A Note to Coaches:
What is Leadership for an Athlete?
As your team embarks on this study of leadership, you will soon learn that Jesus has much to say about leadership — and that most of it contrasts greatly with the modern view of leadership. You’ll serve your athletes well if you help them to see the role of a leader as being embodied by three roles:
· A leader is a servant. — On athletic teams, often the freshmen are the ones expected to carry the equipment or the water. The freshmen are teased by the upperclassmen. Often there are initiation rites that young players are expected to “pass” before being fully accepted as part of the team. Jesus says that these behaviors are not fitting in the kingdom of God, but that “whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Matthew 20:26-27). As Christians we have often followed the lead of our culture, laying the office of servanthood on the back of the youngest and least experienced. Instead, Jesus calls those who would be leaders to be servants of the team — to carry the equipment and water, run errands, volunteer to do things that need to be done for the good of the team. Once an athlete becomes a servant of the team, only then can he be a leader.
· A leader disciples others. — In 2 Timothy 2:2, the apostle teaches the young pastor, Timothy, to disciple other young men. “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” Timothy is told to train others to be able to train still others. What should freshmen see in seniors? They should see persons who are eager to serve and to share with the younger ones the things that they have learned from those who have gone before them. They should see persons who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. Any athlete who desires to lead must accept the responsibility to be an example and a teacher to others.
· A leader ministers to the poor and needy. — Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18). The leaders of your team should be the first to look out for those who are hurting and to go to them as encouragers. Your leaders should be passionate about meeting the needs of others, and they should withhold no effort in doing so. When another member of the team is shunned by others, your team leaders should take that athlete under their wings. When an opponent is injured or defeated, your leaders should show compassion. A leader reaches out to all of those who all those who are hurting or in need.
Coaches, you have been called by God to teach your athletes that there is no sphere of life where these truths can be ignored. In your families you should live as a servant. In the church you should follow this command. In your school you should practice servant-leadership. Certainly, then, this eagerness to serve should also be a distinctive quality of your athletes and your team. With this in mind, we are praying for you as you endeavor to teach and model leadership to your team. Thank you for your work on their behalf!
How to Use the Wellspring of Life Program
This booklet is a season-long “coaching curriculum” for use in leading your team in pursuing the discipline of leadership. Coaches should keep the following principles and suggestions in mind, as they use the material:
· We have provided enough material and activities for an entire 15-week season. If your season is shorter than 15 weeks, you can preview the material and decide which weeks you will use to fit the length of your season. If your season happens to run longer than 15 weeks, you may be able to extend a single week’s material over a two-week span (when necessary), or you could challenge your team to extend its study of leadership by identifying additional passages and discussing those together. For most teams, the length of this booklet should suffice to cover their seasons.
· Coaches, we encourage you to make time for discipline training each day. We’ve organized the weekly sections with an intent for you to spend approximately 5-7 minutes on this daily — thus allowing you to make time for this important focus in your daily routines, without having to sacrifice extensive practice time in order to do so. If you’re going to be intentional about making your team’s athletic experience something that encourages spiritual growth, you need to build this into your daily routines. All coaches see practice time as a priority, and game days are busy for every team; don’t allow your habits to lead to neglect. If you define your sport as having value only in itself (if you fail to discipline your players for godliness), your players may be likely to define their value and success only through their athletic accomplishments.
· Build in time for discipline training not only on practice days, but also on game days; you can set aside time before your games to do so, and it’s important that you don’t miss important parts of each week’s study (which will happen if you don’t make this a daily routine). Please be sure to be consistent in this; don’t allow other things to become such a priority that your athletes begin to see their submission to discipline as less important than their athletic pursuits.
· Train and encourage your team to continually seek answers and truth in Scripture, as you explore the discipline of leadership together. Each week’s challenge is based upon a passage of Scripture, and the discussion questions are designed to lead your athletes back to that passage, in order to search it for understanding and application. Don’t allow your athletes to base their answers on “their own perspective” or “common sense”, but instead always lead them back to Scripture. This is a habit that will serve them well throughout their lives, and will help them to grow in their relationship with God. “Like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)
It’s also important for you to understand the structure of each week’s activities, as well as the purpose for each day. The following explanation and suggestions should help you to develop a routine that will be effective for your team.
· MONDAY: Read the Scripture passage with your team.
Each week you’ll read one or more Scripture passages that relate to the Biblical concept of leadership. The truth of Scripture will help to “set the stage” for your times of discussion and application during the rest of the week.
You can accomplish this time of Scripture reading in a number of ways. Some coaches may just read to their teams; we have printed each entire passage in this booklet, so that you’ll have them available for this purpose. Other coaches may prefer to involve their players in the reading — having their players bring their Bibles to practice (to read together), or having a particular player read the passage to the team each week. However you decide to handle this, be sure that (after you have read the passage) you spend just a few minutes talking together with your team about how the passage relates to the discipline of leadership — and why that should be important to them.
Remember that one of the primary purposes of the Wellspring of Life Initiative is to encourage your athletes to develop a daily habit of spending time in Scripture. For this reason, we highly encourage you to obtain booklets for each team member, or to photocopy each week’s material for your players; this will allow and encourage them to spend time on their own reading and consider the implications of Scripture. For your athletes to truly grow in their relationship to Jesus Christ, they must develop the habit of daily spending time in His Word. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) Do not overlook the value of encouraging your athletes to spend time reading Scripture; this will be a habit that will produce spiritual growth throughout their lifetimes.
· TUESDAY / WEDNESDAY / THURSDAY: Discuss the Scripture passage with your team.
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) - This three-day section of the weekly program contains discussion questions and challenges for your athletes. Your team will spend these days considering what God’s Word has to say about leadership.
Coaches, you will present a question (or set of questions) to your team each day. (After your warm-up, while your athletes are stretching, is a great time for this...or you may want to open or close practice each day with this time.) Because you have access to the weekly Scripture passages in your booklet, you will be able to review or refer to the portions of each Scripture passage that relate to the discussion questions for that day (we’ve tried to make reference to those in the questions). Be sure to do so, in order that your athletes can engage in a meaningful, Biblical discussion about these issues. Remember that their own opinions often may not reflect the truths of Scripture, so bringing them back to the Biblical text is very important.
We encourage you, coaches, to take the time to challenge your players beyond a superficial discussion of leadership. When the questions ask them to make personal application, encourage them to share their thoughts. Set an example
by being willing to share your own thoughts and experiences, and to make application to your own life. If your athletes see your willingness to examine Scripture seriously and to open your life up to them, they will do the same with one another — and that will promote an environment in which they can spur one another on in growth in Christ.
Coaches, consider that completing a day’s full set of discussion questions might take longer than the amount of time you can spend together as a team. For that reason we suggest requesting extra booklets for each team member, or you have our permission to photocopy each week’s study for your players — so they can work through the discussion questions on their own time, as well. Many schools have communicated great success and team growth that have come from making the full study available to all team members. You might even consider scheduling your season-long study of leadership in such a way that you encourage your players to work through each day’s discussion questions at home — and then discuss together at each day’s practice or game.
· FRIDAY: Discuss sport applications of leadership, and pray together.
This section of the weekly program is a time when you and your athletes will discuss together ways in which leadership can and should be exemplified in the arena of athletics. It’s a time to ask your athletes, “What do the things we’ve learned this week about leadership have to do with athletics? How does a leader athlete behave?” The goal is to help your athletes create a “picture” of what leadership means in the life of an athlete — which will identify habits and challenges that can be incorporated into each athlete’s daily routine.
Based upon each week’s discussion of leadership, you will lead your team in creating a description of a leader athlete. This should be a list of “active phrases”, and you should add to that list each week (by asking the recurring question that we provide in the Friday section each week). We encourage you to keep this list in front of the players (on a big sign on the wall of your practice gym, on your team web site, or somewhere else very visible) — so that the challenge of Biblical leadership will be presented to your athletes in a tangible and ongoing way throughout your season.
This list should not by generated solely by the coach; it should primarily be based on the ideas of the athletes. Each week they should be challenged to think back over that week’s Scripture and discussions (the coach should help them to do this), and to answer the question, “Based on this understanding of leadership in Scripture, what does a leader athlete do?” Do not settle for vague answers from your athletes; challenge them to go beyond general qualities of such an athlete and to determine what those qualities look like in action.
Friday is also a day for your team to pray together. (You may need to allow a bit more time on Friday (maybe 10 minutes), in order to have time for discussion AND for prayer, but please do not sacrifice this time.) This is a time for your team to reflect on the truths they’ve learned about leadership this week, to verbalize the commitments they’ve made, and to yearn and strive together in the presence of God.
The simplest way to accomplish this prayer time is to pray as one large group, and to encourage each athlete to pray as he feels led. However, you can vary how you do this, if you’d like (small groups, prayer partners, asking seniors to take turns leading, etc). Remember that your athletes will mature in their prayer life at differing times and various levels, because the accomplishment of the internal spiritual growth in each athlete’s life will be unique, according to God’s plan and timing. Thus, don’t pressure an athlete to pray aloud. As the leader of the team, a coach should set an example in genuine, fervent prayer; invite your athletes to join as they feel led. One good way to do this is to begin by having one person open in prayer, follow that with a time of silence (during which others may pray), and then have the coach close in prayer.
An additional team activity (which relates to the goal of seeing your athletes apply the discipline of leadership within the realm of sport) is described in Appendix B of this booklet. These materials are designed to challenge your athletes to set some leadership-related goals for the season, and to help athletes of different ages and levels of maturity to best identify expectations that are appropriate for them.
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As you use the resources provided in the Wellspring of Life Initiative program, give careful consideration to what will best motivate your athletes to fully submit themselves to Christ in discipline, and challenge them firmly and lovingly to that end. Help them to see their struggles as profitable; pray with them, encourage them, and always keep them grounded in and accountable to Scripture.
Thanks for your desire to see your athletes grow in their relationship with Christ — for your concern for their hearts, not just their athletic pursuits and outward behaviors. Our staff prays for you regularly, and we’re excited to watch God use your efforts to accomplish His purpose in your athletes’ lives.
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