{"id":27921,"date":"2025-05-15T14:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/?post_type=resource&p=27921"},"modified":"2025-05-15T14:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:31:20","slug":"softball-coach-finds-kingdom-purpose-after-cancelled-season","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/resource\/softball-coach-finds-kingdom-purpose-after-cancelled-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball Coach Finds Kingdom Purpose After Cancelled Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. \u2014 Sometimes the news you never wanted to hear isn\u2019t the end of something; it\u2019s an invitation to join God\u2019s mission in a new way.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Holly Pacini discovered when the small Christian school where she worked had to cancel its spring softball program. Coaching had long been a source of joy and ministry for her \u2014 a way to invest in young lives and decompress from her administrative duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this was a gift God had given me,\u201d said Pacini, the associate director of athletics at Trinity Classical Academy in Valencia, California, where she has served for the past 11 years. \u201cAnd suddenly, it was gone. I was crushed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Holly Pacini coached softball at a small Christian school in Santa Clarita, California. Coaching was more than a role, it was a ministry. When the school canceled its season, she grieved the loss. But through Leverage Your Life, a Bible study curriculum available from the North American Mission Board, she began to see how God was opening a new door for His mission.<\/em> (Photo provided by Holly Pacini)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right in the middle of that disappointment, Pacini\u2019s small group at Redeemer Church in Santa Clarita was going through Leverage Your Life<\/em>, a new six-week discipleship study from the North American Mission Board that equips believers to live missionally. One early session of the study challenged participants to name the places where they live, work, and play. Pacini and her small group found the exercise eye-opening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started talking about dropping pins on a map, just to see where God already has us each week,\u201d she said. \u201cIt helped us realize we don\u2019t have to go anywhere new to live on mission. We just have to open our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then, something unexpected happened that made the truth even clearer. Another local public school invited her to help their softball team.<\/p>\n

Pacini was initially reluctant to step into a new environment and new circle. But the Leverage Your Life<\/em> study and the friends going through the study with her helped her see it as an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I completely missed it,\u201d Pacini said, referring to the coaching opportunity. \u201cI didn\u2019t see that this was a huge open door for the gospel. It\u2019s such a different environment from where I work. But when I talked to my small group about it, I realized this was something God was clearly doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stories like Pacini\u2019s were exactly what Trevin Wax, Vance Pitman, and Clint Clifton had in mind when they met in January 2023 to reshape the values that define Send Network.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leverage Your Life is a new six-week discipleship study from the North American Mission Board (NAMB) that equips believers to live missionally. The study helps participants to how they can live on mission where they live, work, and play.<\/em> (NAMB photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cClint and Trevin just had this burden that this didn\u2019t need to be just for planters. Every believer needed to understand how they could leverage their life to join the mission and expand the kingdom,\u201d Pitman, who serves as president of Send Network, said. \u201cIt was Clint and Trevin who really pushed me to do this series. So, at their request, we wrote it as a series for the everyday believer, the everyday follower of Jesus, so they could learn that Jesus has invited them to leverage their life for the sake of his mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a few hours after that meeting, Clifton \u2014 a longtime church planter and the North American Mission Board\u2019s senior director of research \u2014 died in a plane crash.<\/p>\n

The study walks participants through five Kingdom priorities: seeking God\u2019s Kingdom above all else, deepening personal devotion, living in gospel community, multiplying disciples, and engaging their local context as a mission field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. That\u2019s from Matthew 6:33,\u201d Pitman said. \u201cFor most believers, when you ask them what the kingdom of God is, they think about eternity: Heaven out there, somewhere in the future. But Jesus said the kingdom is here now. It\u2019s meant to be the number one priority in our lives, meaning everything in my life should center on and revolve around the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full Leverage Your Life<\/em> study, including videos and the participant guide, is available as a free download from NAMB . Printed copies of the guide are available for purchase.<\/p>\n

Pitman encourages church leaders not to treat the resource as a one-time group series but as a tool to shape a culture of discipleship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis needs to be part of a holistic disciple-making process,\u201d he said, \u201cwhere people are learning to walk with the Father, live in community, and leverage their lives for his mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pacini, those five priorities helped her see her coaching role in a new light, not just as a skill to use, but a calling to steward. What once felt like a closed door became an unexpected invitation to live on mission.<\/p>\n

Now, as she coaches at the public school, she sees herself differently. Beyond simply being a coach, she now sees God has intentionally placed her in that role. Leverage Your Life<\/em> didn\u2019t just give her a curriculum; it gave her a new lens to see her calling.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Pacini sees God\u2019s fingerprints all over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been in that circle,\u201d Pacini said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been in that part of town. I love when the Lord does that. He already knew I\u2019d be walking through this study, and he had this whole plan in place before I even saw it. That just blows my mind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out more and download the study at leverageyourlifestudy.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. \u2014 Sometimes the news you never wanted to hear isn\u2019t the end of …<\/p>\n

Softball Coach Finds Kingdom Purpose After Cancelled Season<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27922,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-27921","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSoftball Coach Finds Kingdom Purpose After Cancelled Season - 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