Personal Transformation in the Lives of Sports Camp Coaches
The Connection | January 2026
Welcome to The Connection, a round-up of fresh stories of transformation and resources for spiritual growth and healthy leader development. Visit our website to learn more about our work at LeaderSource. Thanks for reading!
A Word from Malcolm
“Jesus did not run seminars. He walked on roads with His disciples and ate meals with them. He invited His disciples to watch Him pray, confront opposition, show compassion, be rejected and suffer, and submit to the Father. They learned leadership by living with Him.
Programs are useful. Tools are helpful. But only true disciples will become healthy Christian leaders who walk deeply with God and remain faithful to Him whatever the cost.
The future of the Church does not depend on how many leaders we train. It depends on whether we build the right ones – leaders who have heard Jesus’ call, surrendered their right to independence and given themselves to Jesus for life.
This is where true spiritual leadership begins.”
Personal Transformation in the Lives of Sports Camp Coaches
“Every time I prepare for training — during the design phase and while praying — the Holy Spirit always strongly reminds me: This is God’s vision. It’s His work. And every time, it’s something new! He will reign and lead; we are simply hidden in Him, co-working with God. As we think proactively, offer ourselves, and stay sensitive to His guidance throughout the process, beautiful things are bound to happen — and indeed, they always do!
Time and again, things have happened that far exceed what we asked or imagined. This has especially built up my heart in knowing God, relying on Him and fearing Him. God is truly among us. It has greatly strengthened my courage and confidence in Christ – I don’t need to fear, because this is God’s work!”
More Stories
Transforming Young Lives Through Sports: “I want to keep in touch with you and stay in this community. The love of God touched me and changed me here. I don’t want to go back to my old lifestyle. I want to keep moving forward.”
A Unified Church in East Asia: “The teaching was a like a big bomb that broke the rock of separation into pieces. Now we can embrace the spiritual reality that in Christ we are actually one.”
Pastor J — Finding the Missing Piece: “I don’t know if I can find the appropriate words to say this but in my many years as a pastor, I feel like I have been looking for something that consistently eluded me. I found it this week.”
New Designs for God Is Sovereign
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God has been an issue of great confusion for many centuries in the Church. Around the world, Christians have been split into two camps, one proclaiming that God is sovereign, the other responding that man is responsible for his actions.
Biblically, both positions are true. The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the genuine responsibility of man. God does not ask us to figure out how this is possible. He simply tells us that both are true, and He expects us to believe and to act on that knowledge, whether or not we can reconcile it.
When we simply believe what God said in His Word – we receive extraordinary treasure. We live in the profound benefits of both positions!
Based on the third volume of Transformational Theology, God Is Sovereign, this companion book is packed full of practical ways to apply this doctrine in your everyday life. The goal of doctrine in Scripture is never just to gain knowledge, but to be transformed by God’s truth!
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Love how this captures the shift from program-focused to presence-focused leadership. The coach's realization that God is doing the work and they're just co-laboring really flips conventional ministry thinking. I've seen alot of camps get caught up in perfecting tehir curriculum when the real transformation happens in those unscripted moments of genuine connection.