Mark Tronson is a retired Baptist minister who founded in 1982 the Sports and Leisure Ministry (under Heads of Churches), was the Australian Cricket Team chaplain for 17 years to 2001 and a receiptent of the Olympic Ministry Medal presented by Olympian of the Century Carl Lewis in 2009, an author of 25 books and a prolific writer.
In this series on Miracles, Mark Tronson is taking the reader on a journey of faith through his own ministry illustrating time and time again how the Lord's touch blossomed a situation where the only response was to offer praise to the Almighty.
Christian Ministries and Missions across the centuries can point to similar outcomes which has resulted not so much in new buildings but in both the intangible and tangible such as changed lives for Jesus or the excess of alcohol converted into children's shoes.
In this second article Mark Tronson noticed from his Christian heritage that "prayer" was the secret to opening the heavenlies and the miraculous, so he set about finding five ladies who might commit to prayer every day - his and Delma's marriage, their children and their ministry.
Once they were on board he felt confident in the Lord to forge ahead to the next stages of development. This involved three very different aspects of ministry and each has played its part in the Lord's blessing over these past 29 years.
Mark Tronson was invited to the Los Angeles Olympics on a three fold basis. He was writing Olympic hockey, Kevin Gosper the President of the Australian Olympic Committee and Chairman of Shell Australia invited him to be involved in the Los Angeles Olympic "Religious Services" program (Mark was the Industrial Padre at Shell in Sydney), and thirdly, he undertook a study tour of US Sports Ministries in LA and Dallas, Texas. This led directly to his first doctoral dissertation on sports ministry.
Another major factor in the development of the sports ministry was its administrative foundation. Reverend F P McMaster impressed upon Mark that if you get this right, the ministry will flow well and people will have confidence in the process. Mark Tronson found he had a penchant for exacting administration.
After five years under the umbrella of ITIM, it was decided the sports ministry required its own wings and ITIM's Reverend Roger Reid retained the chairmanship to ensure a steady hand. This led to Incorporation in 1989 with tax deductibility when minister and barrister Ross Clifford became Chairman and five years later Reverend Peter Thomson took the reigns which in 1998 saw our successful ATO full audit.
In this time he established the Jethro principle (Moses' father in law who advised Moses to spread the load) where each generic sport was appointed a chaplaincy co-ordinator who became responsible for building their own chaplaincy team. They were left with confidence to do this, on the ITIM principle of chaplaincy appointments.
The third major initiative was the development of the Sports Chaplaincy. The Australian Cricket Board was the first to adopt a chaplain and invited Mark Tronson to be that chaplain.
This is where God's timing played such an important part as it was in the early '80s that many Australian sports were in the throws of becoming fully professional and part of that process involved Mark Tronson visiting each major professional sport across Australia, introducing chaplaincy.
There was a recognition that US professional sports had chaplains and it followed that they too should pursue this service to their employees (athletes and coaches). One of the interesting aspects of this was that Mark Tronson ascertained who was the "King Maker" in each organisation. In some, it was the CEO, in other's the Head Coach, in others still the Chairman of the Board, in others, a Board Member or some very influential person to whom the organisation highly valued their opinion.
Mark Tronson sought out this "person" when introducing chaplaincy and developed a philosophy that it is a partnership between their organisation and the Christian Churches.
He recalls time and time again how the prayers of the five praying ladies held up his arms (as Aaron did for Moses) as professional sports after professional sport adopted the ministry, from the PGA, to Motor Racing, to AFL, NRL, NBL organisations, the Australian Institute of Sport …..
Mark Tronson criss crossed the nation as Delma maintained the family fires at home. These were heavy duty years. Mark has written a series of Miracle articles of how each generic chaplaincy developed for publishing in Christian Today Australia next month.
The miracles associated with those early years are again too numerous to recount here, but we can point to the LA Olympics and Mark Tronson's subsequent US study tour which provided so much valuable research for his initiating sports chaplaincy in Australia.
The Chairman's the SLM Board who each provided such solid support and encouragement for his administration skills, and the travelling around the nation negotiating chaplaincy's to each major professional sport. Each has its own unique story and miracle. The financial support from those who sent in love gifts.
Miracles No 3 tomorrow will centre on the Athlete Respite Ministry.