Navigating business and faith
New Amarillo baseball owner also heads up Christian group
By Mike Haynes
Amarillo
and Texas Panhandle residents know D.G. Elmore as the face of the Elmore Sports
Group, which plans to move the AA San Antonio Missions baseball team into
Amarillo’s future $45.5 million baseball stadium in 2019.
Elmore
certainly is a leader in sports business as well as heading up travel, food and
other enterprises. But ballpark crowds and wheeling and dealing aren’t the only
priorities for the 59-year-old Indiana
resident. He also puts great importance on one-on-one interactions where the
topic is a little more lofty.
D.G. Elmore |
“I came to
faith in high school through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes,” he said in
a July 11 interview. The spiritual growth of Elmore and his wife, Gini, grew when
they got involved in couples Bible studies in college.
“We had
been walking with Christ a number of years, but it was through the Navigators
ministry at Indiana University that we learned how to really become practical
disciples, how to walk with Jesus,” he said.
The
Navigators have been around since the 1930s, when young Californian Dawson
Trotman took 2 Timothy 2:2 to heart and began a ministry of teaching Christian
basics to others, who would pass on the teachings in a chain of personal
relationships. The international headquarters are in Colorado Springs.
Elmore said
the organization complements local churches. “We come alongside people and help
them grow in a one-on-one relationship which supplements what the church does,”
he said. “The Navigators has zero interest in being a church.”
Locally, Mitch
and Jaylene Williamson lead the Navigator ministry at West Texas A&M
University. Bruce and Rosie Das, who started the WT group, still head up
Navigator Bible studies in the area. Amarillo College had a group sponsored by
David Ziegler until Ziegler retired from AC last year.
D.G. Elmore speaks at a June news conference announcing the new Amarillo baseball team. (Photo by Michael Schumacher/Amarillo Globe-News) |
Elmore has
been U.S. board chairman since 2011. He is just the fourth person in the
position, having succeeded 80-year-old Jerry White, a retired Air Force major
general, author and still a nationally competitive handball player.
“Our DNA is
about making disciples and doing it one-on-one,” Elmore said. “It’s not events.
It’s not large groups. It is meeting with people over coffee, it’s meeting with
people for a meal, talking about where they’re at in their relationship with Christ.”
Fans of the
new Amarillo baseball team or patrons of other events at the stadium won’t
necessarily see overt displays of the Christian message, although Elmore said
most of his company’s other ballparks have a “faith night” along with other
special promotions.
“We’ll be
looking for all sorts of entertainment to go along with baseball,” he said. “Certainly
Christian acts would fall in line with that. When we had our team in
Birmingham, we partnered up with an evangelist, we’d bring in a Christian band,
and usually if there was a player who was a really strong follower of Christ,
they would give their testimony.
“In other
cases, it’s much more low key, where faith night is one night where we’re
trying to get a bunch of the churches to come out and generally have a
Christian band playing afterwards or before.
“Whether
it’s a church group from a smaller community in the Panhandle or a larger
church in Amarillo, we want every night to be one of those nights where they’re
going to feel like this is a great event and a good time to be together.”
Over a
baseball season, however, Elmore said the plan is for everyone to feel
comfortable, whatever their beliefs. For those interested, beer will be sold at
the games.
“All of
minor league baseball is about family-friendly, affordable entertainment,” he
said. “We want to bring that for everybody. We’re trying to create that type of
environment that anybody and everybody can have a great time enjoying an
evening at the ballpark.
“I think
it’s going to be awesome in Amarillo and in the Panhandle.
“Our desire
is to serve and care for and love our fans in the way that we believe a
follower of Christ should care for a community. Whatever religion, non-religion,
if they feel cared for and served, that’s fine. I think that’s how Christ
really wants us to operate in society: to communicate love and care for people
wherever they’re at.”
Elmore
isn’t new to Texas or Amarillo. His law and master’s degrees are from Indiana University,
but his bachelor’s degree is from SMU in Dallas. His freshman roommate was from
Amarillo. But his base is Bloomington, Indiana, where he helped start a local
group 25 years ago called Men’s Life.
“It was started before all the churches had
men’s groups, before Promise Keepers,” he said. “We currently have a quarterly
men’s luncheon where we bring in a guest speaker to share how their faith in
Christ interacts with the world they live in, whether it’s in Congress or in
business or in medicine, how that all connects.”
Elmore said
Amarillo baseball fans won’t see Christian banners hanging in the new stadium. “If
there are people who have zero interest in Christ, I just want them to have the
aroma of Christ when they come into our ballpark,” he said. He paraphrased the
advice attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Always preach Christ, and only if
necessary, use words.”
“That’s how
I see helping people move toward Jesus – how I love them and how I serve them –
not by handing them a tract, not by hanging a cross up. I want them to say,
‘There’s something different about that guy.’”