Little League – Big Opportunity

It is spring – and that means Little League to many families. Whether it is baseball, softball, soccer, or any other game; the spring sports season can occupy huge chunks of time in our family schedules. How can we make the best use of the time the family invests to let our little Jimmy Rollins run the basis or our petit Mia Hamm cover midfield? I’ve got a son who does fall soccer and spring baseball and here are some things I’ve learned.

• For many folks, little league sports functions as an equivalent of a church. They are sincerely committed and see it as a positive part of raising their children. But I have a church and sports is just a game. So I shouldn’t be surprised at how much commitment on the part of parents and families is assumed by the leagues. I need to bring wisdom to how much time and money commitment my family makes, and help my little leaguer have his or her expectations of involvement set by the family and not by the team.

• I’ve talked with my son about his role in being a witness for Christ on the team. All of my instruction to him about obeying the coach, playing hard but fair, guarding his tongue and ears, being an encourager, watching his attitude, etc are directed first at his opportunity to be a witness. While there are leadership and sportsmanship values to be learned, they are secondary to remembering who he represents on the field.

• Having established a wise balance of commitment and helped my son prepare for his role, I want to invest myself as fully as possible. This is the greatest evangelism opportunity I may get all year. I try to be at every practice I can, and help out any way I can. If it means dragging the field, umpiring, lining the base paths, coaching first base – I make it my goal to serve my child’s coach in any way he can use me. This gives me an opportunity for servant outreach and, in addition, let’s me be part of my son’s experience beyond just rooting him on.

• As a family we have an evangelistic focus to little league. My son has his role – to be an example and befriend his teammates, particularly the ‘uncool’ ones. I have the job of getting to know the dads and developing conversational relationships that can lead to witnessing opportunities. When Jill can be there she is engaging moms. It all works together. As my son handles himself in a godly way on the team, dads notice, which opens up doors for me. And as I engage dads, moms take notice and that opens up doors for Jill.

• Often our chicken barbecue outreach invitations come out right before the end of the season. So we have something of a goal to be in position to invite folks to that outreach through building relationships.

Last Spring we were away for several weeks during the season, which made it more difficult to develop relationships. But two years ago I had the chance to share at various times with the dads on the team and was able to spend an hour and a half sharing the Gospel with one dad when we took some of the boys to a minor league game.

If you have kids in league sports this spring, pray that God will give you a strategy for Gospel impact with the time you invest.