Hello and welcome to the new website for CEDE Sports. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to and how we can continue to labor together for the Gospel. We have spent the last year planning for the future of our ministry and we are thrilled to share some of that vision with you today.
Previously known as the Sports Outreach Group, we have rebranded our ministry to CEDE Sports. We are really excited about the change as we believe it reflects our continuing heart and passion to serve the Sports Ministry world in our 2 focus areas, Churches and Sports Chaplains.
A question you may be asking is “Why did you rename the ministry CEDE Sports?”
– First, the term cede means to relinquish power or control.
– Second, our hearts desire is to be used as a catalyst to serve, coordinate, and assist ministries around the world that have a desire to expand our joint impact through sports ministry.
With that definition and our mission in mind, the name CEDE Sports is a daily reminder of our ministry’s united desire to relinquish control to God so that He can fuel our efforts to impact the world through sports.
Another question you may be asking is “Why did you rename the ministry at all?”
– We really desired our new name to reflect who we are.
– We sensed a need to more closely link the two areas of focus in this ministry under a name that communicated our heart.
– We felt God’s leading of this ministry to a more collaborative strategy to accomplish a united mission.
Our Mission remains the same:
To mobilize churches and sports chaplains to use the universal language of sports to impact the world.
BRIEF HISTORY and FOCUS OF MINISTRY
As we make this big transition to CEDE Sports, it only makes sense to take a look back at the history of our ministry. We have existed as a ministry since 1996 and are unique in that we are still doing what the Lord called us to do over 20 years ago. We began in 1996 as a ministry to encourage churches and sports chaplains in the Carolinas, called Carolina Sports Outreach. We broadened our geographical focus to other states throughout the USA. Then the Lord opened up doors of opportunity for us to serve in Africa and Asia over the last decade. Not only has the Lord added to our geographical focus but also added key people to compliment our growing staff of ministry consultants and experienced sports ministers. Bob Schindler, who directs our CEDE Partners focus with churches, and Rich Gamble, who directs our CEDE Network focus with sports chaplains, have been tremendously important to our global expansion. They are a great joy to work with and have led our staff teams well.
VISION FOR THE FUTURE
While we have focused primarily in the United States over these last 20+ years, God has continuously stretched us outside the USA to other countries and cultures. This new website will assist us in serving churches and sports chaplains globally with one central tool of technology. We’ve created a platform where churches and chaplains can privately connect with each other while utilizing resources developed by our team and our partners around the world. Over the years we have found that sports ministry can be a lonely calling and building relationships of support can be tough. We are excited to offer this tool as a starting point for relationships regardless of geographical location. Before we had even formally launched our new website at the end of september, we had over 1,000 sports chaplains and church sports ministers already registered on our CEDE Sports site. We already have hundreds of resources available to our registered partners. We’re also continuing to develop our robust training materials as we continue training leaders and equipping them to train others.
THANK YOU
We realize that ministry is about relationships. We value our team of leaders at CEDE Sports and organizations around the globe who we work with to impact other countries and people groups. We’ll continue to expand this collaborative spirit as we partner with new organizations and ministries around the globe.
THANKS to the Lord, and all of you for your support and encouragement,
The CEDE Sports Team
