‘Sports Plus’ is the name of the residential sports camps run by Christians in Sport across the UK each summer. They have been running for nearly 25 years and have grown from one camp of just 30 young people to 700 young people attending six events in the four home nations.
Why do we think they work? Here are four simple reasons.
‘Serious sports action for serious sports-people’. This is the strapline for the camps. So for young people who play competitively in a club or a school team we aim, through qualified Christian coaches, to stretch them, help them improve technically and teach them to compete wholeheartedly. We believe that sport isn’t neutral ground – a place God isn’t too bothered about; rather we help the young people to see that God has given them gifts to play, to compete at the highest level they can and that sport can be a context in which to worship him. Paul in Romans 12 urges the Christians in light of the work of the gospel to ‘offer their bodies (entirety) as living sacrifices’. He goes on to pronounce that this is worship that matters to God. It’s gold to see young people grasp this for the first time!
