares about my competition today, my work today, and my ongoing thirst for glory.” – Nate Pratt, Vice President of Institutional Services Dimensional Fund Advisors

“Bob’s book has deeply challenged how I view the foundational aspects of sports ministry, particularly when it comes to competition.  I have found that there are many helpful sports ministry foundational topics to teach on: Identity, Motivation, etc, but I believe how we view competition as arguably at the top of the list of importance… DGCWW has impacted my overall approach to sports ministry and helped me more deeply format my own definition and understanding of a Christ-centered view on competition.” – Stephen Jackson, Former Professional Soccer Player

Additional Resources –

Click here to download the FREE DGCWW Discussion Guide

See below for a FREE three part study on the topic of the book, complete with a leader's guide:

Download: DGCWW Whole Handout

Download: DGCWW Summary Handout

Another resource we are excited to share with you is this video below. We hosted a webinar to discuss the question “Does God Care Who Wins?” and the topic of Redeemed Competition. If you would like to be emailed about future webinars like these you can sign up using this link.

To Purchase –

For individual/small quantity orders click here.

For bulk ordering click here.

How to Start a Spiritual Conversation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what do you do instead?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sports Don't Build Character, They Reveal It

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Devotionals–A Struggle for Coaches

“I did two of the eight devotionals during this past season,” said the coach as we discussed his most recent coaching experience. “I just don’t have the time when I try to teach the sport to these players.”

This tension between the “spiritual” and the “athletic” aspects of sports ministry that leads to a setting aside of “devotionals” seems to be a common experience among coaches I meet. What is especially surprising about these particular comments are they came from the PASTOR of the church of this sports ministry.

Sports ministries have tried many different ideas to overcome this struggle such as:

– Legislating the doing of devotionals – this takes many different forms.

– Taking the devotional aspect out of the coaches’ hands by gathering several teams together for a united “devotional” that is done by someone else.

I would like to present another option which actually goes to the core of the issue here – integration vs. injection.

The problem is not that coaches don’t want to be “spiritual” or that they aren’t necessarily gifted in sharing truth. The problem lies in the paradigm we have developed that drives this struggle – a paradigm that says there is an “athletic” time and a “spiritual” time during practice. The athletic time was when the coach and players focused on sports drills and skills, while the spiritual time was when the coach shared some biblical truth, usually at the middle or end of practice, where the coach typically felt like he was forcing or injecting that biblical truth into the practice time (sometimes out of the guilt that said “This is a Christian ministry. We must share truth.”)

The coaches and players didn’t see much connection between these two times and the result of this injection was the building of a compartmentalized worldview or mindset that says “Sports and truth are really not connected.” This paradigm is rampant in our culture and especially in our sports. It stifles the redemption of sports and robs God of the glory he deserves from the realm of sports.

To combat this tendency of injection and bring an integrated paradigm to coaches and athletes, we developed a different way of doing devotionals. We call them 3D’s. Honestly, we would rather not even call them “devotionals” because of the immediate connection they have to “injection”. They are built on the ideas of integrating SPORTS, LIFE and TRUTH.

Here are a couple of comments from Sports Ministers who use 3D’s:

“3D devotionals have helped our ministry to shift from the mindset of injecting ministry into the sports and moving towards integrating how sports, life, and the gospel intersect. Our coaches and players are learning that sports can be not only fun, but impactful both on and off the field.” Jenny Young, Director of SOAR Sports, Christ Covenant Church

“3D Devotionals are great. They explain a point from a sport, life, and Biblical perspective. All coaches need to do is read it before practice and instill it into the practice. Very simple!” Brent Williams, ROAR Director, Westminster Presbyterian Church

“3D devotionals open the door in a realistic manner for us to be able to invest in the lives of those around us. They bring the scripture to life in a way that a non-believer or believer could understand and allows them to see the benefit of applying the Word to our everyday lives.” Ashley Buchanan, Recreation and Missions Coordinator, Flint Groves Baptist Church

“Implementing the 3D Devotional model has greatly enhanced the way we approach the ministry aspect of our program. Coaches are beginning to help players realize the importance of including God during game play rather than just during designated ‘timeouts’ or team huddles (before/after a game, break half way through practice).” Scott Tyson, Director of Legacy Sports

Here is a short video that explains the philosophy behind and gives a couple of examples of 3Ds.

What Are 3D Devotionals (12min.) from CEDE SPORTS on Vimeo.

To see further examples of 3Ds, click here.

Combatting Compartmentalization: Sports for the Glory of God

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

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

The answer – INTEGRATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• The outer recognition of this inherent greatness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compartmentalized Sports

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

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

You have seen the statistics.

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

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

And our sports have not been spared.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Church and Sports–A Strange Relationship!

Over the years, the Local Church has had a strange, almost love/hate, relationship with sports. Three perspectives on sports have contributed to various expressions in that relationship.

1. The first perspective is that the Local Church thinks that sports are evil. They are secular and unspiritual. Some think followers of Christ should hate sports. Christians might be told, “don’t be involved with sports.” The relationship ends up as one of intolerance and disengagement.

2. The second perspective is that the Local Church thinks that it isn’t sports that are evil; it is the people playing sports who are. Followers of Christ are to hate those evil people who play sports. Christians are told to only play sports in “safe, Christian” leagues run by the Local Church for other Christians. The relationship ends up as one of tolerance and cautious engagement.

3. The third perspective is that the Local Church thinks that sports are good. Followers of Christ are to love sports. Christians are told so, maybe not directly, but are certainly encouraged by the example of others, to engage fully in any and every sports opportunity – whether to watch, play, or coach. We are enamored of sports. The relationship ends up as one of complete acceptance and unbridled engagement.

With those in mind, what kind of relationship do you have with sports? Which perspective do you see in yourself?

Most of us probably don’t fit into one category or the other but are a mixture of all three. Each of the three have been widely advanced and yet none of them is actually biblical.

At CEDE SPORTS, we want to encourage the following perspective on sports:

• Sports are built into God’s creation as an aspect of the fulfillment of our role as God’s image bearers. As such, they are good, as is all of God’s creation from before the Fall.

• Sports are seriously broken by the Fall. All sports. As such, they are now realms where the corruption of the Fall is manifest, particularly as we live out the pursuit of our own glory rather than God’s glory in sports.

• However, sports can be redeemed! Sports should not be shunned but rather should be engaged in wisely in order to redeem them for God’s glory by restoring them to God’s original design.

• This redemption, this restoration, of sports is part of the work God is doing in the world today through Jesus Christ – “through him to reconcile to himself all things.” Colossians 1:20

This perspective can dramatically change our relationship with sports. First, we acknowledge sports’ power to capture our hearts' devotion. Sports, like few other realms, are all about glory – mainly our glory – and we idolize sports as a result. With this perspective, we learn to repent of that idolatry, turning away from the enamored, idolatrous place that sports has in so many of our hearts today.

From there, we engage with sports. We do it cautiously, even introspectively, as we attempt to re-establish it as a place for God’s glory not ours, knowing how easily our hearts can be led back to our idolatry. We know something of the power of the world to conform our play, our coaching, and our spectating. Therefore, we renew our minds to the gospel and look expectantly to the Spirit of God to transform us in those realms. As we play, coach and cheer, we move to express God’s character, humbly acknowledging where we fall short in the process and joyfully grateful for every success in doing so. Sports become more and more a place to give and to serve, not to be served and to take.

As we do this, our relationship with sports goes from this historically strange one into something wonderful as we watch the power of God use us to redeem this realm for his glory.

For a great resource to further equip you to redeem sports, check out For the Love of the Game….a call for the redemption of sports!

For the Love of the Game Resource Page

“For the Love of the Game is a perfect resource for anyone involved in the world of sport.”  Steve Connor, former NFL FLOG-largeplayer

Sports are broken.  All sports.  All levels.

Do you wonder what you can do about this problem?  For the Love of the Game provides clarity to this confusing challenge of redeeming sports by building a biblical and practical framework for your efforts in whatever sport you play, coach, or watch.

Here is what others are saying about For the Love of the Game –

“For the Love of the Game is the single most important product/training that I would recommend for anyone in the Sports Ministry field.”  Cindy Bledsoe – Professional Tennis Coach, Director of Children’s Ministry, former Assistant Director of Sports Ministry

“Bob has presented his material, ”For the Love of the Game” numerous times to the Charlotte Eagles professional soccer team. His talks were inspiring and motivating to our coaching staff and players alike. I love the concept of unearthing treasures while we train and compete.”  Mark Steffens, Head Coach – Charlotte Eagles

“For the Love of the Game will change how you view sports and what it means to win. There are so many good “nuggets” of information you’ll want to watch the video multiple times.”  Scott Tyson, Director – Legacy Sports

Additional Resources:

Click here to see a trailer for the video series.

For the Love of the Game Video Part 1

For the Love of the Game Video Part 2

For the Love of the Game Video Part 3

The handouts provided below can be used to follow along and provide discussion for each video.

Handout #1

Handout #2

Handout #3

Practice Makes Progress

By: Jenny Young

I’ve always been an athletic girl playing an array of sports from volleyball to softball to basketball. Basketball, however, has always been my sport of choice. I enjoy the skills developed, the ability to play as a team, the pace, and the creative play. I love controlling the ball in my hands with a bounce or a throw. When I am left to play a sport with my feet, which requires a different skill/mindset, I am often left unbalanced. This becomes a challenge in some sports and can be greatly frustrating for me. I love playing sports and I enjoy playing them well. But over the years, I’ve realized I have a hard time letting myself go and enjoying something without “perfecting” it first.  

You’ve likely heard of the common phrase, “Practice makes Perfect.” It’s one I've heard from a very young age and lived by. I have seen this way of thinking take up more room in my heart and life than I care to admit. The idea of perfection has not only revealed itself through sports, but also through relationships, and through my years of ministry. 

In the last few years, I was pushed out of my comfort zone by coaching something new. Soccer for me is not a natural sport to play or coach. Yet, for the past two fall sports seasons, I have coached a youth kids soccer team. Undoubtedly, some kids know more about the sport than I do! I am learning different things about coaching younger kids. I am learning a sport I know little about. Lastly, I'm learning what I value most about myself and others. 

I have been constantly thinking about how to keep the mission of my ministry in its proper view, yet also discerning my own goals/motives for the kids. There have been challenges during my first few practices as I learn along with the kids I am coaching. The kids may struggle with keeping attention or understanding why we play the way we do. But I hope to make the sport fun for the kids, allowing them to play a different position and get the chance to learn new skills by going through the fundamentals.

This new experience of practice brings a familiar phrase to the forefront, except I prefer a different result. “Practice makes PROGRESS.” Growth and development as an athlete, leader, friend, and individual takes time and practice. Progress does not mean everything will be perfect. Perfection should not be our true measure of growth. I fight to believe this not only for myself, but to help these kids and families believe this as well. Our growth as a team is all about the progress daily and weekly. Our growth is found in the way we talk, the way we play, the way we see each other on the pitch, and the way we approach the practice. 

I am thankful for all of the ways I am reminded of this truth on a practical level, but also on a spiritual level. Jesus was the only perfect man and He would turn to His father continually in prayer. I cannot attain perfection in my own strength, but because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I find salvation from my imperfection. Because of Christ, I can continually approach the Father in prayer for help and comfort in times of needs. When I do, I am strengthened in my pursuits and reminded that in our practice (of sports or anything else), we find freedom in progress not perfection.

Should We Pray to Win?

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

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

What if we don’t pray for wins?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What if we do pray for wins?

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

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

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

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

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

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