One of the major philosophical aspects of providing chaplaincy to all the various forms of professional sport, the Australian Institute of Sport and the Olympics is one fundamental question – What am I about as the chaplain?
The InterChurch Trade and Industry Mission (ITIM) has a long standing pedigree of providing chaplaincy to both industrial settings and commercial corporate organisations.
This is where I learnt my trade (as it were) as a chaplain in industry. I became part of ITIM in 1981 and served for 12 years for two days a week as the industrial padre at Shell Australia in Clyde Sydney.
I had completed four years of seminary, concertining my primary theological degree in three (with first class honours and two academic prizes) so as to do practical subjects in my fourth and final year. Usually there is a requirement for 5 years pastoral experience before being accepted as an industrial chaplain with ITIM, this was forgone in my situation as I had been a locomotive engineman (train driver) for 10 years and my academic and practical studies were deemed as outstanding.
The ITIM model allows the chaplain to enter into their ministry arena with their own theological practical agendas, in other words there wasn't a prescript saying this is how an industrial chaplain operates in these 40,000 different situations. It is left to your wisdom and how one might seek the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of those one serves.
It is a mix of pastoral care, street wise understanding, a good grasp of theology in practical ministry, quiet outreach and a sound calling from the Lord to mission.
Enter chaplaincy to Professional sport
When in 1982 I was endorsed to attend the 2nd World Congress in Sports Mission in Hong Kong, and returned with a report to ITIM that was influenced by my industrial chaplaincy experience and 10 years of train driving 'street wise' background, the notion of sports ministry trod a similar path to industrial mission.
The work place is a mix of people from a wide range of backgrounds, religious views, family orientation, interests, some very smart, others with a different kind of intelligence, and this was much the same as elite sport.
My 17 years as chaplain to the Australian cricket team saw this model employed and as I negotiated with professional sports around the nation, it was this same message. Moreover I emphasised this was not my ministry, nor the church, but it was a partnership with the sport organisation, as a 'duty of care' to their own people (the athletes and their families).
The Australian Institute of Sport immediately recognised these parameters and that relationship has been very rewarding and with Shell Australia's chairman Kevan Gospel the IOC Vice President at that time, I was invited to the Los Angeles Olympics to be part of the 'religious services' team. In February 2000 Kevan Gosper arranged for me to visit the IOC in Lausanne Switzerland to work with their professional staff in developing a 'transfer of knowledge' of religious services for future Olympic host cities.
Difficulties
The difficulties of this holistic model was highlighted in John Skinner's article yesterday on Rodeo and Christians where he wrote when I visited the Rodeo:
"Those who met Mark just didn't understand what he was about (he had no intention of being the Rodeo chaplain) and there were closed hearts, even some making the most abusive comments about Mark – but we persisted .... American Rodeo Christians who come to Australia win many more souls for Christ than anyone here does – albeit, when they go home, they leave a vacuum and many fall away."
The philosophy of these American Rodeo Christians, put simply, was the number of souls won and counted on the cowboy belt. This model and the industrial chaplaincy model are like 'chalk and cheese'. As John Skinner painfully noted, so many simply fell away.
I found to my dismay this 'bash and grab' was essentially the American 'chaplaincy model' to similar USA individual sports, such as tennis, golf, motor racing and the like, whereas their team sports such as Gridiron, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey necessarily had a model similar to industrial chaplaincy as there was a close knit community.
Those American team sport ministries, as in Australia, saw a much lower, even small numbers who chose to follow the Lord, who became genuine followers of Jesus, having had a long look at the life and ministry of the chaplain, then sought advice and received wisdom-biblical consults.
The other model saw many fall over the wire (as it were) and as John Skinner witnessed, the seed fell on shallow soil - and - there was no one to follow up pastorally and with a genuine heart ..... as in the title, you lose them in Round 1.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html