What pastors can learn from football coaches

Jim Mora was the popular coach of the New Orleans Saints NFL team.  On one occasion, as he and I shared an elevator, I introduced myself. I said, “Preachers can appreciate what coaches have to put up with.  We both work hard all week and everything comes down to a couple of hours on Sunday.  It’ll make or break you.”

He flashed that smile that charmed every fan, calmed many a sportswriter, and drove a few referees nuts. “But,” he said, “they don’t call radio stations the next week criticizing every little decision you made, do they?”

No, I guess not.  A friend said, “If they’d pay me the zillion bucks these guys get, I could stand that.”

Now, football coaches and pastors probably have more that differentiates us than we have in common.  A coach tends a small flock, usually no more than 50 players and a few assistants.  At the upper echelon, he gets paid astronomical bucks, is answerable only to one or two bosses, and his season lasts just a few months.  The typical pastor may have a flock numbering in the hundreds and receive a salary barely sufficient to keep the house heated and the children clothed and fed.  The pastors are answerable to everyone and his brother, and work year round with no letup.

The coach’s job description can be summed up in a sentence or two: Win games and try not to embarrass the company.  But pastors, God bless ’em, labor under multiple layers of expectations and demands and requirements.

Coaches can be profane and possess huge character defects, but if they win games, fans are going to support them.  This cannot be said of a preacher.

That said, here are a few lessons a successful coach could impart to us preachers given the chance…

–The future is uncertain.  Work to win now.  You don’t have time for a 20 year program.

–If you must rebuild, win some victories while doing it.

–No coach or pastor can do it all.  You will need help.  Assemble a great staff around you and people will think you are a winner.  Encourage them to do their job.  Support them privately and defend them publicly.  Pay them well.

–Even though fan-base may adore you or slam you–dousing you with Gatorade one day and raining down criticism the next–try to keep your equilibrium.  Work at being the same yesterday today and tomorrow.  Don’t let either group–the adoring groupies or the caustic critics–get to you.

–Even though people will dissect what you do on Sunday, don’t resent them for it.  It goes with the territory.  Consider that they buy the tickets and have a right to their opinions. Try not to let it get to you.

–Be glad, preacher, they don’t make your sermons the subject of call-in radio shows all day Monday.

–You are always recruiting. For pastors, this means you’re always evangelizing and ever alert for leaders to bring into key positions.

–Even the best leaders make mistakes.  Learn from them and go forward. Do not obsess over your errors, even if some in the cheap seats will refuse to let them go.

–Even though you are calling the plays and constantly making assessments on the skills of your players, learn to value the people around you.  The day you start treating your assistant coaches and players as pawns to make you look good is the day you begin going downhill. Value your people.

–There will always be some in the stadium who know more than you do and are glad to announce it to the world.  But they’ve never coached or suited up for a game.  Every church has its share of know-it-alls and loud-mouths.  Try to ignore them.  They go with the territory.

–In a ball game, a trick play occasionally is fun, but the basics–blocking, tackling, and moving the ball–are what will win games.  The basics in ministry?  A winning pastor will  be strong in preaching, staff leadership, vision-casting for the congregation, and personal ministry.  Go for excellence.

–Remember no coach is here forever.  Everyone moves on, and another comes in to take over. A wise pastor will constantly work to build the people, establish sound principles for the operation of the church, and leave it stronger than when he arrived.

–Be quick to praise, slow to criticize, and always supportive of your people.

–Last year’s championship is quickly forgotten.  You should be winning victories this season too.

When I tossed out this question to Facebook friends–“What can football coaches teach pastors?”–a hundred comments were quickly posted. Clearly, there are a lot of thoughts on this subject.  Some comments were facetious–get a huge contract with a strong buy-out clause, never unpack your bags, go for two points more often–but most were variations of the points above.

More pastors should emulate coaches in staying focused on the end result:  winning the game.  For ministers, that means making disciples. To do that, we must discipline ourselves, work with the leadership team, preach the word, stay close to the membership, and be humble on our knees before God in order to be mighty on our feet before people.

By the way, I hope you get a raise for the great year you’ve had!

 

 

 

One thought on “What pastors can learn from football coaches

  1. The coach is a motivator. The pastor could stand to learn from the coach how to motivate. The coach keeps the pep talk short right before the game. The pastor would do well at times to be like the coach.

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