As a coach, our sport can consume us in the best ways. It’s what we think about and makes plans for, and it’s what motivates us and gets us excited to compete. We want to be 100% invested into our team and how we prepare to be at our best.
Jesus has given us the ultimate 100% standard through His death and resurrection, so how can we relate that to the way we live our lives on and off the field?
The Coach’s Mandate sets an example for coaching in a way that follows Christ’s standards and steps us up to a new level of leadership. Our team and season are not our own; God goes before them and is the One in control. We offer our team and season to Him as a commitment to coach with Christ at the center.
Through the vision of reaching all coaches with the gospel, the Coach’s Mandate offers an eternal perspective that aligns us with the real purpose of serving our athletes, coaching staff, fans and competition. By going through the mandate section by section, we can get a better idea of the standard God sets for us in our sport as a 100% coach.
Pray as though nothing of eternal value is going to
happen in my athletes’ lives unless God does it.
Prepare each practice and game,
giving my utmost for His highest.
Seek not to be served by my athletes for personal gain,
but serve them as Christ served the church.
Be satisfied not with producing a winning record,
but with producing winning athletes.
Servant Leadership
We are in a position of leadership, but it should stem through servant-leadership. As coaches, we seek to best interests of our athletes. We’re competitive; we want to win and should strive for it. But that shouldn’t be the all-consuming; what is most important is how our athletes turn out as people.
Attend carefully to my private and public walk with God, knowing that the
athlete will never rise to a standard higher than that being lived by the coach.
Glorify Christ in my coaching,
trusting the Lord will then draw athletes to Himself.
Desire to have a growing hunger for God’s Word,
a transformed heart and daily obedience.
Creating Space
Our coaching begins in the Bible. What we discover about God in our quiet time determines how we adjust our attitudes and hearts to the day. When we surrender our will to God’s, we allow space for Him to move in our meetings, practices and games, trusting Him with the outcomes.
Depend solely upon God for transformation,
one athlete at a time.
Live out Christ’s word in a Christ-like manner,
on and off the field of competition.
Recognize that it is impossible to bring glory
to both myself and Christ at the same time.
Point The Glory Upward
We have a choice: to bring glory to God or ourselves. Which will we choose? And through that choice, who will be affected? Our athletes are affected by our choices, and yet the only source that truly transforms their hearts is God. We live out His Word through our choices and actions.
Allow my coaching to produce the fruit of the Spirit,
thus producing athletes who are authentic followers of Christ.
Trust God to reveal to my athletes His chosen purposes,
regardless of whether the wins are clearly visible.
Coach with humble gratitude,
as one privileged to be God’s coach.
Ultimately, our coaching should produce not simply winning seasons and championships, but the fruit of the Spirit. Let’s bear our work with humility and thankfulness—we are in a privileged position to coach, lead and be a representative of God in the arena of athletics.
To the glory of God, may we coach with our all, all the time and be influencers for Christ.
To find more Coach’s Mandate coaching tools, click here
Grow in the foundations of faith by keeping your spiritual core strong: The Core
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