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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: June 28, 2015 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
Deep Breath
The Oregon Ducks Football program is known for more than their arsenal of artistically inspired uniforms and their training facility, aptly named “the Death Star.” A Wall Street Journal article written earlier this year sent ripples through the Sports Talk world with a headline that read: “Why the Oregon Ducks don’t believe in yelling.” As you think about the culture of sports in general, but football in particular, here is a top flight program that no longer uses the traditional motivational tactics like screaming and belittling of players.
One might think that it’s only through a gauntlet of adversity that toughness is instilled. But Oregon is not the only place where an arm around the shoulder and an encouraging word has replaced a verbal tirade following a mistake that has had success with this motivational philosophy.
The winningest football coach in college football history, not Joe Paterno and not Bobby Bowden, is a man who spent 60 years as the coach of the small division III St. Johns Johnnies of Collegeville, Minnesota. With a record of 489-138 and four division III national championships, Gagliardi is famous for a coaching style that was predicated upon “Winning with no’s.” At practice, there was no tackling, no playbooks, no mandatory weight training regiments, no whistles, no grand offensive or defensive philosophy, and also, no yelling.
Stories like these beg the question: is there something unique, something transformative about being gentle with one another? It seems that there is a huge misunderstanding about what gentleness really is. We tend to think of gentleness as a form of weakness. But in reality gentleness is in fact a form of disciplined strength.
Download the entire transcript here: Ephesians 4 Gentle Strength
