This summer, the world’s attention will turn toward North America and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With Atlanta being the site of several matches, including a semi-final, Georgia Baptists are looking to take advantage of the excitement around the event, using it as an opportunity to reach their communities with the gospel.
Mission Georgia is partnering with churches statewide to equip them to reach the diverse ethnic and national groups already living in their communities. The goal is to build relationships, find ways to serve their communities, and ultimately to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Having the games in Atlanta doesn’t mean the rest of the state can’t get involved. “Do you have to be in Atlanta to do World Cup ministry? No. You can be anywhere in our state,” said Beth Ann Williams, lead strategist for Georgia Baptist Women/Mission Georgia. “The nations are here, in your neighborhoods.”
In many cultures, soccer is much more than a pastime. Fans follow their favorite teams and players with a passion that can be hard for non-fans to grasp. Williams said that passion and shared enthusiasm create natural opportunities for hospitality, conversation, and, ultimately, gospel witness.
Besides Atlanta, U.S. host cities for World Cup games include Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.
According to The Immigration Project, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.8 million people in 2018 and now accounts for 13.7 percent of the population. More than 1 million immigrants arrive each year, and immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88 percent of U.S. population growth through 2065. Eighty-five percent of immigrants to the United States have never been invited into an American home.
Williams said those figures highlight both the need and the responsibility before churches. “There’s something special about that time when everybody’s focus, their energy, their excitement is on the games,” Williams said. “We have an opportunity to step into that conversation, meet people where they are, build relationships, and share about Jesus.”
To help churches do just that, Mission Georgia is offering a series of free, downloadable resources designed to help churches plan and execute community outreach. The materials include practical guides for hosting watch parties, organizing pop-up soccer games in parks or neighborhoods, planning sports clinics or mini tournaments, and creating simple Bible discovery opportunities alongside athletic activities.
“These are ‘how-to’ from beginning to end,” Williams said, “how to effectively carry out that ministry strategy in your community around the World Cup.” Tracts and additional outreach tools will also be available.
Williams explained that the goal is to provide simple, usable ideas that can be implemented in a variety of settings. “It can be as simple as setting up a big screen and inviting people to watch games together or connecting with a local school soccer team and letting them know you appreciate them,” she said. “Those relationships matter.”
In addition to providing congregations with resources, Mission Georgia will partner with Georgia Baptist Collegiate Ministries to enable college students to work directly with churches. Organizers plan to deploy a Send Me Now missions team to serve alongside churches throughout the World Cup. The team will assist churches with sports clinics, pop-up games, watch parties, and other community outreach efforts.
Williams said the goal is not to capitalize on a sporting event, but to mobilize churches for lasting gospel impact. By pairing congregations with college missionaries and practical tools, Mission Georgia hopes to turn shared enthusiasm for soccer into meaningful conversations about Christ with the nations already living in Georgia.
Williams encouraged churches to begin thinking now about how they might engage their communities.
“This is about more than soccer,” she said. “It’s about obedience to the Great Commission. The nations are here, and the mission field is right outside our doors.”
— Henry Durand is a writer for The Christian Index, where this article originally appeared.