“I really feel like we’re supposed to be here right now.”
Ryan said it somewhere in the middle of three and a half hours around our dining room table this week. Baseball talk had become testimony. Ryan Ramirez, Jerm Almaguer, Mike and I — sharing thoughts about the game we all love, its impact on boys during their most formative years, and what it might look like to serve the Lord through it.
No one rushed to fill the silence. We just sat in it for a moment, probably because we all felt the same. In all honesty, it was the first time I felt a quiet confidence that His Farm System might not simply be an idea we created. It might actually be obedience.
His Farm System is discipleship through baseball.
And discipleship is built the same way anything worth learning is built: through the daily reps, not the highlight reel.
Jesus gave us two great commandments for our time here:
Love God. Love others.
Baseball gives us a place to practice both. (What a good gift!)
Every practice and every game hands a boy real moments. Success to receive with humility. Failure to face with honesty. A teammate’s success to celebrate without envy. An unfamiliar role to accept with a willing spirit. An opponent to respect while competing with everything he has. That’s where discipleship happens.
Not using Jesus to build better ballplayers. Using baseball to help young athletes grow in their relationship with Jesus.
The Hill Country Wings are where that mission gets lived out — competitive, well-coached, and serious about the game. We play to win. We expect effort, preparation, accountability, and growth. Families should expect real development, in both skill and heart.
But we should also be honest: we don’t imagine this being the easiest way to “succeed” (read: win) in today’s commercialized youth sports system. We’re not building around status, specialization, or the pursuit of the most talented roster within a hundred miles. We’re developing utility players, which means boys will be stretched into positions and responsibilities that may initially feel uncomfortable but ultimately serve them far beyond the game. We’re asking them to compete fiercely without becoming arrogant. To remain loving, humble, and respectful — even when winning ugly might be easier or feel warranted. To care as much about who they're becoming as how well they're performing
We’ve been warned it's not the surest formula for stacking trophies (we concur). But we believe it is a faithful way to form young men. Our conviction is simple: The more we look like Jesus, the better teammates, coaches, servant leaders, and ballplayers we become.
We cannot promise what will happen on the scoreboard. But we can be faithful with what God has placed before us. And we believe He is bringing together the right coaches, families, players, and conversations — in His way, in His timing, and for His glory.
His Farm System is a mission to make disciples. The Hill Country Wings allow the mission to take flight. We’re eager to see what happens by stirring up some right time, right place, right people.