One of the top concerns of youth pastors and ministry leaders is how often families are skipping church for travel sports. There’s no survey calculating how many families choose sports over church, and there’s a surprising lack of data surrounding how youth sports affect the local church. But most of us don’t need statistical evidence to prove what we experience each weekend. We all see it and feel it.

Yet it’s important to recognize that sports aren’t the enemy. Today’s youth sports culture presents an opportunity to do what ministry leaders should do best: help our people learn how to live in the world but not be of the world.

How do we do that when it comes to youth sports? How can sports become a strategic context for the life of our missional community? How can it function practically as an unsuspecting teammate instead of as our primary competitor?

Here are eight ideas ministry leaders can leverage to use sports as a missional ally, inspired by our new book Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports. Four of them use your home-field advantage (church building), and the other four use an away-game opportunity (church body).

Home-Field Advantage (at Church)

1. Resource the kids by equipping their parents.

Most parents feel ill-equipped in the youth sports space because they aren’t being discipled for it. So it makes sense when they default to following the herd. Christian parents desperately need countercultural, sports-themed resources, created and shared by the church, to help them swim against the current.

• Send them a weekly email (or post through social media) with tips for using sports as a playing field for spiritual formation. Curate a library of resources (sermons, audiobooks, and so on) for parents to listen to as they drive across state lines for the next competition.
• Create a devotional for the parents or kids (or both). If you can’t write it yourself, there’s a growing list of options for youth sports parents on YouVersion.
• Host a one-night event for youth sports parents specifically aimed at giving them a biblical approach to navigating this space. Leave plenty of room for Q&A. There’s never going to be a night when everyone is available, but pick a night and get the conversation started. Record it so people can interact with it when it’s convenient for them.

2. Make sports a regular part of your conversation.

Families involved in sports want—and need—to know that God cares about the way they think about and engage with sports.

They probably know they should glorify God through their sport. But most athletes haven’t been taught about pursuing God’s glory by anyone other than a high-profile athlete in a postgame soundbite. They assume it means a pre- or postgame prayer, pointing to heaven when good things happen, or giving God a shout-out to the media.

How can sports function practically as an unsuspecting teammate instead of as our primary competitor?

But the church can teach them what it looks like to approach sports in a way that honors God more holistically.

First, give them a theology of sports. Find ways to help them understand that God created sports as a good gift to be enjoyed.

Our sinful nature has fractured this good gift and turned it into one of culture’s most sacred idols. As Christians, we redeem sports back to their intended purpose by refusing to “conform to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2, NIV) while embracing what it means to play with gratitude, with complete freedom, and conscious of God’s presence amid his good gift of play.

Second, give them biblical applications specific to sports. This is easy to include in a talk or sermon. Just contextualize your application to fit an athletic context.

For example, if you’re teaching on the Good Samaritan and what Jesus meant in his answer to “Who is my neighbor?” you might add something like this: “For those of you involved in sports, this means we need to have eyes to see those who need encouragement and help. It means comforting a person who just made a mistake or commending an opposing player on his or her skills after the game—no matter who won.”

3. Host a free middle school sports camp.

This has to be scheduled well in advance because sports schedules fill up quickly. But what parents wouldn’t want their young athlete to learn how to integrate faith and sport? What kid wouldn’t want to spend a couple of days away from the pressure of her current team and play with her friends?

A youth sports camp gives the church an opportunity to show and tell how sports can be experienced as a good gift from God.

4. Start a discipleship initiative pairing former coaches and athletes at your church with younger athletes.

Did you know that 65 percent of adult Americans grew up playing sports? That means two-thirds of your church knows what it’s like to think, breathe, and play sports. What if you equipped your discipleship bench with 10 to 15 former athletes or coaches who agreed to meet a few times with any young athlete at your church to talk about life, faith—and sports?

Little Olivia may not want to learn from her parents. But she’d probably be willing to sit down and talk with any former female college athletes who attend your church. This uses the platform of sports as a bridge toward discipleship. Get your former athletes in the game!

Away-Game Opportunity (at the Field)

1. Go to them.

Showing up at their games sends unspoken messages to the athletes and their parents: “I care about you. I care about what you care about. I support your passion and what God created you to be.” Being at games offers the additional benefit of supporting other kids from the community.

If possible, bring another student or church parent with you to watch and cheer. This is a great space for shoulder-to-shoulder ministry but also for the participating athlete to feel the presence of a larger community supporting him.

2. Pack the community stands with your church body.

Encourage your entire church to show up at a local youth sports game together and cheer like crazy for your home team. You could have a lot of fun with this idea and build momentum within your church and the local community.

Showing up at their games sends an unspoken message to the athletes and their parents: ‘I care about you.’

You might choose a sport that rarely has fans show up. Give your church a roster so they know the names of each athlete participating. Imagine the ripple effects if your church became the community that every local athletic team hoped would choose their home game to show up and pack out the stadium. Tell them to cheer for the home team, not against the visiting team. And please, tell them not to yell at the officials!

3. Be the concession-stand MVP.

This is straight out of Jesus’s playbook. Meet the people where they are—and find a way to feed them. Assuming you have a budget for this, give everyone in the stands a ticket for a free concession-stand item.

This supports your local team or school (which is a partnership win), and it’s a huge win for everyone who gets a free snack or drink. If you’re able to print your church name, address, and service times on the ticket, that’s a great way to invite people to church.

4. Bring drinks for everyone.

If there are no concessions, show up at your local fields and bless the parents with free drinks. Give water when it’s hot and coffee when it’s not. Again, feel free to put your church information on stickers or flyers. Let people know how they can join your God-glorifying, sports-loving church community.

Bonus Idea: Host or provide a pregame meal. Youth sports teams occasionally meet at one of the parents’ houses and share a meal. If this is true of a team connected to a church member, consider offering to let them use the church facilities.

If you have the resources, you might even want to supply the food. Check with the coach to see if a quick devotion or testimony would be permitted. If not, you can always print flyers for any interested parents or students.

News Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/youth-sports-strategies/