This summer, as the Olympics play out, many athletes will be giving all the glory to God. Get to know a few of them here, and then cheer them on as they compete!
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Pro Perspectives - Matt Holiday Video Study
What Are You Playing For?
Watch the video and walk through the questions below:
Key Verse: …I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you. –Jeremiah 31:3
Maximum Effort
Set:
High school football season is in full swing, so it’s a good time for me as a coach to do some evaluating by asking what kind of effort we are giving in order to make our team successful. As I’ve been examining the effort of our team, I’ve thought a lot about spiritual matters, as well.
Many coaches and athletes will give maximum effort in order to be a winning team. There is great satisfaction in giving your all and having it pay off. And when November arrives, some of these teams will have secured playoff berths and won championships. They will feel rewarded for their efforts.
An Expensive Mistake
Set:
The 2010 Winter Olympics provided many wonderful, heart-warming stories about overcoming obstacles and having great perseverance. Sadly, we also were given a few painful life lessons as well. One of them involved the Netherlands’ Sven Kramer, arguably the greatest long-distance speed skater in the world.
Last Tuesday, as he was on his way to setting a world record in the 10,000-meters, something went wrong. It seemed he had skated eight laps in the wrong lane. The video replay revealed a confused Kramer being told by his coach to change lanes, which he eventually did. However, his coach had been mistaken; Kramer was in the correct lane at the time. The mistake cost him a gold medal and a world record performance.
2013 Camp Powerpoint Template
What does this contain? It contains the main slide and multiple color schemes. You must have Microsoft Powerpoint or software that can open a .PPT file.
The file comes with:
- Relentless Title Slides
- Blank Relentless Slides
In Powerpoint, use "Ctrl + D" to duplicate a slide or press the "delete" key to remove unwanted slides.
Jamie Jelinek
Jamie Jelinek, Senior Forward at Holy Cross shares how he can be so full of joy despite limited playing time on the ice.
Don’t Miss Them
Set:
I wonder sometimes if we coaches miss opportunities to really know our athletes. The stars quite naturally stand out, but are we missing something about the remainder of the team? Do we often overlook the athlete who works hard every day just to be noticed by us? When we think about it, we had a great example of a person who took great care to bring individuals to himself. Christ’s life on earth serves as the ideal of how we are to treat every individual on our team, and focusing on Him is crucial because we are prone to forget that an athletic team is made up of more than the stars. Each member is important.
Living a Paradox (Serving - Chapter 1)
Set:
One of the hardest obstacles for some people to overcome when it comes to accepting the Bible as infallible truth is the pervasive presence of paradox. The inclusion of these seemingly contradictory statements often plays tricks on the logical mind, even though the truth behind them can always be substantiated by neighboring Scriptures or by concepts revealed in more distant parts of God’s Word.
Most of these paradoxical statements can be located in the four Gospels, where Jesus confounded the religious leaders of His time. For example, in Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus tells us that we can find rest in working for Him. In Matthew 19:30, He says that the “first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (NIV).
Redefining Success (Excellence - Chapter 12)
Set:
When people think of excellence in higher education, Oxford University is often mentioned. That’s because some of the world’s most foundational philosophical ideas in government, religion, sociology, literature and business have been intellectually designed and developed by men and women who attended its various colleges. Luminaries such as John Wycliffe, Adam Smith, John Wesley, William Penn, J. R. R. Tolkien, T. S. Eliot, Margaret Thatcher and C. S. Lewis are just a few notables to have walked Oxford’s hallowed halls.
But anyone who believes brilliance can only come from places like Oxford, Cambridge or perhaps places in America like MIT or the Ivy League schools fails to recognize the simplicity of wisdom.
OW2P Study - Peer Influence (Part 6)
Goal
Too many attribute those intermittent disturbing instances of disobedience to the pressure our peers exert upon us. Is it really peer pressure? Is there literally someone “making” us smoke cigarettes, drink liquor or smoke weed? The threat is peer influence. Peer influence gradually and consistently speaks “do as I do,” hoping we eventually give up, give in, and then give out. In this section athletes will learn to identify peer pressure and peer influence and ways of defusing them both.
Key Scriptures
Psalms 139:13-16; Romans 12:1-2; Genesis 1:26; Proverbs 14:21; James 4:7
Warm Up
Salty
Set:
If you run around the soccer field for 90 minutes, you tend to sweat a lot. When you sweat excessively, your body loses much of its natural salt. Without salt in your body, you cannot stay hydrated. Being “salty” is an important part of being able to compete at a high level.
In the same respect, without a relationship with Jesus, you cannot absorb and learn from His Word. Learning God’s ways by reading the Bible will impact your approach to competition, but not until you give your life fully to God and accept what His Son did for you on the cross.
OW2P Study - Commitment (Part 3)
Goal
A commitment to be drug and alcohol free is a firm pledge, not a conditional promise. A commitment does not change because of circumstances. A commitment is a stake in the ground.
Key Scriptures
Romans 12:1-2; Luke 9:23; Joshua 24:15
Warm Up
Far More Important
Set:
As a young athlete, I thought winning was everything. The competitive juices would always flow through me. I wanted to win every time I competed. Whether it was a big high school game against our rivals or just a pick-up basketball game against my brothers, I wanted to win. For me, there was nothing more important than a good win! One of the greatest NFL coaches of all time, Vincent Lombardi, once said, "Winning isn't everything. Wanting to win is." As an athlete, I had a lot of wanting, even though I didn't win every time.
Movie Night
Have a movie night for your huddle! You could watch movies like the blind side, angels in the outfield and other sports movies.
Group Size:
Both
Where Does Your Strength Come From?
Set:
As athletes, we workout to better ourselves for competition. We hit the weights to gain strength, speed and size. But have you ever had one of those days in which your strength wasn't where you wanted it to be or you just didn't feel strong? If you compete long enough, you’re bound to have those days occasionally.
Have you ever had one of those days in life where you were feeling the same way spiritually? Like you just weren’t strong in your faith at all? In those times, we have to remember that it is not about us, it's about Jesus Christ. He is the One who gives us strength. It says in Psalm 33:16: "A king is not saved by a large army; a warrior will not be delivered by great strength."
Team Picture
Set:
A couple summers ago I was fortunate to travel to Manchester, England, as a coach for a lacrosse tour. The tour was a wonderful success and both the players and coaches made some awesome lifelong connections. For me, however, it went much deeper.
What Does God Dream For You?
Set:
As athletes and coaches, we have a tendency to dream big. We dream of championships and of finding success on the field or court. But sometimes we forget that we are already champions in Christ, and that God has big dreams for us of His own! Just what are some of those dreams?
Who Are You?
Set:
As a student-athlete in high school, the only thing that I liked about myself was my basketball ability. My self-worth was based completely on my performance on the court. Although I knew Christ, it took a lot of painful losing and poor performances for me once I got to college to realize that my self-worth was very skewed.
After I began to read the Bible more, I realized that none of the verses showed that God loved me any less based on my performance. I did, however, find many verses based on how God viewed me as His child.
The Race
Jesus stands in one corridor or side of the room and says, “Run toward me with preserving.” In very slow motion, the 3 runners begin running toward Jesus. At first, all three runners are focusing on Jesus, but only the person in the middle is running with a Bible. Satan sends an enticer of the opposite sex to pull one of the runners off course with the temptation of premarital sex. The enticer does this provocatively and leads the runner off course. At that time Satan comes and raps that runner’s ankles with the tape or rope and says, “Now I’ve got you!”
Honesty and insight - Daniel Study - Chapter 10
Daniel chapter eight is not discussed as a lesson, but is referred to in Chapter nine. Chapter eight deals mainly with prophecies fulfilled in the Greek and Roman empires that are more fully explained in Chapters 9-11. So for the sake of not dealing with the same information twice we will move to Chapter 9.
Secure coaches are honest. They are honest about themselves and the team. Without being negative for negativity’s sake, honest assessment is critical. Total honesty about your past and current situation is the starting block for knowing how to proceed in the future. Sometimes assessment is humbling, but to glaze over reality will only hurt your effectiveness in the future.
Game-Changer
In sports, we hear about plays, calls or even individual athletes that, in a single moment, alter the outcome of a game. We call them game-changers...
When it comes to the game of life, however, there is only one true game-changer: Jesus Christ. And once He makes that ultimate play in the heart of an athlete, it not only changes his or her life off the field, but also how they conduct themselves in competition. This fall, some of the top players on the college gridiron are telling how the Lord has made an impact on their game and how He can do the same for you.
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