COACHING INTO GREATNESS

During the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to coach junior high basketball. Through all the long practices, time away from the office and everything else that comes from a grueling season - I can now say it was all worth it.

5 of the 7 players now are activators and leaders in our student ministry. They regularly attend Wednesday evenings - serving in ministry positions, they dove deeper by plugging into a small group discipleship program and I’m allowed the privilege to be a part of their growth.

Even though our season has ended (with a winning record for the first time in six years) my coaching has not stopped, but only increased. I’m taking some lessons learned from the court and applying them to the movement.

As student ministry pastors we are placed in a unique position - to help coach students into the greatness that God has for them and for others through them.

Here are three quick things that I’m embracing as a coach:

1)  Nothing is more powerful than the team.

When the team played well together, we’d win games. The opposite is very true as well, when we lost, it was because we failed to play as a team.

With all the drama, competitive nature and cliques that can be found in student ministry... we can ensure more wins for the team and the Kingdom when we bring students together as a team, fighting side by side for something greater than ourselves.

2)  Know when to press and when to fall back.

We played a few teams that were faster than us. You can’t pull off a successful press when your defense gets blown by leaving you at a disadvantage on the other end of the court.

As coaches in ministry, we have to be aware of the issues we need to press and the issues that we should just let go. Some may say pick your battles, I say focus on the non-negotiable. Let’s move students into heart transformation instead of spending a wealth of time on behavior modification.

3)  Win together - Lose together

One rule with my team was that win or lose we will ride back to our home court together. I wanted to be able to focus their attention on how to improve and what we did well instead of letting them curse the refs or other negative elements outside of our control.

We win together and we lose together. Some of the greatest moments of ministry take place when we lose together - they are teachable moments where students, adults and even ourselves are most open to change and improvement.

Don Shula, famed coach of the Miami Dolphins, once remarked “I think what coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing there ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I've done that in my 33 years as a head coach.”

Greater things are coming for the Kingdom of God as we coach students into living in the greatness of God. How awesome it will when we look back at the finish and declare, “We’ve coached well.”

Justin Simmons serves as our area leader for the Sierra Nevada Section.

He is the Youth Pastor at Capital Christian Center in Carson City, NV