Over the past few weeks the idea of being in “Triple Threat Position” has been the theme… the idea of a “Scoring Mentality”… BUT not necessarily of a “Scorer’s Mentality”! So what is the difference?
A “Scorer’s Mentality” belongs to the player that is always thinking shoot first… this type of player typically is very excited to go see the scorebook following a game to see how many points he/she scored. It is often pride-driven. Don’t get me wrong, my philosophy as a coach is that “shooters shoot”; therefore some should take more shots than others… but my mentality stems from a “Scoring Mentality” that looks to what is best for the team’s goals…
We discussed the idea of “dribbling” (serving) to create lanes to the goal… we talked about “passing” (sharing with teammates that are in scoring position) to get to the goal… and this week let’s talk about “taking the shot”…
I was watching a game last week where a player caught a pass in the lane and came to a jump stop… the defender flew by him in a vain block attempt, leaving the player alone right in front of the basket. Let’s pause and ask a question, what is the goal of the team there? Is it safe to say it is to score? Duh!!!
What transpired was that the player had already predetermined that he was going to pass, and he dished to a cutting teammate that had to make a very difficult shot with a defender on him… it turned out fine in that they scored, BUT it could have been so much easier if the player that was open would have just finished the play.
This morning as I met with a good friend that is in ministry, and also loves hoops like me, we discussed the travesty of the modern church’s philosophies of “lifestyle evangelism” or “relational evangelism”; not that these things are bad ideas… our lifestyles/relationships should, like dribbling, create lanes for us to score… BUT make no mistake about it, “scoring” (the goal/OBJECTIVE) for us is the proclamation of the "Gospel, for IT is the power of God unto salvation"! (Romans 1:16)
Evangelism minus proclamation is not evangelism at all… it is dribbling without purpose, without OBJECTIVE, without making it to the goal! Yet we have been programmed to let “shooters shoot” in that we think evangelism is about eventually getting our friends/family/acquaintances to the professional Gospel guns… (even though the vast majority of them aren’t “good shooters”!)
This CHRISTmas, I implore you to not just “dribble” and “pass”, but also to “take the shots” that open up to proclaim that unto us was “born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Be like the shepherds that met Jesus and “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told to them.” (Luke 2:20) They started making some noise… they started “taking shots”!
Merry CHRISTmas!
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