More than Conquerors

After the no more sidelines practice,  and hearing a song, “More than Conquerors,”  I felt good that our basketball team was more than Warriors.  I felt there was a connection between Romans 8:37 (the more than Conquerors verse) and our team because of what we stand for and how we make an effort to make a difference off the court.   However, in reading the context of the verse, it is not what we have done that makes us more than conquerors, but it is “through him who loved us.”

We can be confident in our savior who, in our weakness, has made us more than conquerors, and that nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

No More Sidelines

As a basketball team, we have been blessed to be victorious in many games.   On Tuesday, we had a different type of blessing.  Tuesday, the “No More Sidelines” team, a group of young people with special needs, joined us at practice.  We were blessed to be able to help the group, but as we talked about after, the group also helped us.

We recognized and appreciated how we have been blessed --- Often when we pray before a practice or game, we thank God for the abilities that he has given to us, but we can still take those things for granted.  Working with people who struggle with what we take for granted, helps us to appreciate those things.

We saw and shared in a love and joy of basketball. --- It was great to just see so many smiles.  There was a great joy for every made shot, but also for every high-five even after missed shots.   I hope that half-way through a season, we could gain a renewed energy and appreciation for being able to be together as a team and play.

We experienced a greater joy that can come from serving. ---  At the end, that was one of our best practices, and our goal in the beginning was to make the practice all about the “No More Sidelines” group. 

"For God's Glory" & Siblings Practice

“We talk a lot about glorifying God with the way we play, but what does that mean?”  This question came up during a captains meeting.  It was the question we focused on last week.  It is a question we should continue to focus on every day.

I am blessed to coach a basketball team of players that understands that praising and glorifying God is our purpose in life.  We know that that purpose to bring glory to God encompasses every thing we do including basketball.  So it was at basketball practice, where we request in prayer that we could glorify God, that we talked as a team about what that actually means. 

The guys were given a few days to think, research, or ask a faith mentor what they thought it means to glorify God, or what it means to praise God.   Our team’s discussion allowed each player a chance to say what they thought. 

We had a lot recognizing that they can praise and glorify God by following his commands…Just like honoring our father and mother would mean to obey, we bring glory and honor to God by obeying him.

We had a few others answering that to glorify God is to not accept glory for ourselves, but to recognize God’s hand in all that we are blessed to achieve.

One answer that stuck with me, and led to further discussion was that God is already glorious.  Everything in His creation reveals his glory.  To glorify God we just need to be like nature.

Putting these thoughts together helps us all have a better understanding of what it means to glorify God.   We talked more about who God created us to be, how through obedience we could truly be who God created us to be, and how it is important to react with appropriate praise when our obedience leads to blessings.

After thinking about the definition, we talked of course about how we can glorify God through basketball.  I challenged the boys to recognize that God created them to be more than basketball players, but they were also created to be (and therefore able to glorify God in their roles of), sons, brothers, teammates, classmates, and students. Coach Dugener talked about how he was created to be a father, and guys continued to talk about being leaders, followers, servants, helpers, and encouragers.

SIBLINGS PRACTICE---

I hope that basketball gives guys another avenue for glorifying God (as basketball players, teammates, etc.), and I hope that it can also prepare these young men to glorify God in who they will be called to be later in life (husbands, fathers, bosses, workers, church-leaders, etc.).   I hope that basketball enhances who these guys are as they are called to now be (brothers, classmates, students, etc.)  I fear that sometimes our role on a basketball team can take us away from some of these other roles, so in wanting to enjoy how God called us to be brothers, helpers, and leaders, last Tuesday night we had a siblings practice.  We invited younger siblings and friends from 1^st-8^th grades and the 30 of us enjoyed a night together.

Prayer

    At the beginning of each practice we pray.  At the end of each practice we pray, and before and after each game, we pray, all together as a team each time.   It is a good habit.  It is a good routine.   I grow so accustomed to this routine that I half-expect to hear the break down"1-2-3-TEAM..." immediately following prayers at home.

     My question for the team last week was about the purpose of prayer for our practice.

    My concern about our prayers were that as they were routine, they were not always entered into wholeheartedly. And as picks are not effective when they are not done with purpose, I feared that our prayers had lost some of the meaning.

    The conversation we had helped even me recognize the value of prayer outside of basketball. We  talked about the power of prayer, and determined that praying would still be a good thing to do as much as possible.  I hope guys grow in their prayer life, and  as we continue to pray as a team this season, that we would with a purpose.

Grand Haven Scrimmage Info

Scrimmage

@ Grand Haven High School

Friday, November 28^th, 2014

                        1          Grand Haven                          Bob Eidson

                        2          Baldwin                                 Josh Kutchinski

                        3          Zeeland West                       Kevin Towne

                        4          Tri-Unity                               Mark Keeler

                        5          West Ottawa                         Steve Windemuller

                        6          WMC                                      Kyle Mastenbrook

Varsity Teams – 10:00am to 12:45 noon (gym opens at 9:30am)

West ct                      East ct                                                      Aux gym

10:00

1-4                              2-5                                                                  3-6

10:50

1-2                              5-6                                                                  3-4

11:40

1-3                              4-5                                                                  2-6

Done at 12:30 approx.

Junior Varsity Teams – 1pm to 3:15 pm

West ct                       East ct                                                             Aux gym

1:00

1-4                              2-5                                                                  3-6

1:50

1-2                              5-6                                                                  3-4

2:40   

1-3                              4-5                                                                  2-6

Done at 3:30 pm approx..

Freshman Teams – 4:00 – 6:30 pm

                                   

ALL TEAM NUMBERS REMAIN THE SAME ECEPT  FOR BALDWIN AND TRI-UNITY CHRISTIAN.  THEY ARE REPLACED BY RAVENNA JV AND TRI UNITY IS REPLACED BY GRANDVILLE

West Court                 Middle Court             East Court                  Aux. Gym

4:00 pm

1 VS 2                                                             3 VS 6                         4 VS 5            

4:50 pm

1 VS 6                                                             3 VS 4                         2 VS 5

5:40

1 VS 5                                                             2 VS 3                         6 VS 4                        

                                   

                                   

Game Format

Ø  JV/Varsity – 2 periods – 18 minute running clock, stop the clock the last minute of the game

Ø  Freshman – 2 periods-18 minutes running clock, stop the clock last minute of the game

Ø  Officials will be provided

Ø  Coaches can call timeouts, clock will still run, unless it is the last minute of the game

Score clocks will be available in each gym (you must provide your own scorekeeper)                                   

Foul Shots – Act of shooting will be 1 FTA worth two pts, unless it is an “and one”, then it will be 1 pt.

Ø  Substitutions – Dead balls or call a quick Timeout for a sub (Try not to take away an opponent’s fast break or advantage with substitutions)

Ø  BLOB/SLOB – decide with opposing coach and let officials know if you are going to use them or “check it” on top

Christ Sets Screens?

     The two things that have been emphasized the most in basketball practice on the offensive end are setting picks, and moving the ball.  Even if I have a mismatch, if I see an open guy, I can make a great team play by passing the ball and setting a solid screen away from the ball.  Without these acts, our offense will be stagnant and more difficult to defend.  With unselfish ball movement and solid screens, we can make life difficult for defenders.  Both of these things are acts of humility.

     I really want to confuse the reporters asking what our strength will be as a team this year by telling them "meekness."  This would seem incredibly backwards, but as Christ did some things that seemed backwards (Ie. coming to earth to serve, rather than be served), so we as his followers can understand how we can be called to humility.  

     I wanted to remind the guys of the two humble basketball acts we had been emphasizing.  I also wanted the guys to understand learn about the command to imitate Christ's humility.  We discussed Philippians 2 by having players say in what ways Christ was humble, in what ways we can be humble in basketball, and ways we can act in humility outside of basketball.

Mission to be Great Discussion Nov. 20

     We spent some of the practice time Thursday getting focused on what we were aiming for this season.  I was impressed by the participation of the group, and the maturity shown in their answers.   Coach Dugener took note of what the team agreed on would be good goals for the team.  These goals will be summarized into a mission statement that we will discuss at a later time.  

Below you can see a picture of the notes we took down, and some highlights from this discussion.

     We could all agree that it was important to play for the glory of God.  What was really beneficial was talking about what that meant or how that would look.  A verse that came up was, I Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  This was a verse I remember discussing with the seniors as they were freshman as our triple threat against the challenges we face. 

      We will talk more about the challenges we face, but in our discussion we talked about how basketball's challenges can give us an opportunity to test our faith.  Two good things can come from faith testing situations, a strengthening of confidence in God/Self/Relationship with God (See Abraham's Testing), or it can show that ones faith is not strong enough to rule their actions, and they must rethink their priorities.

     This discussion was a great start to further discussions that I hope will help aid these young men grow in their faith walk and help our team be unified in our efforts and mission.  From our team meeting, I can see that these guys "get it" about the importance of being unified in our efforts.  This was demonstrated by another thing we talked about, "characteristics of great teams."