Justin Sullivan A Life Worth Following

It just blows my mind as I sit down to write today that we are in the middle of our third week with the Ambassadors.  Our coaches are right on every time they say "Guys, when you put that Ambassador uniform on, it is about so much more than playing baseball."  

The truth is that so much has happened in such a short time.  As of today, we have seen over 100 people pray to receive Christ.  We have shared the gospel with over 1000 people either in a church, at a clinic or on a ball field.  We have been able to communicate the gospel to hundreds of elite baseball players after almost every game we have played.  It really is incredible to watch our guys huddle up with their opponents after a hard fought baseball game and communicate how a person can begin an authentic relationship with God.  It is a lot of fun using our gifts on the baseball field to help point people to Jesus.  I am so grateful that He is letting us do this kind of work.     

Even though this summer is more than baseball, we sure are playing a lot of good baseball along the way.  One of our major goals with each one of our guys is to help them get to the next level in their baseball career.  We are doing a lot of work with each Ambassador helping them improve as ball players, and each week they are becoming better athletes.  

At the same time we are pushing them on the field, we are pushing them equally as hard off the field.  This summer, we are passionate about training the Ambassadors to effectively walk with God.  Just like we have a plan to help them gain exposure on the baseball field, we also have a plan to help them grow in the understanding of God.  In this blog post, I want to outline what we are teaching our Ambassadors during our discipleship times and how we are investing in them spiritually.

From the very beginning, we have prayed that the Lord would help us fulfill the challenge laid out in 2 Timothy 2:1-2.  God's word says:

"You then my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others."  

As we began the journey of seeking out Ambassadors, we prayed that the Lord would lead us to those reliable men who need to learn how to walk closely with Him.  It is our prayer and plan that every one of our athletes would become one of those reliable men who will be qualified and trained to effectively share the message of Christ with other people.  

Over the first three weeks, the following is a quick outline of what we have been teaching them.  

Week 1:  Truth:   

• Reach:  This first week, we began with how we know Christianity is true.  The spiritual goal for the week was to help develop a biblical worldview.  All our teaching for the week sought to answer the Matthew 8:27 question:  Who is this Jesus? 
• Grow:  We then connected each player with an accountability partner and explained the guidelines for personal accountability.  From the very first week, we wanted to get our players on the the journey of holding each other accountable.  If they can begin the habit of opening their life up to another brother, they will more likely follow through with God's plan for their life.  In addition to accountability, we began pushing them to memorize the Word.  The first verse memorized was Psalms 119:9-11.  Make sure you ask them to quote it.   
• Send:  As we help each player answer the question:  “Who is Jesus?”, we also began to model for them how to share their testimony with others.  The first week, our coaches and former Ambassadors were called upon to share their testimonies.  Before we encouraged our guys to step up to the plate and speak in public, we needed to model how to get up and communicate with others about God.  Several of our new guys stepped up and shared and it was fun to watch them get out of their comfort zone. 

Week 2:   The Bible is God’s Word

• Reach:  This week our goal was to communicate that the Bible is God’s Word and is our ultimate authority.  Our guys needed to grasp that God’s Word should direct our beliefs and our actions.  Our teaching for the week focused on how to study the Bible and how to correctly apply it to every day life.  I am very grateful to Rick Thompson, pastor at Council Road Baptist Church, because he came and poured into our guys during this week.  It was a blessing to have his influence in their lives.  
• Grow:  We continued our weekly accountability times and this week, each group took a deeper step with each other.  This discipline of accountability is helping them experience the blessing of having another brother in their life pushing them to walk with the Lord.  Second Timothy 3:16 was the memory verse.  If you rub shoulders with an Ambassador, ask them to quote it. 
• Send:  During our second week, we also spent some time helping them learn how to tell their story.  We encouraged them to share their testimony with their accountability partner.  In week 2, we began helping our guys prepare to share their story in front of a group of people.  This is very important for us because our guys need to be able to respond effectively when God opens up doors to speak to other people.  Because we have abilities on the baseball field, doors will open to speak about God.  We are working to prepare them to be effective communicators so they can respond well when those opportunities come.  

•  Reach:  This week our focus was on who God is and what He is like.  Man has always attempted to conceptualize God according to his own image.  We wanted our guys to understand that God is not bound by our ability to explain Him.  This week, we encountered the “OMNI” doctrines of God (His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence) and the reality of the Trinity.  On Monday, we took the opportunity to pour some good "theology" into our young men.  Theology is important because as they teach others about God, they have to seek to understand how the Bible describes Him.  It really is mysterious because God is so BIG that it is really hard for our finite minds to understand Him.  At the same time, He has revealed Himself so clearly that we can know Him.  As we come to know God more and more, His love and purpose becomes clearer to us and other people see Him in us.  This allows us to live lives that are worth following and that is one of our major goals this summer.
• Grow:  This week we will continue to develop their accountability relationships.  Each accountability group was challenged to choose a section of Psalms 139 to memorize.  Each group is supposed to decide on the passage and hold each other accountable to put it to memory.  Please ask an Ambassador to quote one of the verses they are memorizing.  
•  Send:  This week, our focus is to teach our guys how to take the Bible and use it to lead someone to Christ.  This week we are working to equip them to take the Bible and communicate the plan of salvation.  We will help them learn how to walk through the “Romans Road”.  Romans:  3:23, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9-10,13.  This is really important for our team because God is already opening doors for many of our guys to share their faith with others.  Monday, Coach V asked how many of our players had encountered opportunities to share with someone on a trip so far.  Almost every hand went up.  AMAZING STUFF!!!  As we approach the second half of the season, we will be playing several teams who have already heard Justin's story and the story of how the Ambassadors began.  Since many of our opponents have heard those stories, it is time for some of our players to share their own personal story with our opponents.  Please take some time to pray for each of our guys as they walk through the doors that God opens for them with individuals on and off the baseball field.  

I would like to ask that you continue to pray for us as we work on building Ambassadors for Christ.  We are also still working on our funding for our foreign trip.  We do believe that the Lord wants us to take our teams outside the borders of the United States.  At this time, the funding is not complete and we are still working on completing that dream.  Would you pray that the hearts of folks would be stirred to help us send our Ambassadors to Nicaragua to share Christ through our abilities on the baseball field?  

At this time, we really believe the Lord wants us to go.  If He has another plan for us this summer that does not include a foreign trip, we are ready and willing.  We simply want to ask for your partnership in prayer for our ministry.  

Thank you for helping us build Ambassadors.