Dr John Best, who spent six years in the Wallabies’ inner sanctum, told GEOFF ROBSON the 2003 Rugby World Cup is a time of opportunity for sports ministry in Australia.

There have been two significant ‘conversions’ in Dr John Best’s life.

The first came when he switched rugby codes, from league to union. That decision, which many friends called a change from ‘the dark side to the light side’, led to his involvement at the highest levels of Australian rugby.

The second conversion was his decision to become a Christian 16 years ago. And these two aspects of John’s life are now deeply intertwined,  following his six-year stint as team physician for the Australian Rugby Union team, the Wallabies.

After playing rugby league at school, John headed to Newcastle to study medicine, where he switched to rugby and pursued an interest in the emerging field of sports medicine. After studying at the AIS, he later spent a year at London University.

During his training he was involved in medical care with various rugby teams. He was the Easts rugby club doctor for five years, and in the early 90s was approached by the ARU to help with touring squads like the sevens and under 21s teams.

Then in 1993 John says he was approached ‘out of the blue’ by the ARU to be the Wallabies’ new team physician, a position he held until the end of 1999.
During his time with the team, Australia emerged as the dominant side in world rugby. That period included two World Cup campaigns, which John describes as ‘two very different experiences’.

“In 1995 we went to South Africa as the world champions from 1991, but looking back we probably didn’t prepare as well as we could have, and attitudes weren’t as good as they could have been,” he said. “We struggled through that tournament and lost in the quarter finals.”

Following that disappointment, Australian rugby entered a rebuilding phase, which culminated in the team winning the 1999 World Cup in the UK. While this remains the obvious highlight of John’s time with the Wallabies, it’s clear that the overall experience of being part of the team was just as important.
What he now remembers most from his time in the job are relationships. “When you travel and live with people, there are enormous opportunities to open up and get to know them,” he says.

“In my role as team physician, my responsibilities were to help them maximise their performance.” And as a committed Christian, John brought a unique perspective to the task of preparing individuals for peak performance.

But that hasn’t always been his perspective. Despite going to a church school, John left school ‘pretty much agnostic’ when it came to God. “I thought, ‘if you’re a good bloke, that’s good enough; you’ll get a guernsey’,” he says.

By his own admission, he was part of ‘one of those very cowardly groups’ that antagonised Christian students at university. “Little did I know that at the time there was a group of people praying for me, that I may understand the extent of God’s love and understand who Jesus is.”

Things changed dramatically when he was invited along to a church meeting in 1987, which he reluctantly agreed to attend. “The preacher spoke on the story of the prodigal son, and it was like a light switch getting flicked on. I came to the realisation that I had been running away from God and ignoring him,” he says.
“I found the invitation to come back to him irresistible. So I became a Christian then, in March 1987, and since then it’s been a wonderful time of enjoying God’s grace and mercy.”

Becoming a Christian has impacted every part of John’s life, not least his contribution to the Wallabies. As team physician, he looked at every aspect of the human being – not just the physical, but the spiritual side as well. “Those things do affect performance,” he says. “If a player is not happy off the field, he can’t perform at his best on the field.”

During that time he ran Bible study groups of between two and six players, and still meets with some of those players today.

But this openness to bigger issues became a two-way street, with many players keen to discuss spiritual matters with him. “It was fairly common for me to be working in my room, finishing some reports, and players would just walk in, pick up my Bible and say, ‘Mate, I don’t know much about this, what’s it all about?’
“Initially I was extremely surprised as to how many players were honest enough and comfortable enough to ask. But I realised, as I lived with them and observed them, that they’re basically normal people who live very abnormal lives. They experience extreme moments, but once those moments pass the excitement goes and the reality of life becomes, ‘what’s my foundation?’

“I found the level of openness of all professional athletes far exceeds that which I’ve seen in other men.”

But even with that openness, John says it was important to go the extra step and actively discuss spiritual issues with players. “Just rubbing shoulders with high-profile athletes doesn’t mean you’re ministering to them,” he says. “It means you’re building a relationship, but there comes a point where you need to find out what makes them tick and what they believe.”

John has recently been appointed the Tournament Medical Officer for Rugby World Cup 2003. The role will not only involve him in the world’s biggest sporting event of 2003, but he is hoping it will be a chance to promote the many opportunities for Christian ministry connected to the event.

In a country known for its love of sport, John believes that sports ministry in Australia is still immature, with most of the focus being on chaplaincy to elite athletes rather than reaching the community. But he is hopeful that the World Cup will be a step towards changing that.

At least 40,000 visitors – the number that visited for the Olympics – are expected in Australia for the World Cup, with some estimates closer to 80,000. And with Australia defending the title and the event running for six weeks, excitement and awareness is sure to be high.

John is challenging churches around Sydney to take the chance afforded by the World Cup. In addition to big screen events and evangelistic meetings, one avenue of ministry he suggests is a skills clinic. This could be as simple as asking the local rugby club for some help in teaching kids basic catching, passing and kicking skills.

“Ask them to join you after for a sausage sizzle, and talk about who you are and what you believe in your church,” John suggests. “That, to me, is the church getting into the community. That’s what we struggle with, but it’s not that hard.

“Churches can combine the themes of sport and Christianity very easily,” he says. “It promotes questions like, What is real victory? What lasts forever, beyond a World Cup?”

“Because we have the great truths of the Bible and because we have an answer to our problem of being apart from God – that is, Jesus – there are wonderful opportunities there.”