TONY DUNGY – FRIDAY NIGHT PLAY BY PLAY

It was a crazy day, we finished reproducing our last piece of product at 4 a.m. Friday morning, loaded it and jumped in the car to head to Cinncinnati. We arrived at 11:30 a.m. and the it was "game on" ... for everyone else ... I went and took a nap. Woke up in time for the evening General Session. It was amazing, especially looking though new Youth Leader's Coach eyes.

Pre-Tony
Started out with a hilarious video with Josh, Matt and, an upcoming star, “couch." It was really funny, you can see it on Josh's blog (just click the link on the side)

Doug came on talking about the goals of the conference, Group's desire is that the youth pastors/leaders know that…
1. You are not alone
2. God is using you
3. You can get practical help

Thom and Joani were introduced with a fun video. The audience voted with cool clickers on whether they wanted them to…
1. Answer an awkward question
2. Share a heartfelt welcome
3. Kiss Passionately

It was close, but “answer an awkward question” won out over “kiss passionately.”

Worship was kickin’ with a little ancient-future modern day remix of a couple of old hymns.

Tony Dungy Intro
Doug had Andrew intro Tony Dungy by telling the heartfelt story of how Tony personally stopped by his house to talk to his friend with cancer. [It was a great way to intro a speaker, much better than the rant of accomplishments you normally hear.]

Tony Dungy
After reading Josh-Judges, I get a little nervous. In chapter 24 we have Joshua saying, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” But by Judges 2, after Joshua and the elders died, the next generation didn’t serve the Lord.

How did that happen? God’s Word didn’t get passed along to the next generation. It’s meant to be passed on through the family.

God’s design for passing on His Word is breaking down. Some of it we can’t help because of…
1. Children being born outside of marriage.
2. Divorce at staggering rate.
But some of it we can help.

Tony went on to tell us during the Football Combine (currently happening in Indianapolis, how do I know this … because I just spent $139 day to get the cheapest rental car I could on Tuesday night), when they are scouting new players they get the opportunity to interview each player for 15 minutes. 4 out of 5 interviewed didn’t grow up in a two parent home. When Tony asked, if you didn’t have a dad who helped you … it’s always a junior high, high school or college coach. They were the first person to care, show love.

His question is, “who reaches the non-athlete, who is helping them grow spiritually?”

***

Parents words are more impacting when reinforced by another individual. Tony talked about how he kept trying to get his son to get up more than 10 minutes before he had to leave in order to eat breakfast, instead of a Pop Tart on the go. He couldn’t get him to do it … that is until his coach asked him … at that point, everything changed.

***

Chuck Knoll told Tony his job was to “make our players better.”

Some players improved immediately while others improved over time. He talked about one of the Baltimore quarterbacks. Later saw him in passing one day and he said to Tony, “If you hadn’t been so hard on me I wouldn’t be married and have these kids today.” Tony said, “him saying that to me was better than any Super Bowl.”

Coach Knoll's advice to Tony, same advice to us...
1. Learn your craft. You’ve been a player, now you need to learn to be a coach.
2. Make it personal. Be yourself. Those natural things God put in you need to come out now. Take an interest in the young men. Every player is a little different. Your job is to help ALL of them. Bad teachers can help an “A” student get an “A”. A great teacher can make everyone an “A” student.
3. January in football can be a down, kind of depressing time. There is usually only a day or two off between July and January.
a. Need to rely on Christ. It’s not me, but God working through me. Proverbs 21:31, we prepare for battle, but the victory is the Lords.
b. Focus on the Lord (Joshua 1:8).
c. Trust the Lord with setbacks. They tend to bring you closer to the Lord, increase faith. It allows me to encourage people during similar times. I can’t do that if I am winning all the time. Tony’s got more letters of how his story helped after he got fired from Tampa than from the Super Bowl. Paul, “pressing forward…” Never know when the next person crossing your path, you’ll get the opportunity to help change eternity.

I think they did the slap video after Dungy. It was hilarious.

Worship

Recognized volunteer John Allen at Saddleback.