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sports – Salvaged Faith

It's a coaching problem…

1389667_71630522I was recently talking with a colleague about the fear/frustration that church members think we, as the pastors and staff, are the ones who do ministry.

Obviously, since we are the ones getting the paycheck, we should be the ones out making new disciples and teaching and being prophetic and visiting the sick and all of those other things churches do.

In that scenario, it is the congregation’s job to sit back, complain if something isn’t happening (like growth), and financially support the work.

 

Our job, however, is not to do the work, but to call and equip the laity (the people) to share in the work.

 

Using a sports analogy, I guess you could say we are a lot more like coaches than players.  We are paid to look at the gifts and talents of our players, to train them, to condition them, to challenge them to grow, but they are the ones who play the game.

We can stand on the sidelines and encourage. We can call timeout and give advice and lay out a new strategy (pastoral care).  Coaches review game films and get the team ready for the opponent (bible study). We can hold practices where the players learn the essential elements of the game.Worship is such a time where we learn to pass the peace, confessing and forgiving, and hear a pep talk about how to play.

What I love about this analogy is that most coaches have a season of recruitment where they go out and build relationships with people and build a team.  So, evangelism and community engagement are an important part of our job.

But then the church has to go out there and play.  Out to their schools and homes and workplaces and golf courses and hospitals and homeless shelters.

 

 

As a sports fan in the Hawkeye State, there is a lot of armchair coaching that goes on in my house.

Some days are better than others.

During football season, we’d cry out, “put Sunshine in!”

Watching ISU miss free throws makes you want to pull out your hair.

I’m not even going to discuss the Hawkeye loss last night.  I can’t even….

But at some point, you have to stop looking at the players, and you have to ask what is going on with the coaching.

 

The same can be asked of the church.

When we see a church declining or in financial trouble or stagnant, we have to ask what is happening with the coaching.

 

Part of the problem is that as pastors, we forget we are supposed to be coaches.

We get bogged down in meetings and administration and in the pressure to go out there and bring people into the church and don’t always make time for one-on-one coaching sessions.

We sometimes worry about how the music or sermon will be perceived, rather than how it will shape and form the congregation.

It seems to be easier to make the visits to the sick and home bound than to train up the laity to care for one another as an act of Christian love (and to train them to receive care from one another).

And sometimes, we simply assume the “team” is playing fine so we fail to change the line-up. Maybe that’s the hardest one. With good and faithful people serving in a particular ministry area, we are afraid to inject new leadership, or worry more about how someone will feel if they are benched… even if it is better for the mission and work of our church.

And then, in some churches, we find that we are coaches who don’t have a team in the church, but a booster club. We have people who think they are fans rather than the starting line. And the coaching mistake is that we let it happen or continue to happen.

 

 

Maybe its time to run some laps and do wind sprints and shoot a thousand free-throws.

Maybe what we need is a good hard season of practice.

 

 

 

What I am learning as I give up social media for Lent…

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#1 – I seek praise, sympathy, solidarity through social media.  The smallest, most insignificant thing could happen and my first instinct is to post it so that other people will comment and respond.  It is attention-seeking behavior that often slips into a self-centered focus.  Having to constantly fight the urge to post has led me to wonder what I’m getting out of those posts… and what others are as well.  Sometimes, it is an authentic search for community and others to share the journey with.  Sometimes it is  race to see who has the biggest sob story or frustration of the day.  These past weeks have reminded me of my insignificance.  No one  really cares what I had for breakfast or about a stubbed toe or that I shared an article.  I’m just not that important.  And I shouldn’t be.

#2 – Most of my news comes from social media. When I hear of breaking news, I search for the topic on twitter instead of turning on the television.  The variety of sources, the mix of images, video, stories, personal reflections, global perspectives is amazing.  I just don’t get the same depth of information watching one news channel go on for hours at a time about a single event, and when you flip stations between the networks, the information is often similiar with only slight colors of perspective.  As Ukraine and Russian and the Malaysian flight disappearance have made headlines, I have largely been out of the loop of what is happening in the world.

#3 – Many of my conversations with close, personal friends, happen on Facebook.  While texting is part of my communications toolbox, I rarely call or email these individuals.  I never realized how much I rely upon Facebook groups for keeping in touch with a circle of friends – whether they are colleagues or my girlfriends.  I had to write a clause into my lenten discipline that allowed me to continue using the Messenger part of Facebook (which meant I had to download the app), because I realized I would be completely out of the loop on conversations about health, upcoming events, and personal struggles.  Not being on facebook and able to follow posts on group pages has left me feeling fairly isolated from those I am most connected with.

#4 – I pray a lot through Facebook.  Whether they are shared prayer concerns among colleagues or simply reading the everyday struggle and hopes of friends, family, and colleagues, I am frequently moved to pray as I interact with posts and snoop on people’s lives.  Not having that source of prayer material at my fingertips, however, has led me to pay attention a bit more to the people around me… the guy sitting on the park bench, the people in line.  I find myself wondering what their story is, what they hope for…  I haven’t worked up the courage to ask yet, however.  I’m not sure if I’ve always been an “overhearer” of people’s lives or if this is something that a social media culture has developed in me and others around me.  And sometimes I wonder if that extension of ourselves into the public space is good or not.  I hesitate to lift up a prayer out loud on the bus, but I don’t when I’m commenting on a friend of an acquaintances post.  It’s something to ponder.

#5 – I enjoy watching sports with social media.  I enjoy the quick stats and the commentary that is often far better than what is on the television.  I like the sense of solidarity in amazing plays and in bad calls.  Yet, with the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team being told to stay off of twitter because of the criticisms, I also recognize how brutal it gets out there.  The things we yell at the television in the quiet of our own homes now are the things we post online in public in the heat of the moment, without tempering our emotions and remembering it is, after all, just a game. 

#6 – I’m following the practice of celebrating Sundays as “little Easters” and not fasting from social media on those days.  In the past two weeks, I’ve largely used those days to dump pictures and a quick narrative of the highlights of my week, as well as to quickly skim my group pages, catch up where I can with friends, and have left very few comments.  I might have spent a total of 2 hours on facebook between those two days.  The time I spend in my typical week on social media must be astounding.  I’m sure there is an app somewhere to monitor it, but I’m afraid to look. 

#7 – I use Facebook and social media equally for work and for personal matters.  Conversations with friends and co-workers happen simultaneously.  I’m more aware of that fact as I try to occasionally use it for work-related items (like updating our facebook page for Imagine No Malaria), but the distinction is so blurred that I have tried to avoid it or batch post.  I think it would be worth it to do some hard work of creating new lists on facebook to better discriminate what I post and to whom so I could use it for both in a better way. 

#8 – this is NOT going to be a permanent fast.

Your Race, Your Game

When I was in middle school, my mom and dad invited me to try out as many different sports as I could.  In 7th grade I ran track.  In 8th grade I played volleyball and tennis.  I worked on my soccer skills with the rec leagues.  I played softball in the summer.

Instead of focusing on one single activity, their thought was I should find out what I was actually good at and enjoyed doing.  How would I know if I didn’t try them out?

What I quickly learned was that I didn’t have the hand-eye coordination for tennis.  I didn’t have the stamina for long-distance running or a fast game like basketball.  But I was great at sacrificing my body.  I didn’t care if I got hurt… I was good at hustling and diving if need be in order to get to a ball and make a play.

On the volleyball court, I was a scrappy setter – not only able to get into position, but also able to recover those bumps that went off kilter.

In softball, I found myself playing catcher – diving to the sides if need be to trap those wild pitches and save a stolen base.

And in soccer, my skills found their natural home as a goalie.  I threw my body in front of kicks and was not afraid to close the distance with a forward to prevent a shot.

I earned bumps and bruises, but I also found my game… I found my place… that connection point between my skills and the needs of a team and I found myself as the starting varsity goalie for the high school soccer team my sophomore year.

As I think about my experiences with sports, I think about what Paul said to the Corinthian people.  I don’t run without purpose, he writes… but I punish my body – I’m staying in top condition – I am working hard to accomplish my goals.  I am going to have the discipline and the focus to actually run this race and win it.

He is comparing the Christian faith to an athletic competition… as we follow Jesus Christ, we need to practice our discipleship.  We need to give it our all in order that we might one day cross the finish line and enjoy life eternal with our Lord.

Something that I have realized, however, is that we are not all running the same race.  This is not a competition between you and me.

No, each of us has a race to run, a game to play, a course to chart.  Each of us has been called to use the best of what we have got to serve the Lord.

Just as I would never survive a marathon… you might not last long in the goalie box.  We have been blessed with different gifts – different skills and abilities – and we need to discover those gifts and use them to the best of our ability as we love and serve the Lord.

So what is your race?  What is your game?  Where does God want you focus your energy?

Today, I want to invite us to discover those gifts by taking a simple inventory.  I am going to read off  a number of statements and for each one, you will be invited to respond with a number on your sheet.  There is a scale from 1-7… with a 7 meaning that the statement ALWAYS describes you and a 1 meaning that it NEVER describes you.

I want you to hear very plainly… there are no wrong answers.  Think about what your first gut response answer would be and record in on the sheet.

Each one of us has been blessed in different ways – we each have a race to run, a game to play.  And this tool will help us to narrow our focus and find those places where we can truly soar.

(take spiritual gifts inventories)

________

May God grant us grace to claim and celebrate these gifts… and may we not be afraid to use them.  May we run with a clear goal ahead of us, may we play with a purpose.  Amen and Amen.

________

 

Invitation to respond and give these gifts sheets to the Lord – a symbol that we will let God use us to reflect the light of Christ to those we meet.