More than 90 percent of people have reportedly been involved in sports in some way over the last year, either through participating in sports or watching or reading about sports. Kids are starting sports programs as early as age 3. Many leagues play year-round, seven days a week.
What does this have to do with the kingdom of God? Two church recreation leaders in the Rock Hill area say they want to take the “god of this world” (sports) and use it to spread the the gospel of the God of the universe, Jesus Christ.
Catawba Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, both in Rock Hill, have joined forces to form Impact Sports Outreach. Impact serves all ages, from 3 to 103, with leagues, camps, outreach tournaments and Bible studies. The ministry also partners with other organizations to spread the gospel.
What makes it different from what most people refer to as “church sports”? First, Impact is open to all in the community and is not just a church program with church teams, said Randy Deas, sports and recreation director at Rock Hill First Baptist Church. Deas co-directs Impact along with Scott Blasingame, his counterpart at Catawba Baptist. Many Impact participants (upwards of 23 percent in past seasons) claim no church home, Deas said.
Also, as teams participate, they do not play under their church name. “One dynamic that we noticed over the years is that church sports, if not done carefully, can be one of the worst Christian witnesses around,” Deas said. “As we have seen in the past, when you pit two churches against each other, the my-church-is-better-than-your-church mentality shows its ugly head.”
“As we play, we give all a chance to play fairly with honor and class, but most of all we try to promote the real reason we are playing,” Deas said. “We play to honor God and lift him up. We want to show God’s light and use sports as a way to do this. This allows us to invite friends, family, school members and community members to participate, and allows us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and build redemptive relationships.”
“This is a major paradigm shift in the way church sports is viewed,” Deas said. “Sports participation is no longer just a little program that your members can have fun doing. Now it is probably the largest and most influential outreach ministry that your church can have, with great power and potential to build redemptive relationships and meet people where they are.”
For more information, visit www.isrh.org.