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 Trends in Local Church
Sports Outreach:
Why Some Churches are Dropping Sports Outreach (Part 4)
The
past two week’s blogs have discussed the fact some churches are
considering eliminating their Sports Outreach due to financial
pressures and because they haven’t seen the results hoped for:
11/15/11-http://www.facebook.com/notes/csrm/trends-in-local-church-sports-outreach/246003895454582
11/22/11-http://www.facebook.com/notes/csrm/trends-in-local-church-sports-outreach/249409495114022
This week’s blog will continue this discussion by exposing two myths
associated with evangelism: a) preaching = evangelism and b) sports
evangelism is about giving ‘high profile athletes” a “platform” for
speaking. Ensuing weeks will analyze the commitment needed to do
the hard work of evangelism and also discuss how to maximize a church’s
Sports Outreach missional opportunities for church growth and evangelism
I. Myth #1 – Preaching =
Evangelism
I was consulting with a leading church…
The Lead Pastor was emphatic…“Evangelism can only come through the
preaching of the Word. Let’s have none of this ‘tom-foolery’
about gym evangelism!”
“Pastor...” I paused and said a prayer for just the right words and for
them to find a receptive heart. “The problem is…most people who need to
hear your evangelistic preaching won’t ever step inside your
sanctuary. Sports Outreach provides you with a proven strategy to
actually get people who are far from God into your sanctuary, so they
may hear your evangelistic preaching. I’m offering you the best
tool the church currently has to attract and reach totally secularized,
non-churched, non-believers. In addition it is a methodology that
mobilizes and enables your parishioners to reach their non-churched
friends by inviting them to a sports function within your church
walls…an activity even those far from God will receive with
enthusiasm.”
A few years later I was talking with a disheartened Sports Outreach
Pastor. He was expressing his frustration with the
ineffectiveness of his Sports Outreach. I asked him what he
believed to be the answer to the ineffectiveness.
“We need to preach harder in our post game devotionals; we need to
preach with more enthusiasm” was his response. Upon further
reflection it became clear the real problem was this good man and his
team of staff and volunteers had become lazy. They had stopped
doing the hard work of evangelism that included building bridges to the
secular community and providing relevant and missional sport and
recreational outreach activities that would attract and hold those far
from God.
Both of these deeply spiritual men believed a myth: preaching equals
evangelism. Please hear me…I firmly believe in evangelistic
preaching but evangelistic preaching is only one – albeit a most
important – part of evangelism. In fact, I believe “preaching
harder” is actually easier than doing the hard work of
evangelism. Preaching harder may alleviate a certain guilt but it
becomes the “crutch” many local church Sports Outreach Ministers fall
back on when they are experiencing a lack of effectiveness born of a
lack of true evangelistic endeavors.
True evangelism involves a multi-faceted process that includes years of
soil preparation, seed planting, cultivation and reaping. True
evangelism consists of consistent, long-term work and it takes much
planning, envisioning, training and mobilizing. True evangelism
is what Sports Outreach Ministry offers the local church. True
evangelism through sport and recreation produces much better results
than the commonplace activity of “fruit stealing” which often
masquerades as evangelism. I agree, excellent expository
preaching attracts throngs of people but the vast majority of newcomers
expository preaching attracts to a church are already Christians who
come from anemic churches with weak preaching. I applaud any
church that supports solid expository, exegetical and evangelistic
preaching but I would exhort them not to confuse church growth
occurring via “transfers” from other churches with true evangelism.
A.
Evangelism as Process
When properly understood and implemented, Sports Outreach provides the
local church with the most effective and relevant strategy for reaching
the truly secularized, non-believer. Last week’s blog articulated
a systematic model for organizing a self perpetuating and on-going
missional Sports Outreach Ministry for a local church. (
http://www.facebook.com/notes/csrm/trends-in-local-church-sports-outreach/249409495114022
) This model makes apparent how intricate and intense true
evangelistic endeavors can be. They are not necessarily
difficult, but they do demand a high level of commitment. It is
important to understand true missional evangelism is reaching those far
from Christ and reaching those far from Christ requires both
understanding what the process is and how it should take place within a
local church. Strong evangelistic preaching is a must but much
more is also needed.
II. Myth
#2 - Sports Outreach Ministries and High Profile Athletes – A New
Paradigm is needed…
Providing a platform for elite athletes to share their testimony has
been a mainstay of Sports Outreach for more than half a century.
There was much to like about this methodology. It was fairly
simple…connect with an elite athlete and enable them to share their
testimony through a microphone, video or via a written article or
book. Technological advances provide an ever expanding ability to
communicate athlete’s testimonies through websites, you tube and many
other social networks.
The current trend however is quickly moving away from personality
driven evangelism. There are a myriad of reasons for this, but
two are especially poignant: a) very few elite athletes actually live a
Christian lifestyle and thus have little credibility for what they
verbally “profess:” b) society is more and more cynical about high
profile athletics due to the obscene salaries of both players and
owners. Add in all the scandals and criminal involvements of
players and coaches at the professional and collegiate levels and it’s
easy to see why the effectiveness of this methodology is
wavering. This is why the methodology of local church Sports
Evangelism is the future paradigm of Sports Outreach Ministry.
Local church Sports Outreach doesn’t depend upon the integrity (or more
accurately the lack of integrity) of high profile athletes, nor does it
depend upon a “big event” that is a “once and done” activity.
Rather, local church Sports Outreach is based upon the Theological
premise of “Incarnational Evangelism.” This “Incarnational”
premise leads churches to implement ministries based upon the
philosophy of creating missional environments for the initiation and
development of relationships between Christ-followers and people with a
secular world view. Understanding that evangelism is a process,
not an event, leads churches to develop relevant, ongoing, sporting
opportunities such as youth and adult leagues and, recreational
activities such as bird watching, bicycling, crafting and card
clubs. Effective churches know evangelism is a process rather
than an event, and evangelistic success is not getting a person to make
a short term decision but rather to seek to make long-term disciples of
Christ.
This is not to say a church will never utilize the “platform” of a
“high profile” athlete and it certainly doesn’t mean a church will
never stage a “big event.” Rather, it demonstrates truly
effective Sports Outreach is rooted in long-term
relational/Incarnational sports-based activities which occasionally use
an elite athlete’s testimony at a “big event.” The key difference
is the “event” is run in conjunction with, and upon the back of an
ongoing relational Sports Ministry.
III.
Summary
Evangelism rarely happens in a traditional Sunday morning church
service because those who are far from Christ are also far from ever
attending a church service. Churches need to continue to preach
evangelistically but in addition they need to develop outreaches
designed to funnel secular people into those services. It is a
myth to believe all a church has to do is hire and support a preacher
who preaches evangelistically.
It is also a myth that local church Sports Outreach Ministries need to
“preach harder” in their sports based activities. They need to do
the hard work of ensuring their activities are relevant, their
volunteers trained and equipped, and most importantly they are to build
ongoing, Incarnational based outreaches rather than relying upon a
“once and done” big event which features a high profile athlete.
This would include building one bridge to their community and a second
bridge from their Sports Outreach activities to the heart of their
church where the Word of Christ is preached evangelistically where
disciples are made but this is the topic of next week’s blog….
Blog: November 2011 "Trends in Local Church Sports Outreach" (Part 4)
 November 2011
(Part 3) "Trends in Local Church Sports Outreach"
 Executive Director Blogs
 December 2011 "Are
Local Church Sports Outreach Ministries Committed?"
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