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 Trends in Local Church
Sports Outreach:
Why Some Churches are Dropping Sports Outreach
The local church Sports Minister inquired:
“Do you know any church that is looking for a Sports Minister? My
church has decided to eliminate the Sports Outreach program.”
Further conversation revealed the church was experiencing financial
difficulties and wanted to be “better stewards” of dwindling
resources. Stewardship is certainly a right motive, but getting
rid of a Sports Outreach program is definitely a wrong decision…well,
maybe not…?
In this case a whole lot of money and effort was going into supporting
an “outreach” that, quite honestly, wasn’t effectively bringing anyone
into the church. The sad fact is, this situation is repeated more
and more these days. So is this the right decision? A bit
of perspective will help.
The 1990’s
The decade of the 1990’s was a time in which the most frequently added
church staff position had one of the following words in it: Sport,
Recreation, Activity or Family Life. In addition, the church
facility most frequently added to the physical plant of a local church
was a Family Life Center, Sports Hall, Gym or Recreation Center.
Furthermore, it was rare to find a new church building that didn’t
include athletic and recreational space.
The 2000’s
The decade beginning in 2000 was a time of explosive growth in the
numbers of people flocking to local church sports and recreation
programs. The athletic buildings built from 1980-2000 were
bursting with new activity and Pastoral Staff Members and Church
Leaders were raving about the excitement. Two things occurred
however, that caused a re-evaluation to occur. First, as the
athletic programs grew, so did the budgetary needs. Second, the
American economy went into its worst depression of the previous 70
years and churches began to scrutinize all programs.
The 2010’s
Questions began to surface…
Do we really need all
those Sports Ministers?
Why don’t we see “those
people” (those who come to the gym) on Sunday morning?
What’s more
important…keeping our Associate Pastor; Youth Minister; Teaching
Pastor; Pastor of Visitation; etc. etc. or our Sports Minister?
After all, it was reasoned, we can run the sports without a staff
person better than we can afford to lose the staff who visit us in the
hospital and officiate at our funerals.
The Future
Local Church Sports Outreach will not survive into the future if the
current state of affairs continues. While certain churches are
using sports and recreation in relevant ways, the truth of the matter
is, most are not nearly so effective as they could be. There are
three major causal factors for why church Sports Outreach is
underutilized and many times, ineffective. Over the next
several weeks, this blog will outline things which must happen in order
for churches to truly reap the benefits of the best outreach strategy
for outreach the church has: Sports and Recreation. The following
topics will be addressed…
1. Understanding and eliminating the “Disconnect”
between the gym and the sanctuary
2. Analyzing the depth of commitment needed to do the
hard work of “evangelism”
3. Maximizing your church’s Sports Outreach
Opportunities
Blog: November 2011 "Trends in Local Church Sports Outreach"
 October 2011 "A
Sports Minister’s Reflection on the Lord’s Day"
 Executive Director Blogs
 November 2011
"Trends in Local Church Sports Outreach" (Part 2) |