Competing for Christ Podcast Interview with Bob Schindler: Don't Leave God on the Bench!

Bob Schindler, COO of CEDE SPORTS,  joins Ken Burke on the Competing for Christ
Podcast today to talk about, “Leaving God on the bench."

Many in the Christian athlete setting have wrestled with this idea because it feels like they don't showcase God through their play. Bob discusses this issue on the most recent podcast episode in addition to: the Christian mindset in athletics, the harm of saying “God is on our side!”, and why he wrote the book Does God Care Who Wins?

Check out this encouraging podcast today by clicking here.

My Story with Sports, Life, and Truth

By: Alexis Gandy

Where It All Began

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

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

“In Everything We Do..”

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

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

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

College Days

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

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

My Turning Point

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

8,500+ Copies Sold of Bob Schindler's Book, Does God Care Who Wins?

By: Aubrey Coleman

What began as a question, turned into a kickstarter campaign, which then resulted in the writing and publishing of a book, and as of today that book has sold 8,500+ copies.  Does God Care Who Wins? by Bob Schindler has impacted coaches, athletes, sports ministers, leaders, and readers alike by providing biblical insight into this commonly asked question. 

The author, Bob Schindler, is the COO of CEDE SPORTS. CEDE SPORTS was born out of the desire to mobilize churches and chaplains into gospel centered sports ministry. Bob has prior experience in pastoral ministry and church planting, as well as careers in professional golf and several arenas of business. Through his extensive experience, God provided him with the question that now serves as the title of this book. 

Does God Care Who Wins? was published in September 2017 and offered as a resource to consider the answer to this question that many may find themselves conflicted about answering. Bob walks through common answers and discusses their implications, while encouraging further dialogue. Finally, he provides an answer that makes God great, makes everyone and everything meaningful - even our failures, and moves us to God.  

Bob’s answer to the question developed over 30 years, beginning with Bob’s journey into professional golf and coming to a head as he tried to qualify for the PGA Tour at PGA Tour School. The answer has taken further shape along the way through conversations with athletes, coaches, parents, and many others who wrestle with this question.

Robin Barden, Director of New Opportunities at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, shared that the book 

“not only helps people think through the question, but moves them closer to God. 

In doing so,” he continued, “it brings healing at a deep level.”

Bob Schindler notes that Barden’s words illustrate his very hope in writing the book. It helps people to better understand God and to connect Him to very tangible things in our world today like wins and losses. Schindler continues, “The longer I've been asking this question, the more I see what a provocative question it is, and the more humbled I am that God gave me this question to ask.”  

Reaching 8,500+ copies reveals the many ways God continues to use this book to work in the lives of its readers. Bob could not be more grateful for all of the support and prayer that went into this book. The original kickstarter team not only helped fund the work of this book, but provided overwhelming confirmation, prayer, and support for what God could accomplish through this message. None of it could be possible without them! May you join us in celebrating this milestone through praise to God and prayers for continued healing and understanding found through this resource.

If you’d like to know more about this book, read about it on cedesports.org by clicking here, and if you’d like to purchase and further support the sharing of this message, click here.

From the Pews to the Football Field

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

Sports Ministry mobilizes people into ministry – particularly men.  

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’s sign 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 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 – particularly men.  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.

Gravity & Gospel Centered Sports Ministry

You may not think these two ideas – gravity and gospel centered sports ministry – have a lot in common. Hopefully after you read this post you will see the relationship.

Gravity is one of the “forces of nature.” It acts on us all the time, everywhere we go – unless you are Sandra Bullock!! It is our friend when we play and our foe when we fall.

For us at CEDE SPORTS, we think of Gospel Centered Sports Ministry like a bicycle wheel where the Gospel is the hub. To illustrate that idea we use this diagram that outlines the three components of a wheel – the hub (power source), the spokes (the support and power transfer) and the rim (the place where movement takes place).

What I want to suggest is that each of these outcomes or aspects of movement to the ministry – effective outreach, life transformation, authentic community, redemption of sports, merciful expressions, integration with the local church, and multiplication – don’t just happen like gravity. In fact, like gravity, the opposite of each of these takes place.

We “naturally” move

–   toward isolation and away from non-believers

–   toward broken competition

–   toward “hiding” our faults from others

–   adopting the “rules” and games of the world

–   selfishness that disregards the needy around us

–   organizational “siloing”

–   addition or no product at all

If that is true, we are fighting against “spiritual gravity” if we are trying to lead gospel centered sports ministries.

Yet, just like natural gravity, this “spiritual gravity” can be overcome. To do so, two components need to be in place. The first is the power of the Holy Spirit. He is THE agent of transformation, the kind we are talking about here in gospel centered sports ministry. The second is our intentionality. (I distinguish these for clarity with this qualification – even our intentionality is a product of the Holy Spirit.)

We must be intentional while depending on the Holy Spirit to empower us through the hub, the Gospel, to put in place these spokes –

–   using sports as a laboratory and a bridge

–   renewal to the truths of the gospel

–   confession of where we continually fail at believing and living the Gospel

–   repentance from those lies and bad beliefs that drive our wrong behavior and

–   believing and trusting in the Gospel throughout our days

In all that, looking to the Holy Spirit to bring about what only he can do – these outcomes.

At CEDE SPORTS, it is our delight to come alongside and support Sports Ministers and Sports Ministries who desire to live out this intentionality and this dependence. If you are one of those people, we would love to serve you in those pursuits and help you “break the laws of gravity and fly!”

How to Deal with the Dissapointment of Unfilfilled Dreams?

By Bob Schindler

A while ago, I stepped out toward the fulfillment of a dream. After years of work, lots of prayer, and hope in God that he would do great things, He didn’t. At least that is what it seemed.

As the reality of my unmet hopes unveiled, I went through several reactions. At first, I felt foolish, exposed and almost mocked by the lack of response – “Who do I think I am that people would be interested in what I offered?” Then I felt critical and mad – at anyone and anything, a strategy to distance myself from the shame I felt – “I really am a failure and this just once again proves that reality.” I talked to God and with several people about this, but went to bed unresolved, still in chaos.

Later on, I processed more with God, and he went deeper. As we worked, he freed me to stand apart from my offering and see it for what it is – just an offering and not a statement of my identity. However, I was still left with disappointment. Profound disappointment, the depth of which related to the passion of this dream.

“Now what am I to do with all this disappointment?” I wondered, because it just hurt.

I read a blog by Donald Miller that affirmed the pain of my disappointment. He says,

It’s a painful idea, isn’t it? The phrase “unfulfilled dreams” has a lonely tone, as though when our dreams go unfulfilled life has short changed us. Life or, perhaps, God….it is an aching truth we are not guaranteed our dreams will become a reality.

If that is true, and I think it is, our dreams by very definition are a source of pain, of this profound disappointment.

In the face of this reality, many of us stop dreaming. That is what I felt tempted to do – “Ok. That is the last time I will step out like that. I will just play it safe, keep it close to the chest. I will just bury the disappointment deeply beneath this safety.” The only problem is, this strategy doesn’t deal with the disappointment I already felt.

It also kills something of our hearts in the process. God gave us a “heart.” Not the physical one, but the “heart” of our soul. The center of us. What makes us more us than anything else about us. This heart can grow “cold,” can be “broken,” can become “dark,” even “dead,” and can become disengaged as we just “go through the motions of life.” One other thing about our hearts. Our hearts long. They dream. To have a heart that is alive is to have a heart that desires, dreams. A deadened heart is a heart that has stopped dreaming.

This is the choice I face. Keep dreaming and stir my heart. Stop dreaming and kill something of my heart. I chose to dream.

“But what of the disappointment? Where do I go with that?”

This morning as I sat there at the bottom of my heart, steeped in disappointment, God met me there. I found, it is to the disappointed heart that God speaks comfort and hope. He affirms the pain – my disappointment is real to him. He doesn’t scorn it and doesn’t want me to either. Instead, he offers his comfort – his compassion for my disappointment.

He doesn’t leave me there. His comfort calls me out of my disappointment. It give me hope to press on in further pursuit of my dreams – not with the promise that he will always fulfill them but with the promise to be there – in, over, and through them. That is a dream well worth pursuing.

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.