Local Church Sports Ministry - Simple & Organic

Simple and Organic Sports Ministry
Pray – Play – Say
 
Blog from Steve Quatro.  Fourth and final blog in this series.
 
Principle 3:  Intentionally and thoughtfully share with lost people about God.
In a “typical” church sports ministers’ training gathering, significant time is spent on this principle – that is, how to appropriately share with the participants about God.  However, in this setting, the conversations are more organic, as opposed to a “God talk” at halftime of a game.  “God talks” connected to a sports/rec activity can be very effective in setting the stage to have significant conversations with people.  When the participants may not have registered with you or your church to play in a league, it can be awkward to transition from the game to a conversation about God.  Those spiritual and eternally important conversations can happen in a simpler and more natural way.  Here are some ideas…

1. Train ALL your volunteers involved with the sports activity to be able to clearly and appropriately share the Gospel. Even the bold and experience Apostle Paul asked the Colossians to pray that he would share the message clearly; he knew he could improve.Even if a volunteer doesn’t think she/he will be the one to share the Gospel, God has a way of arranging His own timetable for significant conversations to happen.God may desire for a lost person to hear the Gospel from someone who needs to step out in faith to boldly share it.Lost people sometimes see another participant in the sports/rec activity as more credible than someone who gets paid (aka, a church staff member) to tell people about God.This is even more impacting if they have observed the volunteer competing well (see Principle 2).
2. Look for opportunities to engage in a conversation that go deeper than the game/activity just played.Seek the leading of God’s Spirit and boldly follow His leading.Sometimes God may be leading you to address the specific question a person asks and leave other topics for a later time.Consider leaving a seeker wanting to talk again instead of wishing they had never asked anything about God.
   For example, when someone asks to play again on Sunday morning you could respond with, “Oh, I would love to play again but a few years ago my life was heading in a really bad direction and I learned some things that completely turned my life around.On Sundays I get to hang out with people who helped me back then, and help keep me focused now.”
   If you stop at that point, the person will probably ask you for more information.Pray that God’s Spirit will keep bringing your comments to their mind until they ask again.Remember the suggestion above to organize ongoing activities so you have regular contact.
3. When God privileges you to have the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone, focus on Jesus.Start with where people are but focus on Jesus.Don’t let the cultural hot topic of the day dominate the conversation.Jesus is amazing, tell people about Him.The story in Acts 8 about the Ethiopian is a great reminder of this.Phillip starts with what the man was reading (Isaiah 53) and “told him the good news about Jesus”.
4. Trust in God’s Spirit to do the work of conversion.Be faithful, loving, and clear in your witness of the mercy and eternal life offered through Jesus.Our role is to faithfully “go, make, and teach” (Matthew 28:18-20), it is God’s job to do the work of conversion.

I have heard other sports ministers summarize the above principles this way.
Pray:  Pray intentionally and specifically for God to use your efforts to save the lost.
Play:  Play with lost people in a way that they see Christ in you.
Say:  Say something.  When God opens the door to have a spiritual conversation, be bold and loving in your witness.
I pray that God will bless you richly as you employ the bridge of sports to build relationships with people and that you have the privilege of sharing the Good News of salvation in Jesus.
This is my fourth and final blog in this series titled Simple and Organic Sports Ministry.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I would love to hear from you; Steve@sportsoutreachla.com.
 ______________________________
Steve Quatro is the Executive Director of Sports Outreach Los Angeles (SOLA), former Director of Operations for CSRM and author of the Book Intentional Outreach which can be ordered at:
http://www.csrm.org/store/p87/Intentional_Outreach.html

*  *  *