Deion Sanders took the helm of the Colorado Buffaloes in 2023 and took the college football scene by storm. Hate or love him, he brought much attention to Colorado and made them a team that people paid attention to. It was not just football fans taking note; a lot of the country was eager to see what the Buffaloes would do. He was able to attract people to his mission for the football team. There are church planting lessons from Coach Prime that urban planters can note. Many people don’t plant in the urban context because they know the same old strategies will not work there.
There are church planting lessons from Coach Prime that those called to go to unexpected places for the sake of the Kingdom of God can learn from. Much of what Coach Prime accomplished required an outside-the-box approach similar to church planting. The church planters have one thing they need to do, and that they must not change, and that is the Gospel, but how they do that must be contextualized to the times.
Coach Planting Lessons from Coach Prime? How Is This Related to Church Planting?
What does an NCAA football team have to do with starting a new church? There are lessons that the church can learn from things that can grab people’s attention outside of that world. Think about it: that is what every church wants to see with the gospel. They don’t just want seasoned Christians to come to their new church, but they want people who don’t consider themselves religious to check out the church. Coach Prime had people who could care less about football paying attention to his team.
Early in the Book of John, you see Jesus continually saying, “Come and see.” Today, many in the church fight about whether the church should be attractional or inward-focused, and the answer is both. We want to attract the world to the church so they can learn about the King of the Kingdom and submit their lives to him. The church can be attractional without becoming like the world or being considered a seeker-sensitive church. Church planters rely on scripture but pay attention to what is happening to contextualize the gospel. For example, many churches use technology and software to manage volunteers better. They are not doing this to be like the world but to contextualize the gospel. The church can learn from the world only to reach the world with the Gospel.
#1 – Tell The Story.
The biblical narrative is built on a story about God. Over and over again, the Lord says, “I am the God who rescued you from the hand of Egypt.” Generation after generation was expected to pass down stories about who God is and what he did for the people out of his love for them. The story can bring people from life to death if you understand that the Bible is true.
Deion Sanders brought much attention to Colorado because he told a compelling story. He did not have the most incredible story ever told in the Bible, but he found a way to get people to care. His coaching story started to pick up steam at Jackson State when he took a struggling HBCU and turned it into a powerhouse football program with his sons on the team.
He brought attention, excitement, revenue, and hope to the program. He carried that success to Colorado and built on that story. Coach Prime made people believe he could coach and would use slogans like “we not coming, we here” and “it’s personal” to get his players, the media, and the Colorado Buffaloes fans to buy into what he was doing. Coach Prime is a master of using social media and other interviews to tell the program’s story and get people excited about recruits, personnel moves, and other things he does to build the program.
The Church planter must be a master storyteller:
- Tell the story of your call to plant a church
- Tell the story of the vision of the church
- Tell the story of your call to ministry
- Tell the story of Christ finding you and the Holy Spirit Pricking your heart.
- Tell the story of the city your church is in
- Tell the story of the neighborhood your church is in
- Tell the stories of the people God has saved through your church
One of the problems with most churches is that they do not tell enough stories. Crazy transformations happen at churches that people who go to those churches never even hear about. That is a horrible Gospel witness. When people are transformed by the gospel, the church should be the city on the hill and shout from the top of the hill so that all can see what their master Jesus is doing in their city.
#2 – Don’t Do The Same Old Stuff
One of the things evident in the Bible is that God rarely moved the way people expected him to. No one would have thought he would save Egypt by first showing them he is more significant than all of their Gods, then parting an entire sea. No one thought God’s people would eat food that fell from the sky. Who would have guessed that God would use his people to march around a city and bring the walls down? God moves in ways we don’t expect him to because it forces us to trust him.
Coach Prime did things differently. Everyone was shocked that he had the number of players enter the transfer portal to bring in his “Luis Luggage.” The way he runs his team, the coaches he brings in, the way Prime dresses and everything he does is outside the box. The mission is the same: to win football games, but he stopped trying to do, be, and sound like the other coaches. That will drive some crazy, but it’s attractive to many people.
Church planters need to get outside the box when doing things that are more traditional than biblical. There are so many things the church in the West does because it uses its culture and not the Bible. The Bible does not say that sermons need to be less than 30 minutes and sandwiched between 2 songs so that you can get to the next service. The Bible does not say that the elder team should function like the board of a Fortune 500 company. These are cultural elements that people become used to and assume that it’s the only way to be.
Churches in the West have gotten good at reaching middle to upper-class white Americans. That is fantastic, but many churches have not figured out how to welcome the poor among us or how to get all of the immigrants constantly moving to the USA from all over the world. The church in the West has figured out how to put people on a plane to share the gospel but has not figured out how to go to the most challenging neighborhoods in their city. Why is this? As a church planter, you must do different things to reach different people. The gospel of Jesus Christ never changes, but how we apply it and use it is always contextualized.
#3 Make Sure They Believe
Jesus was the best storyteller to live and could cast vision like no other. In John 14:26, it says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Jesus is casting vision for the Holy Spirit in John 14: 26. Then Hebrews 11 reminds us that the entire biblical narrative of salvation was away from belief in the Messiah. There is no way you could be saved other than having faith in the Messiah. When the Word became flesh in Jesus, he did the same, showing people they should have faith in him and that all his words were trustworthy. Whether it was seeing Jesus work miracles or being convicted by the Holy Spirit, the work of God comes down to believing in his work and not trusting in our own.
Coach Prime focuses on getting his players and coaches to believe. Everything he did was to get people to believe. I remember one interaction with a reporter who did not believe in the CU Buffs, and all he asked that reporter was, “Do you believe now?” Of course, he didn’t answer him, so Coach Prime moved on to the next question. Coach Prime had to take a bunch of student-athletes from different places and pull them together as a team quickly. He understood that this could not happen without people believing. This one may be the most important of the 5 church planting lessons from Coach Prime.
Church planter, you have to cast a vision for the church. You must cast a vision to unbelievers of who they can be in Christ. You must cast a vision for your staff and let them run loose after that vision while you fundraise and cast a vision for other churches and people who want to see the gospel move forward. Casting vision never stops for the church planting. If you don’t first believe in Christ and his call to make disciples of all nations, then no one will believe in you.
#4 – You’re Always Crazy When You’re First
The Apostle Paul endured so much persecution, establishing the church and bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. In 2 Cor 11, he writes, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times, I was beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three times, I was shipwrecked; a night and a day, I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”
It cost Paul to go first in bringing the church of Christ to the Gentiles. Coach Prime went first in doing many things as a Coach in the NCAA. He hired a different type of staff; he let go of many players and is not your typical coach. He focuses a lot more on raising men and character development. Before the season started, he faced a lot of criticism, and then the team started winning, and the love turned to hate. Then the team started losing and began facing a tonne of hate again. When you go first, the process can’t be trusted, but when it works, everyone follows behind.
Church Planter, you are going first. It’s going to hurt. You will be planting in a world that is increasingly hostile towards Christians. You will have to raise money, manage teams, love hard people, lead people, lead different ministries, raise up leaders, and still love your wife and family well. Church planter, it will be the hardest thing that you ever do! Know that people will think you’re crazy. This only gets worse when you decide to go to hard neighborhoods.
#5 – Evaluate Talent Differently
Since Coach Prime had to rebuild a Power Five college team quickly, he had to become skilled at evaluating talent. He could not use the traditional challenges and look where everyone else was looking because those players would have been taken already.
In the Bible, you see repeatedly that our perfect God uses imperfect people. He takes people who have no business as the mouthpiece of God and uses them to point to himself. Look at Abraham, who tried to sell his wife as his sister out of fear twice. Look at Moses, who killed a man, or Paul, who hunted down Christians. David was the least impressive at first glance among his brothers. Peter seems to always come up short in the most critical times, yet God used them all and many more for his glory.
Church planter, you need to evaluate talent differently. When you are starting a church, you’re working with less. You don’t have all the resources and talent on your side, yet you must find ways to make things work. You’re going to have to get good at evaluating talent. You’re going to be around many more new Christians, and you’re going to have to see what people can be. The church planter must understand that the next church planter may not even be a Christian. Take these 5 church planting lessons from Coach Prime and use them to lead a church that can reach all people.
