South Africa is a sport loving country. From the big stadiums till the community you find sport lovers. It doesn’t matter what community you will visit. Every community has its field or park and you will find people there playing soccer especially when school is over. It will not take a lot of time to find a crowd of kids/youngsters around you that want to join you in a game if you start kicking the ball around on a field. Sport is a language we all speak. It is how we can relax, how we can forget and just enjoy the moment. It’s an amazing tool to reach everyone in a community. It is a great tool that the Church can use to impact the community and share the Love of God.

Church

A rather new development within the sport ministry movement of Athletes in Action is the church based movement. The church based movement of sport ministry wants to empower churches, ministries and individuals in working out their mission as church, to impact their community.

We believe that the church can be the driving force to reach communities for Jesus Christ. We help to let the churches see in what simple way it is possible to reach out into the nearby World.

By using sports at every level we are using one of the greatest tools possible to reach this world with the gospel, and it is a tool that we must use to reach our world with the message of God’s love. We wish to be like the great apostle Paul who wrote the following in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22:

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law… so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law… so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

We wish to be an athlete to the athlete or to those who just love sports, to show them how to run the race of life to win the crown that will last forever (vs. 24-25).

Training

Athletes in Action provides training for churches in how to start their own sport ministry and what tools churches can use in doing so. Besides the training we also want to help churches start their sport ministry by helping them step by step in whatever way necessary, according to the vision the church has in reaching their community.

The key in our strategy is to train people to train other people. The ultimate goal is that in the end, the church will run their own sport ministry and is even equipped to help other churches, organizations/ministries or individuals doing the same thing.

Activities

When you think about sports, think about a wide variety of sports. It can be soccer, basketball, netball, cricket, rugby or any other sport that is popular in the area you live. To give you an idea of what sports ministry looks like, we’ll give you some examples of activities a church can do to reach out to a community:

• Clinic program
• Community Games
• Afterschool Programs/ Sports program in schools
• Holiday Clubs/ Sports Camp
• Skill training + life skills
• Sports day

On Wednesday 31 May 1792, William Carey, the father of modern missions, preached his famous sermon, Enlarge the Place of Your Tent, from Isaiah 54:2-3 in which he said: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”* We are praying and expecting God to do great things as we attempt to do great things for Him here in South Africa.

Please feel free to contact us if you want to know more about Church Based Sports Ministry or if you want to start sport ministry with your church or ministry.