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Reclaiming the Relationship Between Sports and Church

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on January 15, 2021
Posted in: The Mindful Minute. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

I have been planning on writing this article for a very long time, but being as it has become such a hotly debated topic with many, shall we say, passionate opinions, I wanted to be very clear and look at this from all possible angles. I have had the privilege of being on both sides of this discussion and I can tell you from experience that there is the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in these conversations. I have been out of the high school coaching world for a while now, so I enlisted the help of one of my closest friends, Michael Forrester, who has over 20 years of high school coaching experience and several years of leading youth groups. How close of a friend is he? Close enough for me to name my first born after him. We talked last night about both sides of the debate and the truth of the matter is that these programs should find ways to work together instead of against each other because the two biggest influences on teenagers lives outside of their parents is typically their youth pastor and their coach. Let’s dive in and discuss the elephant in the room, shall we?

I had the honor of coaching baseball for 15 years. I spent 10 of those years coaching high school baseball and coached several successful competitive travel teams (one of those teams, I coached with Michael). I get it. I get the thrill of watching your players grow and your players get better. I understand the euphoria of winning and have a wildly successful run. The biggest part of that euphoria comes from knowing that you made a difference in the life of your player. Sports, however, has evolved into an all or nothing endeavor that literally engulfs the athletes adolescent life. No time for family, no time for vacation, no down time to be a kid, and certainly no time for church. I have also had the honor of being a student pastor for 13 years, and guess what; I still get the same euphoria. I love watching my students grow in their faith and becoming more solid believers. I love watching them bloom into leaders. And yes, I also love knowing that God used me to make a difference in my students’ lives. Are you starting to see a pattern? That’s right…we both want the same thing! If both coaches and youth leaders would take a step back, communicate, and join forces for a common cause, communities would be changed irrevocably for the better. Let’s talk about why.

Look, every single coach struggles. Every single youth pastor struggles. It’s a fact of life. I write this with the knowledge that I’m speaking on things that I have personally messed up on in the past. So much of this comes from my own personal failures. There are coaches & youth leaders who get this (likely after much trial and error) and there are coaches & youth leaders who struggle with this. The coaches and leaders who struggle have the same things in common in this debate. First, the motivation of their students is fueled by guilt. You want to attend church, the coach makes you feel guilty. You have a game and you are going to miss a youth event, the youth leader makes you feel guilty. You are not going to win over anyone when guilt is your motivation. We are currently walking through a series with my students titled Owning Your Faith. I want them to WANT to be at church and for church to be a priority- and yes I think it is a priority over everything. That doesn’t mean my students can’t be successful athletes…I have several of those. Youth pastors, we all know guilt is not an adequate evangelism tool, so let’s throw it out of the tool box all together and not use it with our athletes. Coaches, we all know guilt will only lead to disgruntled players who will eventually resent you as a coach.

The other thing that coaches & youth leaders struggle with is the idea of “it’s all up to me.” They have convinced themselves that the pressure is on them as the sole influence in the student’s life and if they don’t make a difference, then no one will. I don’t think its malicious (although I’m sure arrogance knows no bounds), but it’s just an incorrect mindset. Youth leaders, we all know the studies. Our students need to have 5 meaningful adult relationships in their lives. We are only ONE of those relationships and we live in a world where few students have both mom and dad in their lives. In fact, we are often struggling to fill all 5 spots for our students. If they play a sport, then we ABSOLUTELY need their coaches on board. If you don’t know them, then get to know them, do what you do best and make a connection. Even if they aren’t strong Christians or Christians at all, they can still be a positive influence on your student if you get on the same page; and who knows, you may get to lead them to Christ as well. Likewise, coaches- you have someone who wants to pour into your athletes, give them a sense of purpose and to believe in something bigger than themselves. They want to develop your athletes into people who will stand up for what they believe and what is true; while teaching them what it means to be a follower of Christ, be confident, and care for others, on top of teaching them to be leaders. Tell me what part of that is not appealing. Even if you are not a believer, what is your downside here? OK, Keith, wrap this up. What do we do? Glad you asked.

The greatest coaches I’ve been around allow their players to go to church on Wednesdays. They invest in their players as people, not just the season. For many players, being able to go to church is important, they just feel like they can’t. The things that these great coaches understand is that there is more to their players’ lives than the sport they play. They communicate with parents and youth leaders. Youth leaders- befriend these coaches. Communicate your needs and schedule and allow them to communicate theirs to you. Coaches, cut practice short on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are the primary day that most youth services occur and are usually focused on delivering God’s Word. You are not going to lose anything on the field by sacrificing an hour once a week to get in those last few snaps, the last swings, or last foul shots. What you will get are players who become better people because they get to grow through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and that will be more valuable than extra reps on the field. And, I mean stop practice for everyone, even if you have players who don’t go to church. That gives your players a chance to invite their teammates to church and it prevents the player who does go to church from the feeling guilty for leaving practice early. If that happens, we are back to where we started. Work with the youth leader on big events that are bible study driven like a disciple now. We are dealing with spiritual growth that will be impacting these players long after they play their last game.

Youth leaders, don’t underestimate the importance of having their coach in your students’ lives. We are always desperate for adults to pour into our students, don’t shut out one of the biggest influences they will have. Find out what your coaches and teams need. Provide snacks or drinks for practice. Host a pre-game meal for them. Find out what the coach needs personally. They sacrifice a lot of time and energy to pour into kids who aren’t theirs….you know, kinda like you do. Be understanding if your athletes aren’t at every single event you put on- especially if the event is not bible study driven. It’s ok if they miss your dodgeball night, your laser tag outing, or your movie night. Get the teams involved in your service projects. Partner with them. Work together. Coaches love that. Most of all communicate the BIG dates and events, particularly the ones with gospel and spiritual implications (like a D-Now or youth conference). And don’t host a dodgeball night, tack a 5 minute devotion on at the end, and pretend it’s bible driven. You are fooling no one, especially the Lord. Work together to make disciples of these students instead of pitting their two loves against each other.

This is the short version. I could write a book on this (and I might just do it). But, there is room for sports and for church- and I truly believe a room for church to be the priority (eternal implications you know) if we are willing to acknowledge the role that God has put us in the lives of our student athletes. This doesn’t even cover the parental role here either, but that’s for another time. I will leave you today with a summation in the words of my good friend, Michael Forrester, who I believe said it best when we were talking about this last night. He said:

“I like to think that a person can be 100% committed to the Lord, and still be very, very committed to their sport. I strongly believe that, as coaches, we have the opportunity to strengthen the faith of our players. I know for a fact that my players help my faith daily. There is no question in my mind that sports teams and youth groups can coexist and should be able to strengthen each other. I wish all coaches and youth leaders wanted that connection, but as you know there are too many of both that don’t want it.”

Michael Forrester

There are going to be those youth leaders and coaches alike who will not entertain any of the thoughts in here. To that, I can only recommend a re-evaluation & conversation about the health of your connection to those people. What we have here, like Michael pointed out, is a great opportunity to reclaim the relationship between sports and church. A great opportunity indeed.

In Christ Alone,
Rev. Bro. Coach

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Baseball and the Gospel

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on January 8, 2021
Posted in: The Mindful Minute. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

I like to use everyday things to share the gospel (being careful to stay true to the gospel more than the illustration of course). So, let me introduce you to Casey (its a baseball story, Casey is a good name to use). Casey wanted to be a baseball player. He wanted to be a baseball player because his friends were. He watched them become baseball players one or two at a time over the years and pretty soon, he felt left out. He knew what being a baseball player entailed, but he was not interested in that. Casey only wanted to be known as a baseball player and win a championship like all the other players before him. So, the day came to join the baseball team. Casey had learned what to say and how to act. He even practiced enough give the impression that he was committed to being a baseball player. Casey became a baseball player that day and life was good. He had finally accomplished his goal. People looked at Casey and recognized him as a baseball player and for the first few weeks, Casey did everything you would expect out of a baseball player as he rode the high of his newfound status.

After a few weeks though, it started to get hard. He messed up a lot, but the coach said it was ok and gave him multiple chances. Practices, though, began interfering with things he wanted to do. Casey didn’t want to go to 6am workouts to get in shape and become stronger. Being a baseball player was quickly becoming inconvenient for Casey. He had eating habits that he didn’t want to give up. He didn’t want to do the work that it took to stay in shape. He had other friends who were wanting him to quit baseball because they thought it was stupid; and they wanted Casey to go do things that he knew the coach wouldn’t approve. Casey didn’t realize what it took to be a baseball player. This isn’t what he wanted. All Casey wanted was for people to see him as a baseball player and win that championship.

Pretty soon, Casey’s habits began to change. There is only so long that you can keep up a charade and Casey’s true intentions started surfacing. He still wanted to be seen as a baseball player. He wanted the praise and the attention that other people were giving him for being one. He wanted that championship. However, the daily work that Casey was putting in quickly dwindled to a couple of times a week. He would show up for practice, but he didn’t do any other work on his own outside of that. Casey’s performance & attitude began to deteriorate. Soon, Casey only went to practice because he was told to go. Then the inevitable happened- Casey started missing practices. Instead, Casey started doing other things that he wanted to do and thought were more important. He began making poor choices about his health and poor choices about who to be around. Eventually, Casey stopped coming to practices all together.

The season began and went much faster than Casey anticipated. All Casey wanted was to be a baseball player and be known as a baseball player & win a championship. As an attempt to continue the charade, Casey showed up to the occasional practice or game. His actions and his decisions, however, showed something completely different. People stopped recognizing Casey as a baseball player and eventually, people started wondering if Casey was ever really a baseball player, or was it just something he pretended to be? Before Casey knew it, it was the final game. The baseball team was playing in the championship. Casey was excited, after all he was a baseball player right? He wanted to play in the championship game. It was too late, however. By the time Casey got there, the game was over. “That’s ok,” Casey thought, I am still part of the team, I can celebrate the victory with the rest of them. As he approached the field, he heard the championship presentation ceremony taking place. Casey ran out on the field and got in line to receive his reward. The coach, greeted each player the same way. “Well done, here is your reward.” When he got to Casey, the coach’s expression changed and became solemn. Casey was excited to hear those same words, but instead, the coach turned to walk away. Casey called out, “Coach, what about me? It’s me Casey.” The coach turned and as an expression of being heartbroken washed over the coach’s face, he looked at Casey and said, “I don’t know you.”

My dear friends. Don’t deceive yourself into a false sense of security when it comes to your salvation. Know where you are going. Don’t be caught in the 3rd chair (see my article Eliminating the 3rd Chair). Salvation is more than walking an aisle and saying a prayer. It is a complete and total transformation of who you are because of Christ. You cannot experience Christ and walk away the same person. Once you accept Christ, there is work to do. Work to grow. We were meant to grow in our faith. Casey made the mistake of treating becoming a baseball player as a destination, when in fact it was just the beginning of the journey. Those who truly accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior will weather the hard work and the tough times. Those who just want the status, will fade. It is hard to keep up a charade of something you are not. In the end, everyone spends eternity somewhere. Everyone of will hear one of two things. We will either hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or we will hear “depart from me for I never knew you.” I can think of no worse fate, then to stand before God in judgment only to find out you never gave Him your life after deceiving yourself that you did.

In Christ Alone,
Rev. Bro. Coach

A Cold Shower?- Perspective on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on August 25, 2014
Posted in: The Mindful Minute. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ice bucketThe ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has swept the world of social media like  no other movement I have seen in recent years. Everybody is getting into the act including your neighbors, celebrities, athletes, politicians, and even former presidents. Now for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last month, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is where people dump buckets of ice water over their heads and challenge others to do the same while donating money to help find a cure for the deadly disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS, most commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. While being soaked to the bone with freezing cold water to raise awareness isn’t a new thing, this latest movement has rallied around a former collegiate baseball player, Pete Frates.  Frates, a former baseball captain for Boston College, was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 (you can see a video of his story on my facebook page if  we are friends). Now, there will always be speculation as to who actually got this ALS movement going, but that isn’t important in the grand scheme of things.  The important thing is that it got a movement that to date has raised $79.7 million since July 29.  During the same span last year, ALS raised $2.5 million- so we are talking about a significant impact.

But tonight, I’m not here to talk about the amazing things that this challenge has accomplished. I want to focus on how people are reacting to the challenge.  It is this aspect that has truly been educating to watch and at times has been a little disheartening. I have seen the pictures of the precious little babies in third world countries with captions about clean drinking water.  I have seen the posts talking about the countless other charitable organizations that go unnoticed.  I have seen the posts about what ALS is “actually” funding in their research.  And here is the ultimate kicker…you are all RIGHT!!  In fact, the only posts that I have read that I don’t care for are the ones that simply say they are tired of seeing the ice buckets. Here is the thing, the people that suffer from ALS are not tired of it- and neither should any of us.  You see, we are missing something very big here. We live in a world that constantly tells us to look after ourselves, to put our needs first, and to do anything and everything to get ahead. But, for the last month, we have been pouring buckets of water over our heads- common every day people & celebrities, democrats & republicans, and a great number of people who are usually on the opposing sides of issues.  For one month this summer, we have come together as a collective, a community of people who, for a moment, have decided that the needs of others are more important than the needs of ourselves.  And not just the ALS challenge.  This movement has sparked interest in bringing clean water to foreign lands.  If that is your thing and you don’t want to dump water on your head, then GREAT!!!! I challenge you to visit the Jars of Clay’s charity called Blood Water Mission. Where they organize trips to Africa to install wells of clean drinking water.  If you are afraid to donate to ALS because they don’t disapprove of embryonic stem cell research, then GREAT!!! ALS has pointed its way to many charities that they endorse that do oppose it.

My point tonight is simple. I don’t care what your cause is. If you are a part of the ALS challenge like so many of have done, then let me applaud you on the efforts and strides made in not only raising awareness of ALS, but in raising a ton of money to help eradicate this awful disease. BUT, if you are standing behind a water mission, taking a stand against embryonic stem cell research, or any other cause- I also want to applaud you and encourage you to get our there and get after your cause.  You see, when all of this is said and done, we will look back on this summer month in 2014 and we will see a community of people who selflessly put the needs of others in front of their own. And whether it’s ice buckets, wells in Africa, or some other cause- for the first time in a long time I look out and see the work of God Almighty being accomplished en masse. 1 John 3:17 says, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”  For the last month, I have witnessed how God’s love has shown in a great many hearts.  Let’s make His name famous….TOGETHER!!

 

In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach

 

*Find out more information about ALS at http://www.alsa.org

*Find out more information on Blood Water Mission at http://www.bloodwater.org