This fall, I had the privilege of being an Assistant Coach for one of my daughter’s softball teams. It was a really cool experience for me to participate in an activity with my daughter. While I was helping during one game, I realized that there were some parallels between softball and ministry. Here’s a few…
- You can learn a lot from watching. Sitting on the bench with the other coaches, you are constantly observing. You are looking at how the girls are fielding, pitching and hitting. As you observe, you are able to take notes and then talk to them in order to help them get better at what they are doing. This led me to think, do we have people observing us and our ministry to help us get better at what we are doing? Also, when was the last time you watched someone else’s youth program to see what they are doing and how you can get better at what you are doing?
- Parents. I saw a lot of things from parents this season. There were some that were the loving, encouraging kind – always rooting on their girls no matter what. But there were also some who were really hard on their girls, almost critical of their every step in how they talk to them and try to get them to get better. What kind of leader are you? An encourager or a critical one?
- It’s all about teamwork. The more the team works together, the more likely they are to stop runs from scoring when they are playing in the field and also score runs when they are batting. How well is your team working together? Are you working as a team or a bunch of individuals?