Goal Questions Intro Slide What is your goal?   That’s a big question that might have different answers throughout your life. A goal is simply something toward which you aim. Some goals are achieved quickly, perhaps daily, while others are accomplished over months, years, or even a lifetime.

Doing Sports God’s Way starts with having the right Goals. Goals are part of the formula: Goal + Motivation + Strategy = Success. Using this powerful formula will help guide you towards a great, new athletic experience. The Goals section reviews the Fruit of the Spirit, helping you apply them to your goals in your athletic performance.

What’s my motivation?   That question is typically something an actor might ask the director when rehearsing their lines. It’s important as they hone their craft and prepare to give the best performance possible.   But the question of motivation is far more important to ask yourself in everyday life:   What gets you out of bed in the morning?   What keeps you showing up for school?   What makes you want to go to work?   What drives you to be loyal to a family unit?   What inspires you to contribute to your local church, your local community, and society at large?

When operating within a biblical worldview, our motivation as competitors (just like our Goal) should always be based on conforming to Christ. Whatever motivated Him during His life and ministry on the earth should also be what motivates us as we walk our Christian faith as athletes and coaches.   “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing His work. (John 4:34/NLT)   In John 4, Jesus used a physiological metaphor about the human need for food to explain to His disciples what motivated Him to complete the work God had sent Him to do.   Like Jesus, our desire to do God’s will should drive us in every athletic situation and everything we do.

Strategy Introduction How do you get there?   That is the million-dollar question. How do you get to a place where you compete at peak levels as an athlete or coach? You may never reach your full potential without the correct answer to that question.

In the book Doing Sports God’s Way, we’ll look at three specific spiritual disciplines that Jesus modeled while on earth (Prayer, God’s Word, and Fellowship) that will help us become the Christ-following competitor that God has called us to become. We’ll also look at other strategies displayed in the Scriptures (i.e., Flexibility, Preparation, Communication, Risk, etc.) and consider the strategic advantages they bring in the heat of competition.

What is winning? Do you measure success as becoming a champion, breaking records, defeating your opponents, earning a scholarship, or do you see it as positively impacting those around you and becoming a part of a team? The world around us and our modern sports culture continually tell us that winning by beating your opponent is everything and that it is the only way to measure success.

When we have a biblical worldview on competitive success and the rewards that often follow, it’s always a good idea to remember what Jesus had to say about the matter:   “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. (Matthew 6:19-21/NLT)   In the book Doing Sports God’s Way, we look at ten ways to determine whether we have a biblical worldview on competitive success, including these topics: convictions, identity, focus, excellence, contentment, endurance, prosperity, unity, submission to authority, and effort.   Thank you for completing this assessment. We hope this assessment helped you to think through what it means to be a Christian athlete or coach, especially in our modern sports culture. Clearly understanding your approach to goals, motivations, strategies, and their impact on success is integral to what we consider a Christian athlete. We believe that if you learn to play His way, you can experience a total release of your God-given abilities. The results of this assessment will automatically be emailed to you based on the e-mail address you put in your information. As you review your results, you should explore the Kingdom Sports website in greater detail as it has a large quantity of supporting materials. Also, consider individually or with your team purchasing the Doing Sports God's Way book series, as it can be revolutionary in changing the culture and maximizing your team.