FACT: There are over 13,000 registered sports clubs in Scotland with more than 1.7 million members, ranging across all ages and levels of sport. The chances are, some of your church members are part of that figure, plus a good number of their friends.
'Christians in Sport' (CIS) exists to reach this world of sport for Christ. With this in mind CIS aims firstly to support the Christian sportsperson to more confidently live out and speak of their faith in Jesus Christ and secondly to support and facilitate evangelism to sportspeople who are not yet Christians. We long to see a Christian in every single sports club actively representing Christ as they pray for the people at the club; play in a way which honours God and say something of the good news of Jesus Christ when opportunities arise.
A taste of some of the work going on:
Youth: We work alongside & support local churches and youth leaders as they disciple young sporty Christians. We aim to encourage and equip these young people through monthly regional 'Pray Play Say (PPS) groups' (of which there are 7 in Scotland), sports outreach events, school missions, resources and training events. In the summer around 100 young people gather at our Scotland Sports Plus Camp held at Loretto School in Musselburgh. This week offers 'serious sports action for the serious sports person' but more than that the young people have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel, as it is presented clearly and relevantly through main meetings, small group times, water-break talks and seminars on pressing issues.
Scotland Sports Plus Camp 2010
"It was great to be re-inspired again by what it is to be a Christian in sport, and what an awesome gift God has given me in sport, to use for His glory. The teaching was just fantastic really opening my eyes to God's goodness and grace, and stirring up a new passion, hunger and desire for this year, to see my team mates come to know Christ." (young person at this year's camp)
University: The vast majority of individuals come to faith under the age of 25 and a growing number of those are at University with 40% of University students playing competitive sport. We support Christian students through weekly PPS groups which currently meet in over 60 Universities in the UK (7 in Scotland) and focus on prayer and evangelism. It is always encouraging to hear stories of individuals who are Pray Play Say-ing with their team-mates;
'I drive our minibus to the training grounds and it takes about 20 minutes so it's always a great time to chat to guys on the team and build better friendships. I've always seen my involvement within a rugby club as somewhat evangelistic but felt perhaps it would be something that would take years and in some way I would never make a serious difference. It has amazed me how quickly God has corrected me on this! On the bus on the way home last week I was asked what I had been doing over the weekend. I explained I had been at our CU House party. This instantly led to the question, "What do you do at CU?", and before I could say anything someone else asked, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" I shared with the few guys at the front of the bus what it meant to be a Christian and how this impacted my life. This was followed by other questions about differences between religions. This led on to talking about grace and what Jesus actually did when He died on the cross. I only realized at this point that this had become a full bus discussion! More questions were asked and after the 20 minutes it took to get back to the student union the lads stayed in the bus to talk a little more. What an amazing opportunity. I think I still hold the stereotypical view of rugby players being completely unreachable. I saw so clearly that God at work in peoples' hearts is something I had underestimated completely!
BUT THEN!!!.....The next week, I was driving the minibus back from training and again questions were asked and the Gospel was shared. The main theme of this chat was about grace being a free gift, not something earned and how this seemed to differ so much to what they knew of religion before.
AMAZING! PRAISE GOD! I'd really love people to pray for these guys, that God would open their hearts to the Spirit and change them from the inside out. What an amazing thing it would be if a team of players played for something more than competition but for the glory of God from every kick to each tackle giving praise to God for the gifts He has given us!' (Rugby player at Napier University)
Churches: Our dream is to partner with churches in their quest to tell sportspeople about Jesus Christ, and we are committed to working with and training churches for this very task. We aim to support the adult sportsperson through sports networks, training events, resources and guest events. We have a number of guest event packages available and we would love to serve your church in this way (see link for short dvd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al03TKHVOiU).
Multi-media Sports Quiz
As we enter this 'golden decade' of sport the vision of CIS will remain the same but the mission-field is set to get bigger. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Will you join us today?
For more information on any of the above, please contact Kirsten Ross, Scottish National Coordinator on 07921 057825 or kirsten@christiansinsport.org.uk or check out our website to see what is happening near you www.christiansinsport.org.uk
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