By Dan DiFolco Knowing how to operate in high pressure situations is a skill of any great sport official. Even more so, referees who thrive in chaos and remain steadfast are arguably the best ones. Like our faith, it’s easy for anyone to live out the likes of 2 Peter 1:5-7 when all is well, when all is under control. Seems like ICs and misapplication of rules never really affect much in scrimmages or exhibitions. But what about when things are on the line? More so what happen

By Jonathan Hodgson S.O.S. Communications Manager I firmly believe that it was God who put a story in front of me, and did it twice in a short time period, so I couldn’t miss it, and part of it is it's relevance to what we're doing at S.O.S. It's the Bible story about the paralyzed man at Capernaum with the four friends who lowered him from the roof of a house to Jesus’ feet. “Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, ‘My friend, your sins are forgiven!” Luke 5:20. Jesus saw

by Pat Fraher People, let’s get to the heart of the matter. That’s all God wants; your heart. But He wants all of it. No, we’re not talking about the center of your circulatory system; we’re talking about the center of your inner being... your ‘spiritual heart’. Your spiritual heart is your genuine and authentic self. It contains your conscience, your courage, and your desires and affections. It is the central hub of your emotions, your mind, and your will. It’s the part of y

By Pat Fraher In preparation for our upcoming Referees Embracing Faith Conference, where this year's focus is 'Salvation: A gift and a call', we are doing some serious thinking about salvation. We are studying five different aspects of salvation, and doing some critical, honest thinking about where each of us stand. In week one, we reflected on just how aware we really are of what God did for us by sending his only son Jesus to be sacrificed in our place. In week two, we exa

By Pat Fraher In preparation for our upcoming Referees Embracing Faith Conference, where this year's focus is 'Salvation: A gift and a call', we are doing some serious thinking about salvation. We are studying five different aspects of salvation, and doing some critical, honest thinking about where each of us stand. In week one, we reflected on just how aware we really are of what God did for us by sending his only son Jesus to be sacrificed in our place. In week two, we exa

By Pat Fraher In preparation for our upcoming Referees Embracing Faith Conference, where this year's focus is 'Salvation: A gift and a call', I thought that we should begin doing some serious thinking about salvation. Over the next five Sundays, we will be discussing different aspects of salvation, and doing some critical, honest thinking about where each of us stand. In week one, we reflected on just how aware we really are of what God did for us by sending his only son Je

By Pat Fraher In preparation for our upcoming Referees Embracing Faith Conference, where this year's focus is 'Salvation: A gift and a call', I thought that we should begin doing some serious thinking about salvation. Over the next five Sundays, we will be discussing different aspects of salvation, and doing some critical, honest thinking about where each of us stand. Last week, we reflected on just how aware we really are of what God did for us by sending his only son Jesu

By Pat Fraher In lieu of our upcoming Referees Embracing Faith Conference, where this year's focus is 'Salvation: A gift and a call', I thought that we should begin doing some serious thinking about salvation. Over the next five Sundays, we will be discussing different aspects of salvation, and doing some critical, honest thinking about where each of us stand. Before we go any further, please watch the following short video to preface this week's entry: https://www.youtube.c

By Dan DiFolco co-Founder, Sport Officials Surrendered I wanted to share something that moved me today that I couldn’t help but relate to what I believe God wants to do through the Sport Officials Surrendered community. It was in an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, “This Cultural Moment”. Mark Sayers who pastors Red Church in Australia elaborates on an Illustration based off a point made by an past Anglican priest, Martin Thornton, from his book in 1949 (book was

SOS advisor Pat Fraher concludes his series 'Define Eternity' with this entry, delving in to what it means to fully surrender your life to Christ. Watch this video to hear Pat explain his heart and vision for this blog series. --- In part 1, we defined eternity in the worst possible scenario... in Hell.  In part 2, we looked at eternity in the best possible light... in Heaven.  Hopefully by now, you have decided that you would prefer eternity in Heaven over Hell.  Good choice

This is the second of a three-part blog series from S.O.S advisor & NBA referee Pat Fraher entitled 'Define Eternity'. In this this video, Pat explains his heart for this critical message. In my previous post, I asked you to ‘Define Eternity’, and to consider something that we don’t really think about: It’s unending. Specifically, we looked at the reality of Hell’s existence, and the fact that you don’t want to experience one second of that place, or worse yet, unending torme

Over the next few weeks, we will bring you this blog series from S.O.S advisor & NBA referee Pat Fraher entitled 'Define Eternity'. Watch this video to hear Pat explain his heart for this critical message. A friend of mine has a phrase that he uses to provide instant perspective for people in their lives. It’s only two words, but very powerful: Define Eternity. He uses it to help people evaluate their current motives, ambitions and priorities in life. ‘Define Eternity’ assum

By Pat Fraher I was given a book by a friend called ‘Be a Man: Becoming the man God created you to be’ by Father Larry Richards. I didn’t think I needed it so I put it in my backpack and forgot about it for six months. When I finally got around to reading it –out of sheer boredom- it began to smack me in the face. Father Larry challenges the reader to think about what they believe and why. Right from the first chapter, he gets the reader to contemplate their mortality. The

By Dan DiFolco Things are different now. They just are. Big things cause big currents, and big currents cause turbulence.Turbulence causes comfort issues, and turbulence is not necessarily bad all the time because the outcome of it is perspective, unless it becomes dire. Life as a referee or umpire can be seen in this imagery: Big plays, big calls, and tough rule implementations all can cause big currents in our game that then cause turbulence, which can make us and our crew