Hello, friends!
I have a confession to make. This may come as a great shock to many of you (although probably not much of a shock to others) but I am not much of an athlete. I am by no means terrible, but I would consider myself average, at best. I like to think of myself as a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. I can hit a softball, throw a football, shoot a basketball, run, swim, bike, and curl with adequate skill, but no one will ever mistake me for being a superstar, and my general rule is that if I'm ever one of the 3 best players on your team, your team is in trouble.
There is an old saying that "those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Now, I won't get into the whole debate as to whether or not that is making a value statement or something like that. What I will say is that almost as much as playing, and in some ways even more than playing, I love coaching.
My friends will tell you that I am a natural coach. I don't know if I have special giftings in being able to see strategy or ways to maximize effectiveness. Maybe I have a special way with words so that people understand concepts and such better. It could just be that I am such a salesman when I speak that folk jump on board and believe whatever I tell them. Either way, when I coach, I get some sort of a crazy rush. When I see folk improve and know that I had some small part to play in their development, it's like I'm the one who is getting better as well.
Last night Andrew spoke at Large Group. Originally I was going to write a post today about how weird it was being the lone staff running a fellowship for a day again. Will was out of town, Andrew was focusing on his talk, and Charis wasn't feeling well, so Large Group was my show to run all by myself. But, to be honest, the part that I remember most about last night was talking to Andrew after Large Group and coaching him on how to be more effective as a preacher. (By the way, Andrew totally did a great job preaching on reconciliation and conflict. You should ask him for his notes.)
Friends, it was the craziest thing (or maybe it wasn't). We were just sitting there, eating some pizza and talking about his preaching but I could have done it for hours. I wanted to talk about the nuances that come from preaching to college students, how posture and movement can convey intensity, the strategic use of pauses and tone, and all the other things that were coming to mind. I was coaching and I was in my element.
A bit later I was talking to Meg and I was still riding the high of the coaching session. I said, "you know, I'd always seen myself as a planter who did coaching as a hobby. Maybe it's the other way around." Her response was, "Yeah, it's the other way around." =0).
So, I'm not sure what to do with all this information. I think that God is continuing to shape me and teach me more about myself and how my gifts can be used to further His Kingdom. Whatever comes next, I just hope that I get to do a little coaching in there.
Points for prayer:
- Next Wednesday is our Sex and Dating Panel for Large Group. Please pray that students, especially non-Christians, will come and hear the Christian perspective on dating relationships. We are having an all-student panel, so please also pray for our students.
- Praise Jesus, things are moving along nicely with BCM. We are starting to see some real growth in the students and getting our name out there in a positive way. Please pray for continued momentum and that I will have good discernment as to appropriate challenges for our students.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
No comments:
Post a Comment