Dearth of Existing Models
One last obstacle to creating truly evangelistic-disciplemaking local church sports outreach ministries…a dearth of existing models.  Yet, I rarely meet anyone within the Sports Outreach Movement who says they don’t agree theoretically with an evangelistic-disciplemaking approach to ministry.  However, few have actually incorporated it fully into their pragmatic ministry endeavors.   Thankfully, there are a few and the following is reflection by Jay Martin of Perimeter Church in Atlanta is evidence of that.  He starts his blog with a quote from Robert Coleman…
 
“Merely because we are busy, or even skilled in, and doing something, does not necessarily mean that we are getting anything accomplished.  the question must always be asked: Is it worth doing and does it get the job done?  This is the question that should be posed continually in relation to the evangelistic activity of a local church Sports Ministry.  Are our efforts to keep things going actually fulfilling the Great Commission mandate of Christ?  Do we see an ever-expanding company of dedicated people reaching the world with the gospel as a result of our ministry?  That we are busy in the church trying to work one program of evangelism after another cannot be denied.  But are any of these “program” accomplishing our objective?” Master Plan of Evangelism  Robert E. Coleman
 
These words haunt me as a ministry leader.  I am going to be held accountable for what I do with what I have been given.  I’m not going to be measured on the numbers in our programs or volunteers I’ve attracted (this is so easy to do).  No, I believe, for us who lead gospel-centered ministries, the question is; are we making Disciple Makers?

In our ministries [at Perimeter] we now strive (we’ve made many adjustments over the years) to create extraordinary environments that discover, develop and deploy life time disciplemakers.  In order to do that, we often have to re-evaluate…and stop doing things to start doing others.  We’ve shifted from being programmatic to become more people focused (missional).  This is where we spend the largest portion of our time and money and the result has been amazing.  Take the following testimony we received…

"There is a real change in the way I live my life as a result of what God did in my life through my involvement in Camp All America.  I want to thank you ,because the impact that has been made in my walk with Christ, and how I see the world, my growth as a leader is because you all take the time to invest in the summer staff. I'm incredibly thankful for everything y'all have done in my life.  I want to personally thank you for providing an environment in which my faith continued to grow. Working out (she was part of our staff fitness initiative) and self-discipline is a parallel to the faith and am overjoyed to have been able to experience it. This summer has seriously challenged me to continue these habits of self-discipline back at school. Y’all have made such a major impact on both my brothers and am so thankful that I got to experience similar opportunities.  This ministry has impacted me in a way that it’s taught me to be missional where I live work and play.  I work at a place where we are trying to bring the kingdom to our community and I live in a place where there are Muslims everywhere and they need Jesus. I’m called to be missional and I’ve learned that here.”

Yes, Mr. Coleman, I believe we are accomplishing our objective and it fuels us like nothing else we do.
Jay Martin – Director of Sports Outreach Perimeter Church – Atlanta
 
Perimeter Church is breaking the mold…they indeed are going into all the world and making disciples….not just getting decisions.
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This blog is an excerpt from chapter #2 of Dr. Linville's yet to be released book – Sports Ministry Fundamentals.  All rights reserved.  For any reproduction right, including copying, computer reproduction, etc. contact:

Dr. Greg Linville at CSRM International C/O The World Outreach Center 5350 Broadmoor Circle N. w. Canton, Ohio – USA 44709 or glinville@csrm.org
 
Other blogs and articles on Local Church Sports, sports theology and ethics written by Dr. Greg Linville and other local church Sports, Rec & Fitness Ministers are archived at: http://www.csrm.org/blog/archives/05-2016

  What it Means to those in Ministry
Simply put, the second obstacle to implementing an evangelistic-disciplemaking philosophy is it means the death of many sacred cows!  At the time of writing, the Sports Outreach Ministry Movement had entered its 8th decade!  What this means is, the Sports Outreach Movement can now say what The Church has said for two millennia: “But we’ve always done it that way!”  There are three typical “but we’ve always done it that way” rationales for resisting change: a) its hard work for the local church sports minister; b) it’s overwhelming to local church leadership; c) it entails a financial risk…

Its hard work for the Sports Minister.  I believe many Church and para-ministry leaders are weary of doing it the old way; are frustrated by the ineffective and inefficient methods they currently employ; and yet find it difficult to risk establishing new methods when the old models are sometimes effective.  They know pioneering new philosophies and methodologies will take an enormous effort and will not be achieved without a great deal of cost.  Yes, it will take much work, effort, sweat and even a few tears, but it will be worth it.  Let’s be real, these dedicated men and women are often overwhelmed by the unending demands of: recruiting, training and supervising volunteer leaders; scheduling hundreds of practices, games, officials and snack bar workers; ordering equipment, uniforms and curriculums; managing staff, social media and weather related issues; manicuring and lining sports fields; cleaning/sweeping gymnasiums; and on top of all of this, they attempt to walk deeply with Jesus, faithfully love and care for their marriages and families and also find time to mow their own lawns!  And just when do they have time to turn their current models up-side-down?  Yet, I maintain, there is nothing more important these dedicated servants can do than ensure their efforts are the most effective and efficient possible.

It’s overwhelming to church and para-ministry leaders.  You know your pastoral staff!  Most find themselves in the same boat as do Sports Ministers.  The mountain of the “urgent” requests and unceasing demands of the day to day church and ministry activities are onerous enough; adding the major effort of completely re-envisioning the congregational or ministry life to be able to incorporate new philosophical principles and methodological models seems overwhelming.  Especially when, people are “already getting saved.”
Perhaps a better definition of this sub-point would be “unknown results” because so few churches and ministries have actually incorporated a strategically, integrated evangelistic-disciplemaking philosophy, it’s hard to fully appreciate why current endeavors should be disrupted; particularly if existing efforts are producing some fruit.  It’s always risky to change what has worked at some level, for the unknown, even if the unknown has a promising potential.     

It entails financial risk.  As mentioned earlier, there are financial considerations.  Incorporating such systemic change will always bring additional costs endemic to change.  In addition to these new costs, changes sometimes cause a cessation of some current activities or rituals which may alienate some participants and because, in the short run (until the narrative of success is redefined and communicated), financial contributions may decrease.
Church and ministry leaders should count the costs but, should these obstacles keep churches and ministries from boldly seeking to become the most effective and efficient they can possibly become?  An old Scottish proverb says: “Choose your change before your change is chosen by someone else.”
The next blog will look at some examples of current Local Church Sport, Rec & Fitness Ministries that are trying to implement the Evangelistic-Disciplemaking principles and programs.

The next blog will look at contemporary models that local congregations are employing to institute the Evangelistic-Disciplemaking Principles.
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This blog is an excerpt from chapter #2 of Dr. Linville's yet to be released book – Sports Ministry Fundamentals.  All rights reserved.  For any reproduction right, including copying, computer reproduction, etc. contact:

Dr. Greg Linville at CSRM International C/O The World Outreach Center 5350 Broadmoor Circle N. w. Canton, Ohio – USA 44709 or glinville@csrm.org
 
Other blogs and articles on Local Church Sports, sports theology and ethics written by Dr. Greg Linville and other local church Sports, Rec & Fitness Ministers are archived at: http://www.csrm.org/blog/archives/05-2016

Results and Repercussions of The Evangelistic-disciplemaking Concept
The first obvious result of re-envisioning and implementing a local church Sports Outreach based on the concept of Evangelistic-Disciplemaking will be surprising, and disappointing to many: … it means there will be lower numbers of people “getting saved.”  There are two obvious reasons why the number of “salvations” would go down.  First, the numbers no longer include any who make a “decision for a day” but rather only include those who truly become “dedicated disciples” of Christ.  The second reason is, when the implications of the gospel are fully understood, there may in fact be a reduction in number of those wanting to sign up to be a life-long, dedicated disciple of Christ.  Let’s be honest, it’s much easier to get someone “saved” than it is to “go and make disciples.”  So the first real obstacle to implementing the evangelistic-disciplemaking concept in a local church Sports Outreach Ministry has to do with breaking through the mentality of desiring to make grand reports to the church, or worse, fulfill even more base desires or motives.  In reality the number of true conversions to Christ won’t go down, only the number of pseudo-conversions.

This particular obstacle becomes definitely relevant when finances are associated with it, and is especially problematic for many sports-related, para-ministries which derive much of their funding by reporting large numbers of “salvations” or “conversions.”  My challenge to both the local church Sports Minister and the sports-related, para-ministry leader is to change their narrative to their funding base from numbers of “salvations” to a much more biblical report on how many “disciples” have been made – disciples who are intimately and consistently participating in a local church.  I fully believe it will increase and solidify the funding as it communicates a far deeper significance in terms of ministry success.

The next blog will describe the second obstacle to implementing an Evangelistic-Disciplemaking based approach to Local Church Sport, Rec & Fitness Ministry
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This blog is an excerpt from chapter #2 of Dr. Linville's yet to be released book – Sports Ministry Fundamentals.  All rights reserved.  For any reproduction right, including copying, computer reproduction, etc. contact:

Dr. Greg Linville at CSRM International C/O The World Outreach Center 5350 Broadmoor Circle N. w. Canton, Ohio – USA 44709 or glinville@csrm.org
 
Other blogs and articles on Local Church Sports, sports theology and ethics written by Dr. Greg Linville and other local church Sports, Rec & Fitness Ministers are archived at: http://www.csrm.org/blog/archives/05-2016

CSRM has embraced the concept of Evangelistic-Disciplemaking for the following reasons...


First, it emphasizes the importance of both outreach (evangelism) and spiritual formation (disciplemaking). Evangelistic outreach is for the express purpose of making Disciples of Christ and thus, the significance of the concept of Evangelistic-disciplemaking becomes obvious. Both Evangelism and Disciplemaking are crucial and impossible without the other. The Church separates them to the detriment of all involved. Evangelism and Discipleship should be considered as one seamless whole. A church that only focuses on “deepening the faith” of their members (discipleship) not only shortchanges their members' spiritual growth by not molding them into “reproducing Christians,” but also, will experience the eventual death of the church through the lack of any new people being reached to become new believers/disciples of Christ. In contrast, and yet with a similar end, a church that only gets a person “saved” will not experience any growth because they are not producing disciples who become reproducing members who regularly participate in the body life of a local church. 

Second, it eliminates the temptation to stop all evangelistic-disciplemaking efforts upon a person repeating the “sinner’s prayer” and/or becoming baptized. When getting someone “saved” is the only focus, many churches and ministries fail in their responsibility to finish the job to “go and make disciples.”  The point is, evangelistic outreach cannot be separated from discipleship and vice versa.  Thus, the descriptive phrase evangelistic-disciplemaking is more than just some clever turn of words.  When properly understood, it helps churches (and para-ministries) focus on the ultimate goal: making disciples; rather than on one step in the disciple-making process: a decision for Christ.

Third CSRM uses the evangelistic-disciplemaking terminology because discipleship assumes membership and participation in a local church. It is a well-known fact that active and regular, weekly participation in a good church is a critical factor in the spiritual formation for individual believers and for the strengthening of marriages, families, communities and countries. “Getting saved” must assume long-term and strong connections with a Christ-honoring, bible-based church.

So to summarize, the evangelistic-disciplemaking concept for the Sports Outreach Movement is a Level #2 Philosophical Principle that, when understood and implemented, will qualitatively and quantitatively enhance and expand the ability of local churches to accomplish their mandate of fulfilling the Great Commission.  In addition, it becomes obvious how and why the evangelistic-disciplemaking concept is vital to meeting the 4-Fold Evaluation Guide of ensuring Relevant, Strategic, Effective and Efficient local church Sports Outreach.
 
The next blog will describe the obstacles to implementing an Evangelistic-Disciplemaking based approach to Local Church Sport, Rec & Fitness Ministry
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This blog is an excerpt from chapter #2 of Dr. Linville's yet to be released book – Sports Ministry Fundamentals.  All rights reserved.  For any reproduction right, including copying, computer reproduction, etc. contact:

Dr. Greg Linville at CSRM International C/O The World Outreach Center 5350 Broadmoor Circle N. w. Canton, Ohio – USA 44709 or glinville@csrm.org
 
Other blogs and articles on Local Church Sports, sports theology and ethics written by Dr. Greg Linville and other local church Sports, Rec & Fitness Ministers are archived at: http://www.csrm.org/blog/archives/05-2016