In Depth:  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.

Luke Randall

Stuart Burgess has helped to design bikes for the British Olympic Cycling Team for the last ten years. He was brought up in a non-Christian home, but came to faith over 30 years ago during his first year at university.

In an interview with en, Stuart spoke about his experiences of working with the Olympic Cycling Team, and Christians in sport in general. Stuart has worked with Team GB for ten years. When asked what it is like to work in that environment, he said: ‘My involvement has been to lead the design of the chain transmission drive for three Olympics: Rio, Tokyo, and Paris.

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.

More than 100 teams with thousands of players from around the world have enjoyed a major Christian sporting event.

Christians in Sport hosted its big online World Cup Quiz during the men’s soccer tournament in Qatar. The initiative seized the opportunity to bring sportspeople from around the world together to play and hear a short evangelistic talk.

This autumn, Christians in Sport are releasing an updated YPA Parents and Guardians guide aiming to supplement their existing support.

Entitled ‘Parenting the next generation: helping young elite sports-people to connect sport and faith’, the guide addresses ten questions on some of the most pressing issues in this area including: ‘How do I respond in a godly way to my child’s success and failure?’ or ‘What can I do when my child’s sport clashes with church?’ The guide points to Biblical principles, applying them to the context of elite sport, to help parents work through these challenges.

Christians in Sport has come together with over 50 leaders in global competitive and elite sports ministry, from over 20 countries, in North Africa. This event served as the launch of an exciting new leadership development programme.

The programme aims to develop leaders as they come together for a structured, year-long course involving coaching, mentoring, and applied critical thinking.

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.

Colossians 3:23-24 is the text accompanying this picture of Northern Ireland Paralympian Christian Bethany Firth on her Twitter feed.

Bethany, who received an MBE in 2017, has now been given an OBE also for services to swimming. A six-time Paralympic gold medallist from Seaforde, County Down, she competes in the S14 classification for athletes with intellectual impairment – in her case, a learning difficulty that causes short-term memory loss.

Jonny Reid

Christians in Sport (CiS) is encouraging Christians to return to their sports clubs as lockdown measures ease across the UK.

Since March 2019 the majority of amateur sport has been under restrictions and since November 2020 all amateur sport clubs have been banned from training or competing together. With the stay-at-home order eased on 29 March, outdoor sports facilities have reopened and organised sports have been able to resume in England. Similar restrictions have been eased in other countries within the UK. Gyms and indoor sports facilities are all planned to open again in the next few months.

Jonny Reid of Christians in Sport writes: In the first lockdown, Christians in Sport encouraged sportspeople to Pray STAY Say – encouraging Christians to stay in the lives of their sports mates. As part of that campaign we delivered five online sports quizzes with a short talk explaining the Christian faith. We’re thrilled that over 70,000 people joined in.

In November, the second lockdown saw elite sport able to continue, but for competitive amateur sportspeople, sport halted once more. However, the guidelines gave opportunities for sportspeople to do something outside with one other person, so we launched Train 1-2-1. This brand-new resource encouraged people to go for a run or cycle with friends, and then ask them three questions about Jesus’ identity, mission and call.