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The sports world loves to pay tribute to great athletes and coaches. Halls of fame, retired jerseys and numbers, street names and building names all honor famous sports heroes. But what are they really honoring? Some were great men and women off the field, but for the most part those things honor great achievements in athletics. In my book there's nothing wrong with that until we look at how we truly honor Christ in our sporting careers.
Wisdom for a Young Head Coach
Week 23
Discussion Questions:
Professional golfer Blayne Barber had finally qualified for the PGA Tour. It was a dream come true! However, a week after playing in the tournament that qualified him, he couldn’t get the leaf out of his mind. Yes, a leaf. In the second round of the tournament, he had accidently brushed a leaf in the bunker on the 13th hole, so he marked his scorecard with a one-shot penalty for the infraction. Later that night, he learned it was a two-shot penalty. He played the final two rounds, but a week later, he didn’t have peace signing an incorrect scorecard, so he did the right thing. He disqualified himself, which cost him a spot on the PGA Tour. Blayne lived out the principle, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
The see-saw battle between the Patriots and the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII came down to one play with 0:09 left in the game and the score knotted at 29. Patriots place kicker Adam Vinatieri came onto the field to try a 41-yard field goal to win the game. Earlier in the game he had missed a 31-yard chip shot and had another attempt blocked. Vinatieri was given an opportunity to redeem himself and this time he was right on target, giving the Patriots their second Super Bowl victory in three years.
Chosen Attribute: Courage
Dictionary definition: “The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger or pain without fear.”
My definition: “Confidence in the sovereignty of God in seemingly impossible or unachievable circumstances, coupled with the awareness that He is engaged in the process and ultimately responsible for the outcome.”
Chapel – Complete Players
1 – To be a complete player one must have all parts of his or her person fully engaged in the sport and with your team.
• The body – physical dimension - sport technique
• The mind – mental dimension - sport strategy
• The heart – spiritual dimension – sport passion
2 – Jesus Christ was a complete person (read Luke 2:52).
• Jesus developed in wisdom – mentally.
• Jesus developed in stature – physically.
• Jesus developed in favor with man – socially.
• Jesus developed in favor with God – spiritually.
It was a cold, dreary day in February 1984, and Big Red sophomore midfielder Frank Kelly III was scuffling through what seemed like a neverending string of lacrosse drills at Cornell University.
A multi-sport star at Baltimore's Calvert Hall College High School two seasons earlier, Kelly was used to getting showered with accolades and praise for his on-field achievements. But at Cornell, stress fractures in his shins, coupled with an uncanny ability to draw the ire of legendary Big Red coach Richie Moran, had placed him squarely on the team's bench, searching for both playing time and purpose.
Wisdom for a Young Head Coach
Week 3
Read the text aloud.
Discussion Questions:
Go to any random Facebook profile, and in less than a minute you can draw multiple conclusions about a person. Without even scrolling down, you can get their political views, relationship status and their feelings at that exact moment. If you do choose to look over the entire page, there’s almost no end to the information you will find: their favorite drink, the places they’ve been, their favorite quotes ... Really anything they’ve chosen to make public, which, for some, leaves little to the imagination.
Guests include Rutgers’ football coach Greg Schiano, University of Washington head basketball coach Lorenzo Romar, NFL great Frank Reich and FCA’s President Les Steckel
Wisdom for a Young Head Coach
Week 1
Read the text aloud.
Discussion Questions:
When I’m recruiting players, one of the most important qualities I look for is fight. Fight is that one thing that serves as the axis for our team. If we do that, then we never have anything to be ashamed of. It’s the one thing we can control. There will be things that will come and go; shooting percentages, adhering to a defensive scout, whatever it may be. But you can control how much effort you give and how hard you fight. It gives you the chance to be the best ever if you are talented, and it gives you a chance to compete even when you aren’t as talented as your opponent.
Since I was a young boy growing up in Pittsburgh, I wanted to work for the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Pittsburgh Penguins. A family friend of ours was Mike Lange, who is a Hall of Fame announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins. As a boy playing sports with his son, I would see Mr. Lange when he attended our games and get-togethers. I always admired him as a person, but I also admired the two championship rings that he always wore. On several occasions, Mr. Lange let me wear his Stanley Cup Championship rings on my fingers. It was those moments when I knew that all I wanted was to win a ring of my own.
My story actually began in the projects of Brooklyn, N.Y., where I lived with my mother, older brother and younger sister until we were placed into foster care when I was 6. We lived with several different families, the three of us always together, until our mother died of AIDS when I was 9.
They don't call it the Evil Empire for nothing. You either love 'em, or you hate 'em.
For nearly a century, the New York Yankees have been establishing their status as the dominant franchise in Major League Baseball. The club is rich in both tradition and dollars and has a track record of success that makes small-market teams both sigh in exasperation and raise their fists in what is usually described as righteous anger.
During a 2004 game against the Cubs, Alex Cora of the Dodgers fouled fourteen straight pitches before hitting a home run. That took determination, concentration, and an unwillingness to give up. Cora battled through tough pitch after pitch until he got one he could handle. Life is full of situations where it is easier to give up than battle until we get a pitch we can handle. How many marriages have been abandoned because one spouse wanted an easier life? How many athletes have been overlooked while new athletes were given time and attention? All too often, Christians have grown weary and given into sin, thinking, This temptation is too hard; I’ll get right with God later.
Last month I had a conversation with FCA President Les Steckel, who posed the following hypothetical situation.
“Jimmy,” he said, “what if I handed you the keys to a brand new car when you turned 16? How would you feel? And what if I then told you that it was the only car you would ever own and that it would have to last your entire life? Would that change the way you treated it? I bet it would. I believe it would radically change the way you took care of that car.”
Ron and Les talk about their vision for the Sharing the Victory Radio Program. Ron interviews Shaun Alexander. Hear from Bobby Bowden. Les talks discusses the difference between commitments and promises.
Have you ever had a time in your life when you wanted to be pursued and listened to? As human beings, we naturally desire to be in relationships, to have open lines of communication with others. Have you ever wanted that with someone who didn't reciprocate?
Trusting others is crucial for success on and off the field. Knowing your teammate will do everything that he or she can do to help you become successful means that you have confidence in the integrity of that person. In other words, you know they will be truthful and make good decisions that affect not only themselves, but you as well. When teammates are all working together in this relationship of trust, they are well on their way to winning!
Chosen Attribute: Resilience
Dictionary definition: "The ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change."
My definition: "Bouncing back and keeping an optimistic attitude, knowing that you can be successful no matter how hard you fall."
"However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.’” – 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
After wrapping up her college volleyball career at Michigan State University, Jen Jones assumed coaching would be a natural career choice. Instead, she followed God’s leading into the weight room and up to the training table. Now an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Texas A&M, Jones is focused on building athletes who are strong in both body and spirit.
Questions to Ask When Attempting to Respond to People and Circumstances God’s Way… A resource from Ed Gomes
Questions to Ask When Attempting to Respond to People and Circumstances God’s Way…
God, what are you trying to teach me through the situation?
God, what are you trying to teach me about me through the situation?
When Scott Drew took over as the head men’s basketball coach at Baylor in 2003, the program was mired in controversy. But Drew didn’t shy away from the rebuilding process. Instead, he put into action the basketball and spiritual lessons he’d learned from his father, respected Valparaiso University Head Coach, Homer Drew. Now eight seasons into the job and the turmoil a distant memory, the oldest of the Drew children is looking to lead the Bears to another NCAA Tournament run and develop excellent men of faith in the process.
Retracing the steps of Tre’ Kelley’s childhood is a sobering, sometimes harrowing, task.
To start, you must visit the areas of Washington, D.C., that aren’t in any travel brochures. You must go into the neighborhoods of the Northeast where vice is readily available — where the sounds of “Pop! Pop! Pop!” and the ensuing drone of police sirens, like banshees wailing in the night, are a familiar dirge. Only a short drive from the city’s majestic monuments and stately halls of legislature, it is worlds apart. No one goes sightseeing in this part of town.
Ministry
Sport
Book of the Bible
FCA Bible Topic