A ministry for @**hats?
3 
When Craig Groeschel, a megachurch pastor in Oklahoma, was looking at a less-is-more strategy to grow his church, one of the ministry programs that ended up on the cutting room floor was the sports ministry.
The reason for this, as Groeschel explained at a Catalyst One Day event I attended in Maryland Monday (and I’m sure in other talks he’s given elsewhere) was that it wasn’t providing too much more than a place for Christians to cuss around their non-Christian friends.
I suspect it was also providing a place for Christians to be total a**hats around non-Christians and each other, which is far more damaging to a “ministry” than the word I’ve astericked in this sentence or any other so-called cuss word like it.
***
I wasn’t good enough to make the freshmen team at my high school and if anything my skills have digressed over the years. But I’m the kind of player who hustles and works hard to fight for loose balls, pick off passes and do whatever I can to help the team. If I’m shooting the ball at all it’s after a missed shot or when I’m lucky enough to have a fast break.
In other words, I get by being one of the least skilled players on the court because I love the exercise.
For some reason, in my sports ministry experience, this has been almost as acceptable as a woman wanting to preach in a Southern Baptist Church. I’ve found that a good attitude, a passion for ministry and a love of sports make you a prime target for recruitment into a church’s Upward basketball program but also the first to be “accidentally” left off the e-mail list for a church’s basketball team.
***
For those involved in sports ministry or those like me who have at one time or another sought an outlet for athletic activity in a church setting, I have a question.
How do you keep a sports ministry from becoming a place for Christians to act like @**hats around non-Christians and each other?
I think the only suitable answer is that you don’t invite any men to it.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:18 pmHow sad is that. It makes me so mad when Christians do that. It just doesn’t make sense. I think that it takes discipleship and stricter rules on the Christian side of it. The Christians need to understand the overall purpose of the ministry and then be warned about the consequences (not playing) of an unChristian attitude or mouth.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:30 amThe men also need to step in when one of the brothers is not representing Christ in this aspect. They may have to approach the individual and bluntly state that the activity is causing the man to sin and should walk away.
Swearing, however, is not the only detrimental act to harm the ministry. When Christian men are overcompetitive and are yelling in the faces of those being ministered to, that can be just as, if not more, harmful to the foundation of the ministry.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:12 pm