As I sit in a hotel room this morning, I am reflecting a bit on the journey of utilizing sports in ministry… (that is what I am teaching on at a conference.) I am getting notes together but also looking back at the InBounds Ministries story. We have seen opportunities worldwide to present The Substitute Gospel message… and to share God’s Playbook!
Yet one of my favorite stories to think back upon is the MAD Hoops story; this outreach truly has been a culture changer… on and off the court… stateside and abroad. When we determined we could go MAD (Make A Difference) in men’s lives through pickup basketball, I started thinking through all the years I had spent on playground courts… YMCAs… school yards… driveways… etc. I thought about not only the fun and excitement, but also the very normal outbursts of tempers/arguments/fights… (And since the inception of InBounds, I have pointed out that sports are simply “life put in a microwave”… getting all the highs and lows… the fair and unfair… just in the condensed time of a game.)
I could spend a lot of time just sharing stories here but wanted to get to the points that jumped out at me for this week’s devotion (And possibly will spend the next few weeks sharing from the “written rules” of the MAD Hoops story.) I mentioned the idea of being a “culture changer.” Culture is something that is built upon typical behavior that is directed by expectations. Therefore, I started piecing together ideas/rules (from personal experience and years as a coach/AD) for MAD Hoops that were Biblically based, in order to re-direct expectations on the basketball court, and then hopefully in life off of the court. What does The Playbook have to say about the pickup basketball culture?
Last night I pulled up an article on “the unwritten rules” of pickup basketball. (Found on basketballword.com) “Unwritten rules” is simple way of saying “expectations/culture”; no matter what is written down, how do people act and react… Here is a quote: “In pick up, basketball foul calls are the responsibility of either the defense to call the fouls when they foul a player, or the offense calls their own foul. Many times, it’s offense calling the foul and that’s where most of the arguments stem from.”
I am in full agreement with that assessment. Therefore, I established the first couple of rules of MAD Hoops (again designed to be not just court lessons, but life lessons):
·
Player that commits the foul calls the foul…
players are encouraged to own up to the things they have done wrong! Defense,
call it if you hack someone! Offense, call it if you charge or clear out
illegally!
James 5:16 Confess
your trespasses to one another…
·
Player that has been fouled should play through
the contact… do your job without expecting to be bailed out by a call!
Philippians 2:14 Do all things without complaining and disputing
We witnessed a rec center culture change… we watched a church basketball league change… we watched overseas culture change… as a result of new clearly defined expectations of taking personal responsibility in what one does wrong, and in not allowing what someone else does wrong to keep one from doing right…
Can you imagine with me, off the court, if the team (the church) spent more time “playing through the contact” and confessing where we have wronged others?
Let’s Go MAD together!
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