I’ve been realizing more and more the need for intentional next steps in sports ministry. Let me explain. Sports is a great context to build relationships with non-believers but what happens after the season is over? Hopefully those relationships continue but often they do not. Obviously, you would love these relationships to continue but sometimes another context is needed. Invitation to a church worship service is always an option but sometimes people aren’t ready for that yet. So, what do you do?
Listen to what Nev Hayman did (from the Good Book Blog):
Nev Hayman is 41 and has three children. He plays for a soccer team set up by a friend from church, who play in a local league. Half of the team are Christians, and half aren’t. They recently began to run CE with some members of the team.
What’s the idea of the team?
The idea was to set up something evangelistic, where guys from the local area could get to know us and see that we may be Christians but we’re still normal! So we play each week, and then go to the pub after the game, just forming friendships and getting to know people.
Why did you decide to run CE?
We pray before games and sometimes have chats with the guys about Christianity, but we weren’t really getting much further. So we just thought: Let’s try to get these guys to a CE course. But instead of inviting them to the church’s main evening course, we thought they’d prefer doing it very informally with people they already knew, basically with a bunch of friends. So we thought we’d do one purely for the football guys.
How did it go?
We invited the whole squad, and six said they’d come. The first night only two came, but that was fine. They really enjoyed the first week. One guy who came is in his forties, and he said in the pub the next weekend that he’d never heard about Jesus at all, ever. He said: “No one’s ever spoken to me about this before.”
We’d started the course just as the season began to finish, in the spring—and after that first one we struggled to find a time these two guys could make to carry on. But we’re going to start up again in the autumn, with those two guys, and use the new material. And we’ll invite the rest of the squad again! In fact we’ve got our start-of-season social coming up soon, and I think we’ll just get one of the guys who came to talk about what it was like, and reassure the others that it’s relaxed and you don’t get brainwashed! Do pray for us as we try to start up again next month.
What is good about the CE course for these sport-loving guys?
CE is just a brilliant way to explain the gospel. It does it so simply, and so clearly, but it’s always done in a friendly way.
If you’ve never heard of Christianity Explored before, I would suggest you check out one of their websites here and here. Additionally, you may find this article from Kevin DeYoung helpful as well.
