 I have found that one of the easiest ways for a Dad to have immediate opportunity for influence on his culture and children is to become a volunteer sports coach.
It used to be that kids went to church. In church they would divide up adults and children, and to reach children, all you have to do is become a children's ministry teacher. Tell them about Jesus and boom! You've got a new Christian kid. Now if only their Dads would repent, stop drinking Bud Light, start enjoying real beer (imports), and love Jesus.
Nowadays it's a bit different. If you have children, you become a soccer coach. Make sure you have children because if you don't, people will think you're a weirdo and sometimes rightly so (in the deep south and parts of southern Iowa where I have traveled). But if you have children, your kids will love you for it, and your soccer team parents will start to like you. Gradually you will be transformed into a super-dad who is an ultimate authority in soccer, and eventually, in other things as well.
Gradually, the parents may even approach you and discuss things about real life, not just the need for shin guards for parents when good kids turn bad, showing off the speed of their newly found kicking foot. They may even ask questions relating to religion and faith issues. This in turn could lead, with much prayer and supplication (to change you and not them), into a conversation about Jesus.
This is why I think soccer in America could be the best evangelistic tool of Jesus in the 21st century. While kids have been kicking around rocks in Africa and Brazil for the past 5 million years, killing people who score for the wrong team, here in the US, just about anyone can jump in and become an expert. Here are some quick steps for becoming the ultimate Jesus-freak soccer coach.
1. Sign up. Without signing up early, you have no chance of coaching, and if you don't coach, you are practically sending all your neighborhood kids to hell. (Alright, I don't believe that, but it sounds pretty strong so I'm leaving it.)
2. Learn the sport or else. If you have no authority in your soccer practices, you have no authority over faith issues.
3. Communicate often. Email, phone, both work wonders. Make sure all parents know what is happening when and why. This builds trust.
4. Live a life of faith on the field. No one wants to hear a hypocrite. Except hypocrites. Practice what you "preach." For example, don't yell at kids and then tell the parents you believe in grace and mercy of God. Also, wear shin guards if you do.
5. Realize you are not their savior, but Jesus is, and He knows what's going on in your teams' families. Ultimately, and 100%, it is the Holy Spirit who changes people, not your mad skillz in coaching. Often times, the Spirit changes only one person that you're aware of: you.
So, get out there and become a coach. If you're a Dad and you just sit in the stands and yell like a one-man Jerry Springer show while you watch little Scooter play ball, maybe you need to repent and be more like Jesus and take some kicks in the shin.
Brooks Hanes is president of Kinsley Dale, a web development firm. And, through humble circumstances, God got him back to his hometown, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is helping start Kaio Church. |
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