In Depth:  Christians in Sport

Christians in Sport, which exists to reach the world of sport for Christ, has now produced a downloadable pack full of content to help churches, sports clubs and individuals make the most of a rich summer of opportunity.

The pack, released in April 100 days before the Olympic opening ceremony, is available for a small donation and includes: Two quizzes focused on football and the summer events; a creative video talk with evangelist Graham Daniels using the story of Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire), 100 years since his famous race; and a short animated spoken word sharing the gospel through the Eric Liddell story. Further content includes: two testimony films from a former Olympian and Paralympian; an Olympic church service guide; a school assembly and lesson guide.

This November in Malta, after four years of planning, UK Christians in Sport staff will join over 100 leaders in sports ministry, from more than 30 countries involved in competitive and elite sport, for a four-day conference.

The conference includes the release of over 150 brand-new resources in four languages, and an internationally accessible leadership development programme.

Record numbers of young people and adult volunteers are coming together to run seven, week-long, residential camps called Sports Plus, across five locations in the UK.

Over 40% of young people in the UK play sport every day and Christians in Sport longs to reach this vast people group with the good news of Jesus, with Sports Plus playing a vital role.

This summer young people and adult volunteers are coming together to run Sports Plus – seven, week-long, residential camps across five locations in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Sports Plus Director Ian Lancaster describes it as ‘serious sports action for the serious sporty young person.’ He added: ‘Competitive young people make friends with like-minded others from across the UK and come under the sound of the good news of Jesus. It is a vital work for these youngsters to start connecting their sport and faith – working out how the gospel enables them to play with freedom, and how it can define their identity in a performance driven world.’

One of the main things that Christians in Sport does is help Christian sportspeople connect their sport and faith. Brian Glyn writes about one of the new ways of doing this that they have been trialling:

The world of sport is unique. Sport offers a wonderful opportunity for worship as Christian sportspeople enjoy their God-given bodies, gifts, and talents. However, sport is often a challenging environment for Christians seeking to live out their faith distinctively and speak of the hope they have in Jesus.

Christians in Sport, in partnership with other sports ministry organisations globally, is helping to pilot a new training journey specifically for young Christian leaders who are active in the world of competitive and elite sport.

As good as the many ministry training schemes in the UK are, they are often not best suited to the competitive and elite sports player. Mission and discipleship within this world is one of the most unique aspects of sport ministry. Working with athletes who compete at the highest levels, train intensively and often travel regularly, they are often on their own with few believers around them. Some of them are also in the public eye.

Over 75,000 people took part in online sports quizzes run by Christians in Sport from April to June as most competitive and elite level sport stopped.

Teams would take part in four rounds of creative sports questions and then hear a short gospel talk from either Graham Daniels or Ian Lancaster, with Christian team-mates given follow-up questions to work through with their teams.

As the world gets to grips with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, sportspeople all over the world are also seeing their lives change – particularly those in top-level sport, as their careers are on indefinite hold with serious financial implications.

In April, Christians in Sport (CiS) launched a new campaign calling on Christian sportspeople all over the world to reach out and keep investing in the lives of their sports friends even though sport has been cancelled. In the midst of all the uncertainty, the call to Christian sportspersons remains the same: reach the world of sport for Christ.

Major sporting tournaments are proven opportunities to gather communities, as people come together to enjoy watching and playing sport. Christians working with-in the world of rugby have thus been bless-ed by the chance to come amongst Japanese people and share the gospel through the Rugby World Cup.

This island nation is the largest unevangelised country in the world which is legally open to missionaries, containing less than 1% evangelical Christians, according to Operation World.

The Sports Plus story began in 1994 under the name Adventure Plus, and the vision was born then – to disciple young sports-people. The first official summer camp for young sportspeople took place at Cokethorpe School in 1995 and the vision for them remains the same.

For 25 years, Christians in Sport have been organising residential sports camps for young people who are serious about sport and play regularly in a club and team. These camps are designed as a way for a young person to improve in their sport whilst exploring more about the Christian faith and what it means to be a Christian sports player.