Faith & Football *

*insert sport here

International language sport.

Spread throughout almost every country of the world there are billions of people who play sports.

Sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” With something as universal as sport, it would be impossible to put a number on how many individuals globally connect with the pastime, although football alone has been estimated to be engaged with by over 4 billion people (that’s over half the population of the globe)

It crosses the barriers created by nationality, background, religion, age, and language, to create a fully communicating community.

Mohammed Hanzab, founder of Save the Dream and chairman of the International Centre for Sport Security, stated,

“Sport is a common language that is spoken by many people around the world. [It] can play an important diplomatic role in society and can be a powerful platform in breaking down barriers and divisions between people, as well as bringing young people together and fostering greater dialogue and cooperation between different cultures and communities around the world.”

http://blog.mangolanguages.com/learn-the-worlds-universal-language-sport

From a cultural level down to community, sports brings unity. Thus; as is it is a form of communication that surpasses language; what messages does it convey?

1. The sense of community that sports can encourage is something that is high in importance when (especially young people) engage. The value placed on belonging somewhere cannot be understated. The government encourages sports at all levels for the benefits it has towards society, as demonstrated by the greater investment into grass roots sports in recent years.

2. Sports is also a great conduit to communicate hope – the hope that justice and fairness can reign somewhere in a what is often an unjust and chaotic world. With an activity that is only won with good sportsmanship (pun intended), there’s a sense of right and justice winning, and that can be rare to find.

Both of these streams can be such an easy way to then join two principles that scripture offers so freely (hope and justice) to the sports that we are involved in.

We use these to springboard into how we can effectively use sports ministry as a way to ‘plunder the Egyptians’. In Exodus 12, we read:  ³⁵ Furthermore, the Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. ³⁶And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

If sport is happening on such a wide level already, it is our mandate to be involved with our community and simply by proximity, share the gospel as demonstrated by our lives. If the good news of the gospel is alive in our lives, we will glorify God ‘whether we eat or drink’  1 Cor 10:31 – or even playing football!

So: How do we connect the two?

Faith & Football

There’s so many examples of how faith and sport/football today can work hand in hand  – the book Cross the Line : Christian footballers talk God, faith, and the beautiful game contains 24 examples of how a professional sportsperson is not the most important thing in their lives.

In that book, the Chelsea and Ghana international, Christian Atsu, shares how he acknowledges that his strength and inspiration is from God. He also explains how it is important to realise that life with Jesus is not just about the fame and glory of football, but that belief and trust in God guides the use of his talent as a form of worship.

For more information  check out Cross the Line

SYFC is trying to bridge the gap between football and a faith-filled life like Christian does, and through sports connect with those we are seeking “to win” to the gospel of Christ. We asked our sports worker, Ben, to provide some information about the specific sports sessions we run in Swindon.

“We run 6 sports sessions a week. From The Parks, Meadowcroft, Moredon, Chiseldon, in Kingsdown School and in Swindon Academy. At all of these places every week we get a chance to share our faith with young people who have never heard the gospel before. Any money raised will go to pushing this ministry on further and starting new ministry opportunities. Which will ultimately end up with more people hearing about Jesus.

Depending on the weather, we can get between 10-25 young people to a session.

We are involved with 5 churches from the Swindon area to run these sessions, however there is always more to do!

Our most successful things we run (and not just numbers but spiritual effect) is when we have the opportunity to do something different. Something out of the ordinary whether that is us hiring a venue or football pitch or running a camp or many more things. These all cost money to run and also having more staff would inevitably mean we reach more young people with the gospel. Guaranteed. Raising the profile of sports ministry and the needs we have financially, as well as human resources gives us the opportunity for people to get involved with the exciting work that’s going on!

I fully believe that if the sports sessions stopped tomorrow that young people who look forward each week to having someone to talk to about what is going on in their life will not be able to do so. There won’t be the opportunity to sit and have a chat with someone that cares, or to enjoy an hour of freedom where they can just kick a ball around with no fear. There will be no chance to hear that there is a God who gives us hope when they feel hopeless. These young people will be the people who miss out and would suffer the most.”

What now?

So: Over to you! The importance of sports ministry is not all on the shoulders of Swindon Youth for Christ.

UPCOMING:

We have an opportunity to spend TWENTY-FOUR hours playing the most popular sport in the world. This is a challenge that will not be easy; a stretch of physical and mental strength!! But knowing the work that we do, and the worth of the young people we reach is higher than our own discomfort.
As well as a lot of fun, we are hoping to raise £5k, and there are many ways to get involved:

Pay to Play

Get on the pitch! For just the small sum of £7 you can jump in and play for an hour –

Sponsorship

An individual or a team – e.g. nominate a player for a certain amount of hours.

Donate regularly

 Follow instructions found on website to donate as a one off, or to regularly give to the cause of the Gospel.

All information is found on our website page.