Weekly Content for P.A.C.K. MeetingsP – PRAYERPray for your time together. Ask God to give you open hearts and ears and a willingness to be open and honest with each other.
Wrap up your time together by having guys share additional personal prayer requests and pray specifically for one another.
You can also pray this prayer as a follow-up to the topic: Heavenly Father, please help me think differently than the world and be willing to approach everything in life through Your lens. I desire to obey You and live for Your will and purposes. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
A – ACCOUNTABILITYAsk guys how their week was. Follow up on last week’s topic about The Sandlot and fear.
Also, it can be an opportunity for guys to share any struggles or challenges from the week that need to be confessed or held accountable for.
If married, ask how everyone is intentionally serving their spouse…and if a parent, what the biggest challenge is right now.
C – CONVERSATIONTalk about weekly content that connects sports to life and faith.
UNPACKIN’ it DEVOTIONAL CONTENTMoneyballMoneyball is a 2011 movie starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Based on the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball season, the film insightfully chronicles how A’s general manager, Billy Beane (Pitt), and assistant GM, Peter Brand (Hill), built their team with a limited budget compared to the rest of Major League Baseball.
Beane and Brand took a unique approach to scouting and analyzing players based on analytics, stats, and numbers. Instead of buying players or choosing players for the same reasons as every other team, they valued specific analytics, such as on-base percentage.
The bottom line is that Beane and Brand decided to think differently and understood that the Oakland A’s weren’t like every other Franchise. So, they were willing to view players through a unique lens and try a different approach. Major League Baseball had done things a certain way for so long, and they were ready for a change.
Here are some of the key lines throughout the movie that capture what they set out to do:
Brand: “People who run ball clubs, they think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs. Baseball thinking is medieval.”
Beane: “We’re going to rethink baseball.”
Beane: “We’ve got to rethink this game.”
Beane: “I’m asking you guys to look at this game differently than you’ve ever looked at it before.”
Beane: “What if we’ve been wrong this whole time about what ingredients manufacture a win?”
In the movie, their willingness to fully embrace analytics or sabermetrics is viewed around the league and even in their own clubhouse as a crazy strategy.
Despite the criticism and questioning, Beane and Brand stick to their convictions and believe this new direction is best for the team.
Then, during the 2002 season, the Oakland A’s won 103 games and went on a 20-game winning streak, setting an American League record for most consecutive wins. They don’t win the World Series, but their success is admired, leading to future teams embracing their approach, including the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018.
Overall, it’s a memorable sports story and a very entertaining movie, providing an important parallel for us to consider in our lives.
In what ways do we need to think differently and change our approach?
Are we willing to embrace a new way of making decisions?
Just because we do something a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean we can’t change.
As followers of Jesus, we are made new and called to think much differently from “the rest of the league.” Our approach to life may even be viewed as “crazy” by everyone else, but our standards, values, and goals are not the same.
Even when facing opposition, are we willing to stick to our convictions and believe that God’s way is best for us?
Our daily challenge is to choose between living and thinking as the world does or living according to God’s will and purpose.
Will we approach our jobs, money, marriage, parenting, and suffering the way everyone else does, or will we take a different approach that aligns with God’s design in His Word?
Romans 12:2 (NIV) tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
1 Peter 4:1-2 (AMP) says, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh [and died for us], arm yourselves [like warriors] with the same purpose [being willing to suffer for doing what is right and pleasing God], because whoever has suffered in the flesh [being like-minded with Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [having stopped pleasing the world], so that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living for human appetites and desires, but [lives] for the will and purpose of God.”
Today, just like Billy Beane and the A’s “rethink baseball” in the movie Moneyball, let’s be encouraged to trust Jesus to help us “rethink life,” renew our minds, and approach every decision through the lens of obeying and glorifying God.
I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!
PODCAST:
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:Galatians 2:20 (NIV): “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:1. What are your overall thoughts on the movie Moneyball?
Do you think that analytics has had more of a positive or negative impact on sports, and why?
If you were the GM of a professional sports team, what would be your overall strategy to put together a winning team?
What new strategies or mindsets would you like to see incorporated into a particular sport, and why?
Why do you think you can sometimes find it so challenging to change your approach or mindset when it comes to certain areas of your life?
What are some mindsets commonly held in the world that you must reject if you want to line up your thinking with God’s Word?
As a follower of Jesus, how do you approach marriage, parenthood, your job, money, and suffering differently than the world?
What are practical steps that you can take to aid in the process of renewing your mind?
How do you think you should respond if you find yourself slipping back into old or sinful ways of thinking?
How do you think your life would be different if you embraced a biblical mindset with all decisions?
K – KICKING AROUND INTERESTING AND RELEVANT SPORTS STORIES AND TOPICS – YOU CAN START WITH THIS:Go around the room as each guy shares a thought, a hot take, an observation about their favorite team, or a big story happening. Save the conversation about the sports topic from the devotional for later.
THIS WEEK’S SPORTS HEADLINES/TOPICS:* MLB All-Star Game and baseball’s second half * ESPN’s Ranking of the top 100 Pro Athletes * Brandon Aiyuk trade request. How do you view players who demand a trade? * NBA Summer League * The Open Championship
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