What should I do with the contacts from the team meeting?
Separate the cards according to their response. Depending on what you ask for on the card, you will probably have a few who express interest in meeting with you and others who aren’t interested at all. In both cases, take time immediately to pray over the cards and ask God for wisdom in future contacts with each athlete. Each of these cards represents a life that God has created and brought across your path for this season of life—don’t discard an athlete because of a negative initial response. Take note of their lack of desire to meet and continue to pursue them in other ways in the future.
Take the cards that indicated a desire to meet and put them in some kind of order. Begin calling them back and setting up appointments to meet with you. Attempting to meet over a meal is usually helpful since they have to sit and eat anyway, but take whatever window they offer you. When you call, reintroduce yourself and remind them of both the team meeting and their response on the card. Ask, “When can we get some time this week to talk?” (If not this week, as soon as possible.) Meet in a place that is neither potentially awkward (in a room completely alone) nor distracting (right in the middle of the student union). Make sure you get a day/date, a time, and a confirmed place before hanging up. Be sure to thank God for His favor in opening a door to meet with a student or coach.
What should I do when I meet with athletes to follow up their contact card?
Take some time to get to know them. Don’t be inattentive. Small talk in this case isn’t cheap filler to pass time until you get to the “good stuff”; it’s the raw material that allows you to make connections to the heart instead of dumping information on the table. Let the SHARE acrostic from the download option below guide you if asking good personal questions doesn’t come easy to you. Ask them about their family, how they came to this university, and about their spiritual journey to this point.
There may be a natural transition to talk about spiritual things. If there isn’t, don’t be afraid to change the direction of the conversation toward spiritual things. They filled out a comment card, they know why you’re here, and they chose to spend time with you. They expect to talk about spiritual things. The comment card is a great place to start: “On the card you filled out, you said you’d wanted more information on how to start a relationship with God. I’d love to talk about that with you.” Ask what prompted them to want to get together in the first place. Their answer might give you an indication of where God has them. They may have specific concerns or questions they want to ask. More often, they aren’t sure how to ask about their spiritual life, so be prepared to help guide the conversation.
Discern their current position related to Christ: are they somewhere in the pre-Christian stage, think they’re a Christian but have no idea how to walk with God, or perhaps maturing and desiring to multiply their life now? Being a good question asker and listener is critical in assessing their spiritual conditioning. If appropriate, use the last portion of your time to explain the gospel message. If they have checked on their comment card that they want to know more about beginning a relationship with God, by all means tell them. The comment card gives you a green light to share the gospel with them.
If they have not checked that box, there is much debate regarding the place of gospel sharing in these situations. Some believe the goal of meeting with a person is ultimately to get the gospel message in their minds regardless of what they’ve shared regarding past experiences. Others hold to a more long-term relational approach which suggests we have no right to share our beliefs until we’ve earned it over time. This is a much larger discussion that is worth pursuing outside this document.
The gospel is good news, but good news that is delivered into a specific life context with a developed history. We should always ask the Spirit of God to lead us as we listen to another’s story. In some cases, it just isn’t appropriate to do anything other than listen and empathize with the person’s story in our first meeting. But in most, if we’ve done a good job listening, it is entirely fitting to ask permission to share the message that brought you together in the first place. “Would it be OK if I shared with you what the bible says about having a relationship with God?” or “I’d like your opinion on a summary of what the bible says about God; could I take the rest of our time and get your feedback on this?” People play many different roles on campus: professor, coach, administration, facility upkeep, student. Your role is to have a prophetic voice on behalf of God; not calling down fire from heaven or predicting future events, but retelling the story that transforms a life and bringing His Word to bear on daily situations.
You might share your own testimony as a backdrop for sharing the gospel. No one can take your story from you, and even the most cynical to bible truth will usually listen to a story of God’s work in your life. (See the resource below on How to Write and Present Your Story).
As the conversation concludes, think through a natural next step. If the person just trusted Christ with you, suggest meeting again soon (the following week if possible) to answer any questions or begin going through the FollowUps (see the Discipleship section for more information about the FollowUps). Others may be ready for an invitation to a bible study or a weekly meeting or a social event. With the exception of someone who just trusted Christ with you, it may be a good idea to wait before committing to meet with someone regularly. They may feel backed into a corner, so always give them an out. Ask if they would like to meet again sometime and say that you will give them a call soon. If they meet with you again and have shown interest in getting involved, that is a better time to ask if they want to meet with you on a regular (i.e. weekly) basis for discipleship.
What if I couldn’t do a team meeting?
Sometimes coaches are not open to team meetings. Again, pray and ask God how to wisely move forward. Consider other ways to interact with the team that will not violate the coaches’ lack of desire for a formal meeting. While a team meeting is the swiftest and perhaps most efficient way to create contacts, it is certainly not the only way to get a ministry started on campus. In either case, ask God for creative approaches and for open doors with a handful of spiritually curious athletes.
Publicizing your events and meetings is another way to gain an audience, even to a small bible study. Make posters and ask for permission to post them in places where athletes will see them (training rooms, weight rooms, locker rooms, etc.). If you know of a Christian athlete on a team where you were not able to have a team meeting, he or she may be able to make an announcement to their team about events they can attend. If you don’t know an athlete on that team, you may know an athlete who is friends with someone on that team. Athletes have a natural network of relationships and you can encourage athletes to “spread the word”. Viral marketing works in starting spiritual movements, too!
Find ways to serve teams. Some campuses have invited teams to a team dinner, where they feed the entire team (or as many as show up) a meal and maybe play games afterword. This is probably not the best time to have someone share a testimony or have any spiritual content, although having a flyer or information sheet about the ministry available is appropriate.
Attending games and practices will help you build a presence on campus. As they become accustomed to seeing you in their context, it will be more natural for them to talk to you and to see you as a safe person. Sometimes meeting athletes under more natural circumstances makes having a conversation about spiritual things easier. If they see you too much, however, that may offset the advantage of visibility. You do not want to seem like a groupie or a stalker, so keep that in mind. Be available, but not omnipresent.
Prayer against hardened hearts should become a way of life for you. Consider making a commitment to walk around the field or sit in the bleachers several days a week, either early in the morning or late at night to avoid making a scene, to pray for the coaches, staff, and students. You must talk to God about people before engaging people about God. Make this your approach to each day and leave the results to God.