S5 Ep31 Sports for Christ. Sports Ministry Outreach with Founder Pat Teague.

Welcome to Man Talk, a ministry sponsored by TAWCMM, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where we're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and to point men to their God-assigned roles. Now here's your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr.

Welcome back to Man Talk Radio. I'm Roy Jones, your co-host. And I'm Will. We're honored to have our former teammate, Pat Jack, with us for show number two. Praise God.

Amen. It's good to have him, Pat. Pat, thank you so much for joining us again.

My pleasure. I take it, Will, would you like to open some prayer and get into our second half of the conversation we talked about last week? Father, we thank you for the opportunity that you've given us on today. We pray for those who are listening, that if there are any issues that they have, that they can let your feet come to the cross and present them.

Relieve themselves burdened, Lord, whatever it is. We just thank you for everything that you are about to do. We pray that the words that we speak today will just honor you and help someone who might be.

We thank you for all that you do. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Well, Pat, what we'd like to do with the last show we mentioned, I'd like to hear a little bit more about your ministry. So that's what we'd like to devote part of this show, if not all, this segment to your ministry. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the vision of your ministry, how it was birthed and exactly your ministry.

And how that's impacting the community in your area. Well, the ministry that God's entrusted me with is called Sports Missions Outreach. And it's centered around 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Run in such a way that you may win. So let's be in it to win it. So whatever challenges that you're running into throughout life, that you have a winning game plan from God to be able to do that. And so we base everything on seven basic winning plays for life that reflects in the language of sports, but is applied to life so that you run a winning race for life through Christ. And we're built on four pillars on evangelism, discipleship, on partnering and serving. And so when you're centered on the gospel, the best thing you can do is be able to partner with others that have the same.

And so you build that work, I like to call it a fishnet, so that it's a lot better fishing with a fishnet than it is with one single pole. And so when you learn to work together with others, and again teamwork, that we talk about team, that you're part of the team. You can't believe that your ministry has all of it.

You're not. You're a part of it. It is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And so for me, I want to partner and serve together. And that's the key of service, serving, willing to watch the feet of others. So our main ministry part is to see other, even other ministries win. Even if ours doesn't win, we want to see our partners like a Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or Athletes in Action, or a church, or other ministries that are part of us to see His kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

If they're sitting on seeing people come to Christ, and to win them to Christ, build them up, and send them out, then we're all in what we can do. And so those are some of the things that we're built on. And so we use the language of sports. We want to walk out these winning plays for life. So in the school classroom, in the community, you're an impact player.

So you're a three-dimensional team. And we have another sidebar called the Letterman's Club. And so Letterman's Club is to help you be an impact player and serve the communities and your school and your team, and give you actually ways to measure the success.

You can be in that with a 2.5 GPA. To be a Letterman's Club, you attend at least 95% of all workouts with a C average. And then you're also involved in your community, the thing you're doing in the community. And so that gets you into the Letterman's Club.

And that's where you can get a Letterman's jacket and all those kind of things. But that's just a partner thing that we have inside. But the way the ministry started was during that recession, 2008, around that time. And God kept putting on hearts. I want you to start a sports ministry.

And I kept debating with him, saying, Lord, we've got Fellowship Krishna. We've got Athletes in Action. We have Sports Quest. We have all these ministries.

Why do you want another one? And he said something. I'm down the road after these debates. And he said, shut up. Just like a coach. And I said, shut up. And then he said, listen. Listen to me. And then I want you to do what I tell you. Run the play. Run the sports outreach.

And then you'll discover what happens. Lord, you know the session. So I approached the mission pastor, who's a great visionary, great guy, Doug Gamble, where I'm at. He understood mission. It's got to start with evangelism before you go global. So he's like, this is on his heart.

So we went from a 30-minute discussion to a three-hour discussion, drawing on a napkin, all kinds of things, you know, and going, you want me to do this? So six weeks during the recession time, all right, we raised the 80% that we needed to get started on the ministry in six weeks. And that was during very hard economic times for people. And God's like, it doesn't matter what's going on in this world. You live in my economy. And if you're advancing my kingdom, then you have my kingdom resources. So in other words, where God guides, He provides. And so sure enough, he sends me to a very closed country, you know, just to, and again, it was one of those things, shut up and listen to go. So I go and I come back and it was an amazing experience all in itself. And when I get back, he said, why did I send you to that closed country?

And I'm like, well, you can turn that up and let's do what you do. And I'm driving to school and he said, open door, no man can shut. And I'll shut doors, no man can open. Revelation 3.8.

He said, I'm going to open the schools to you. And I've already been told by other ministries, like, okay, you're never like right out of college, you know, and you know, the role model of, you know, you're older now and you've got a family, you've got kids and all this. But what God was doing was they can use early roles. So all guys that we, you know, in sports missions, we call smoke rows, you know, and they're all busy.

They're very active, very successful businessmen. They're like, I can't, I don't have time for doing ministry. And it's like, I don't want your time. I want your availability. I want your five loaves and two fish. If you're willing to lay what you have on the table, he'll feed the 5,000, you know, of course there's 5,000, but we know there was women that were in there. That's double the number. And that boy said, hey, this is what I got. And Jesus blessed it and fed the thousands. And I said, just put your fish on the table and your bread, and then we'll see what God does. Give me an hour here.

Give me an hour there. Cause you, they got to see you. Cause for guys it's visual. If they can't see it, they can't be it. That's one of our little slogans in sports. And then if they're visualized, they can't realize what it takes to take the steps to get to what they visualize. Whether it's on the field, whether they're one day being married, have kids, they see a man, a real man standing in front of them, not one who I think is a man, but a real man standing who knows he's a man. And he's telling them, hey, what you're learning here will apply there and later. So that's part of the plan is to see the men walk up to them and still that vision they had as a teenager, you know, now living it out as a man, you know, as a professional, as a father, as a husband, then they can begin to see. So they can begin to be it. We need to be.

And that's where we've been. That's it in a nutshell. That leads to my next question when you talk about fatherly role and that your teammates play in working with these young folks.

What do you think is the father's role in society today? He's got to be know how to be tender and tough because there's things you need to be able to listen and understand. And then there's a moment that you've got to have backbone to say, OK, OK, that lot of thinking is harmful and destructive to your life. And then I would say this is the way and be able to say I trust the creator, you know, just like good old guy of cars. Right. So I need to look in the glove compartment and use the manual that's in there for the car.

You know, I'm not going to, you know, afford a glove to learn, you know, to work on a Toyota car. Right. I need.

So who created you? Creative use gave us a user manual game plan book. You want to give us all the all the plays you need to run daily.

When the car to run it is optimal performance and the longest you need to read the manual. And that's I think we've been able to have to say I understand that's what you feel. But to be able to say this is the truth, the feelings will follow. You know, so I guess the role of a man today is a servant leader. I think, you know, he needs to be able to serve and be willing to get down in the weeds and, you know, on his knees.

Prayer to also serving and helping somebody. But then he's got to be able to stand up and be able to share the truth in love and patience. Show what patience looks like.

And I think the best encapsulation of what a man should look like is in First Corinthians 16, 13 and 14. Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be strong. Act like men.

Maturity. And then he says, let everything you do be in love. I think that's a great picture of what a man should look like. That's really good. I got to throw in Romans 162. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God. Notice the gospel is the power of God. Not any miraculous event. You know, I'm going back to miracles now.

Not any miraculous. See, the gospel doesn't need any help. And see, if that man stands that. That when you speak the gospel, you're speaking, you're prophesying. And from the prophesying, not prophesy, but prophesy is to speak the word, to S-Y, not to see why.

That's different. But when you speak that, God said, whoever's speaking the word, the word is going to do what I commanded it to do. It's going to go out and accomplish it. So if an individual who don't know Christ speaks, the word is still going to go out and accomplish what it's designed to do. And this is the beauty, I think, of when we talk about God. If he doesn't stand in the gap, then who's going in the gap for the family? And then we go back to the picture, Roy, that you put out.

Here are children with the cape and the sword. And, you know, I'm referring to. Yeah.

So here are standing, trying to do what the father who's sitting on the bench on the sidelines supposed to be in there doing. Teaching them. Yes. Having that spirit of the spirit.

Right. Going out and proclaiming the word of God, not being ashamed of the gospel. Because there's be some who don't believe. Romans three and three. What if some believe? Will that make of God of none effect?

God forbid. Let every man be alive and God true. That brings to mind when you're sharing that is Revelation 19, where it says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And so when we look at Jesus, he draws on me. That's his own words to all men.

All men. When I'm lifted up, I'll draw on men. And that's where I've been camping out a lot, is in Colossians, where it's about the preeminence of Christ in that book. It is the stance of Jesus is the answer to the world.

You might need to write a song about that. Because we have to have that minus, you know, Philippians two, two, five and six. Let this mind be in you, you know. So if that mind is in you because you're getting into the word, then you can't help but let what is in you come out of you.

Because that's what defiles a man. It's what comes out, not what goes in. Yeah. Yeah. So Pat, back to the fathers, and that's good dialogue there, man.

Very good dialogue. What percentage would you say of young men, and by the way, are you working with young men or young men and women? That's mainly what I'm working with. I'm not a woman. I just wanted to clarify that for our listening audience. Now, back to the question originally, what percentage of the fathers do you see with, or do these children actually have fathers or the fathers involved that you deal with? What percentage would you say have got a father in the home or don't have a father in the home? We're usually in a pre-game devotional setting or in a sport setting or in a practice setting. So we're not seeing a lot, you know, of what that is.

I can only go on. What they have, what they say to you. When you go to the game, you'll see the families and fans. But you're not sure how old they are, you know, because you're seeing them in a game setting and you're seeing them in a practice setting a lot. And we're seeing them, you know, in a school setting. So we're not seeing them in a home setting as much.

We did have a Bible study at one school where it was about six weeks we were attending, which was wonderful. But there wasn't a lot of discussion about, it was around the word and around, you know, there wasn't, so we're not seeing how much a player is involved. Right. But you know from the, you know, the situation that the coach told me about.

Right. That there's, you know, all kinds of issues going on and a part of it is the level of discipline, you know, behavioral discipline. More behavior has not been instructed, which shows the absence of the father instructing, you don't do that, you don't speak to your mother that way.

You know, that's not how you treat a lady. You know, those kind of instructions aren't being given. And so the role of the coach and the role we go into is in that. So it's just that we're not, we're seeing them in a public setting.

So we're not seeing this. So having said that, one could draw a conclusion that based on their behavior, even if the father is present, they're not instructing properly, they're not leading properly. Yeah, you know that there's this instruction because you're having to, you know, go back to square one is, you know, how to treat people, you know, and then respecting authority was never for authority. And would you say that's a large percentage of today's teenagers that they're encountering, the coaches are encountering are in that same mindset? And as well as, as well as referees. Wow. You know, and there, there has been some issues that referees, so there's a shortage start because of just the way, you know, treated. The way the athletes are acting towards them. Yeah, anxious.

Oh, wow. You know, because, you know, what I love to tell the coach, they, again, what they see is what they'll be. They see you acting up in your behavior. What kind of man, do you want a boy or a man playing for you? Oh, of course I want man. Well, then you got to make the manhood that you want to be displayed.

And some coaches will go, ouch. I said, well, then we got work to do. Let's get through it. Yeah. It goes back to that M and T, maturity. Maturity. Yeah.

And it's a task that all should be done. Right. And, you know, we were growing up, if we had a neighbor that saw us misbehaving, the neighbor would call you out just like your parents would. I'm going to call your mom. Yeah.

And they made pop. And see, that was the thing, too, because after your mom finished with you, then wait, your father gets home. And it was like, oh, no, I really got to go.

Do I need to sleep underneath the porch? You know, that goes back to that old, old series. Oh, absolutely. Father knows best.

So father, father hurts first and father knows best. It is. It is. Absolutely. Consequences for the, consequences for the actions.

Absolutely. Let's take it to the next level, talking about the father. We know that there's probably not the leadership, and we've talked about this many times on our program, Will and I have, that the evidence in public environment indicates that there's a lack of discipline, there's a lack of leadership, there's a lack of ownership, there's a lack of spirituality in so many men. And we think that's been since probably World War II, when all the women were after everything because so many men involved were off at war, and it just never moved back men leading their families.

One of the things I want to ask you about, Pat, is what do you see as the greatest danger in teenagers now, having said that about the parents or the fathers, what do you see in your ministry work, conversations with coaches, administrators, as the greatest danger facing these young folks today? I'm understanding what is true. You know, there's feelings and emotions. Because when you're in truth, it has nothing to do with feelings or emotions.

Right. And the feelings are a reward for walking out what's true and what is right, even when you don't feel like it. And so there's times that feel uncomfortable, and when they start to, you know, then peace should be your own power.

The Colossians, you know, it says that, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts or fire your hearts. And so it's like I heard it described one time is, you know, a strike in baseball, it's over the plate in the midsection, and that's what it's supposed to be. But you can feel like, you know, high and outside could be a strike. If you feel like it is, then they're going to put that. And so that is the biggest problem is blurring what, okay, just because you feel like you have a comfortable feeling doesn't mean, you know, truth hurts sometimes.

Yeah, it does. And accountability, I think that's the day of understanding. There's accountability and say, well, okay, being able to say that was my fault, my responsibility, I did something wrong, instead of getting away. I think that's the biggest danger is losing that they're irrefutable absolute timeless truths. It starts with Jesus as the truth. And so when you're in his presence, man, I see Jeremiah 17 says, my heart is deadly and sick. And sometimes you'll give me a glimpse of that how sick it is. And it's like, I can't run away from it. I got to face it. And I got to face it at cost. And if I'm not willing to do that, then I'm going to continue in my sin.

And I'm not going to be able to recognize, you know, what's going on. And now we're at Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot did not even know that just about to come. But Abraham was afraid he was in a relationship with God that he could even talk to God about it. And then he told him, why didn't he tell Lot? Because Lot had just drifted so far. He was out there. But because an intercessor, someone who stood by to find him that said, what will you say? It's just a few. You know, he just kept working and bargaining with God.

Where would you draw the line? And so that's I think the biggest thing that I see is the thing of what's what is true and what is not. And we have a issue, you know, with Christian leaders. The thing that I see, Roy, is I see peer pressure.

It's what I see. And from the vantage point of a team, we've always had this ideology that the general. Population says that, you know, if a team is not her body, they should be a team.

Well, those accountability piece. So if you're being a team and you don't understand the truth. Then now walk in darkness and you might to face an ability or some action that you took because you want to fit in because someone is strange. And that's what I see. See, I see peer pressure. People be part of thing. And if it's something that is appealing to someone else, but not necessarily them, and they stay around them long enough, then all of a sudden they begin to be drawn in because peers, you know, want part of what is they're involved with. That could be a danger.

But but they're getting involved things price. Then that's a good thing, because now instead of you being walking in darkness and being out the boundaries. Which for each of us in the public.

With the word. Now, we have to understand that consequences lie if we take the broad road blessings on the railroad. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Well, gentlemen, it's been a session to thank you so much for joining us, Pat. And I'm yourself available. And with your permission, we've got a couple more shows over the next few weeks we'd like to have you join us for. So in the next one, I believe we're going to pick up on the current some current affairs that we'd like to chat with you about. And we can go from there. But Pat, would you like to press out again?

So, yes. Amen. You know, as you're talking about boundaries, the referee blows the whistle, hold you accountable.

You can't be mad at the three. You know, it's become more to you. And you blow the whistle that you left when we're out of. And thank you, Lord, that you your grace and your mercy that you would for us to.

Because there's a way that seems right to a man, but will end in destruction. And we thank you that you keep us on your road. You said in Psalm 16, 11, that I will make known to you the path of life and in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand or pleasures forever. So, Lord, I pray that we would would be there.

We would be in your presence and we'd walk in the fullness of joy. So I pray for anyone that's listening this not in a joy, but a place of sadness that right now they would your presence and that they would seek you, seek you first. And that's in your kingdom. You add all these things to them and you're righteous.

There is a right way and a wrong way. And so, Lord, we seek you out and forgive us when we walk the wrong way. It's back to you that we would repent. We turn away from that change our mindset to walk in with your steps in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. As we conclude today's show, TAWCMM talking and walking Christian men's ministry are building a community of men to be servant leaders in their home, communities, churches and work environment. Check us out on our Web site for upcoming events and regular scheduled meetings. Don't forget to send us an email for topics that you would like us to visit in the future. Thank you for joining us today on Man Talk. Visit us at TAWCMM.com.