Why Church Sports?

Employee Wellness Classes

2005-07-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

After weeks of planning and preparing, we finally kicked off our employee health and wellness program. The inagural meeting took place today at noon and was attended by over 50 employees. Following the class, all 50 employees signed up with a Life Coach who, for the next 8 weeks, will encourage, motivate and guide them in meeting their self-determined goals. Goals will be determined in 5 areas; spritiual, fitness, food & nutrition, lifestyle management and wellness.

The purpose of this program is to help our employees go from an attitude of 'accepting their current physical state' to jumping on board to a transformed lifestyle of healthier eating, moderate& continuous fitness and stress management. Of course, the overall focus is learning to live and maintaining the 'abundant' lifestyle Christ said He came to give us all. (Mark 10:10).

More information on this class will be shared in the coming weeks.

Lifestyle Transformation

2005-07-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

One of the great benefits of working for Fellowship Church is their sincere interest in promoting and encouraging opportunities to keep their employees happy, healthy and informed. A great example of that sincerity is something we here at Fellowship Church call "Lunch and Learn". Lunch and Learn is a 60 minute, ' mini education course' that is held every other month or so during the employee lunch hour. Each mini-course is designed to educate, motivate and encourage the employees on a variety of issues and topics. Courses range in subject matter from Money Management and Budgeting, to Public Speaking and Small Group Leadership, to Health, Wellness and Nutritional training.

Today's Lunch and Learn focused employees on the importance of living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It also promoted and introduced the employees to a new, 8-week Health and Wellness program called "EMPOWERED". EMPOWERED was designed and created in response to the need to have a health and wellness program that formed the foundational basis for our church's now nationally known "Body for God" sermon series. EMPOWERED was designed to provide participants with an intentional, faith based health and wellness program that would guide and support them in meeting their self-determined health and wellness goals.

EMPOWERED will focus participants on this basic slogan: "Empowering God's people for supernatural living through lifestyle transformation". It is the EMPOWERED leadership teams' intention that participants not only come away from EMPOWERED with useful knowledge and information on how to live, eat and function better now, but that they truly realize and accept the concept of health and wellness as a 'lifestyle'; a way of living they will incorporate for the rest of their lives. It is our prayer that the EMPOWERED program serve as a life-changing, life impacting experience for all those who participate.

One can only imagine what God can do with a church, community or city of EMPOWERED believers who are living, functioning and serving others at their body's maximum capacity!

Intentional Ministry

2005-07-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

In response to last weeks blog, Jason, another sports minister, submitted the following questions. My response to him is below.

Barry,
Ken and I have communicated a little about this strategy for intentionality. I’m very impressed with your set up and commitment to getting people plugged in. My heart is where you guys are but its going to take some work to make changes around here. I’ve got a couple of questions:

What about the player who doesn’t ever want to join or is a member of another church. How long do you allow them to play in the league?
What type of data base are you using to track these free-agents.
While your program sounds very strong they all have weaknesses… what are your 2 biggest struggles applying or implementing this philosophy into your leagues.

Jason

Associate Minister of Recreation

(my response)

Jason,

Thanks for your feedback! I’ll try to answer your questions in the order you asked them.

1. I’ll answer this first question in two sections: OUTSIDE CHURCH MEMBERS and THOSE WHO NEVER INTEND TO JOIN

OUTSIDE CHURCH MEMBERS:As previously mentioned, we require our captains to perform player interviews on all persons who participate in our leagues. We call this interview a PPC (Player Profile Card). As suggested, the captains submit electronic profiles on each person based upon the information they obtained from the player interview. We subsequently save and file all these records in two places (1) a massive WORD folder on our churches network server and (2) in our churches membership database (those who enter the church database for the first time through sports are given a special tag).

At the mandatory captain’s pre-season meeting held at the beginning of each sports season, captains are given a list of their team players. When a person registers for a new sport, we then look at both data bases to determine eligibility and/or follow-up criteria for that person. The captains them receive their roster list with the players sub-divided in the following PPC categories:

No PPC needed: the PPC file for this player shows them to be plugged-in, active MEMBER of Fellowship Church.
Needs initial PPC: meaning no PPC is currently on file for this person; one must be submitted before the end of the current sport (usually 8 games).
Needs PPC Follow-Up: meaning based up previously collected PPC data (taken by a previous captain in a prior sport or season), this person needs follow-up in one of four areas:i. Salvation assurance or clarificationii. Church membershipiii. Encouragement to get more involved (i.e. – small groups, adult bible study, volunteers and service.
INELIGIBLE (see below)

If a person is a member of another church, we pretty much know so by the 5th game of the sport/season where they are first interviewed. Once that is discovered, we inform the player of our “outside church member policy” (they may participate as a ‘spectator’ only). We advise them they will be allowed to complete the current sports session, but that they will not be allowed to register for future FC sports until they become an actual FC member * (* meaning they attended, agreed to and completed the membership requirements as outlined in our churches new member class). Their profile card is then tagged as “INELIGIBLE”. If they subsequently attempt to register for future sports, their name will be flagged and we will know who they are.

If they do attempt to register for another sport, someone on the sports staff will check the church membership data base to see if that person has joined the church since their PPC was last updated. If they have not, those players are called by someone from the sports staff and advised of their ineligibility (they are also given a full refund of their registration fee or fees). If they have joined the church since their PPC was last updated, the “INELIGIBLE” flag is removed from their record and they are allowed to participate just like everyone else.

Because we run our sports programs with perfection and excellence, there are those from other churches who attempt to slide under the radar and play sports at our church anyway. Unfortunately for them, we stand firmly by our policy that they either take Fellowship Church for all that it has to offer, disregarding the few parts of it they may not completely like, and commit to it as they should, or go find another church they do agree with and plug in there. Either way, we don’t and won’t allow them to take up space in our sports leagues; space that could otherwise be used to build a relational bridge with someone who IS looking at Fellowship Church as their potential church home.

NEVER INTENDING TO JOIN:Using the same process as above, we can see where and when a person first entered both the PPC and the Church Membership data bases. So, for example, if it’s June and a person who is registering for coed softball shows they first entered the Church Membership database a year ago as “entered through sports” , that tells us that the only thing that person has ever done at our church was play softball. That would basically mean they are not a church member; they have no record of any type of church participation; and they have likely never even been to our church at all. Such people would also be ineligible to participate. That’s because, although we do want to use sports as a door for assimilation into our church, we allow person’s a one-year grace period in which to get plugged in and active. After that time, we place the same criteria on them that we place on the Outside Church Members…join the church and become an active member or go find a church where you will get involved and be active!

2. FREE AGENT TRACKING

Once they are registered and placed on a team, we don’t track or list people as just FREE AGENTS. Whether a person has been a CORE member of a team for several seasons or is a Free Agent being added to a team for the very first time, all players are tracked and handled the same. If they need an initial player interview, they are given one. If they need follow-up, whether regarding salvation assurance, church membership or encouragement to get more involved, the captains are held accountable for following up with them on these issues. So, Free Agent or not, the tracking and follow-up are still the same.

3. CHALLENGES

By far, our two biggest challenges are Leadership Follow-up and Data Base Maintenance. If, as previously stated, our leaders are our front line for communication and thus our most important and most crucial link to evangelizing the players in our leagues, holding them accountable for their assignments and responsibilities is a never ending process. Leadership follow-up and accountability ARE the keys to success in our ministry. Therefore, painstaking effort is put into daily, weekly and seasonal communication and follow-up with our team captains.

The second challenge is that of Data Base Maintenance and Management. If we require our captains to do a great job of collecting and submitting our PPC information, then we had better do as equally an effective job of tracking, recording and maintaining the data they supply us with. To do this type of “Intentional Evangelism” effectively, time MUST be put into these two areas. Otherwise, our captains’ efforts were in vain and, for us, we loose the reason for ever having sports leagues in the first place!

I hope those were the answers you were looking for. If not, please write me back.

Kind regards,

Barry

A Letter From Ken

2005-06-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

The following email is a reply to a local sports pastor who was seeking information on how to effectively assimilate sports participants from the sports arena into other church ministries such as small groups, volunteering and adult bible study.

Ken,
It’s great to hear from you again! Please forgive my tardiness in getting back to you. As you can probably relate, our summer has been quite a whirlwind and I am just now getting back to answering a large backlog of emails.

PURPOSE
As you know from your visit with us last summer, we are very intentional about WHY we have a sports ministry here at FC and WHAT its purpose is. For us, the purpose is simply this: “to offer adult athletes a comfortable and appealing environment where they can compete and participate in the sport or sports of their choice while also building relational bridges into the life of our church”. Notice I didn’t add the word ‘hopefully’ build relational bridges into our church. That’s because we set-up our teams and train our captains in such a way that we ‘ensure’ the utmost effort is put into making sure those bridges ARE built. That’s not to say every person who has ever played sports here at Fellowship has ended up becoming a sold out, plugged in, poster child example of a perfect FC member. But we have had many, many more positive relationships built than negative ones and our intentionality in putting the teams together as definitely paid off. So, to help answer your question from below, here are my two-cents.

INTENTIONAL PLANNING
For starters, the leadership and nucleus of ALL your sports leagues or activities (we call those people the CORE of our sports teams) MUST BE made up of plugged-in, active MEMBERS from your church. By requiring, for example, your team captains to be (1) Christians with a salvation story you’ve heard and know is real (2) bona fide, ‘on-the-role’ members of your church and (3) ‘plugged in’ (meaning they are leading and/or involved in other ministries besides sports (i.e. - adult bible study (we call our's Powersource), home groups (we call them Hometeams), service opportunities (volunteering somewhere in the church) and regular church attendance (you see and speak to them regularly on the weekends and on Wednesday nights). I know you might be saying, “Well if I required all my coaches to meet those criteria, I’d likely have only about 3 -4 coaches for any given sport!” I would reply to that statement by saying “GREAT! Then only have 3 teams!”

LEADERSHIP
The point is, LEADERSHIP is the catalyst for transitioning the participants in your leagues into the life of your church. If you only have 3 ‘qualified’ leaders to coach your softball teams, then ‘limit’ (yes, limit!) the number of teams you offer, keeping the focus on ‘quality’, not quantity. You should then encourage your leaders to choose other ‘plugged in’ and ‘committed’ members of your church to complete the CORE of their team. However, you should intentionally limit the number of CORE players each captain is allowed to register for his/her team, requiring them to leave a specific number of spots on their roster for visitors and others to get plugged in (we call those persons FREE AGENTS). From there, we strategically place FREE AGENTS on teams where they have something in common with the majority of the CORE members, such as marital status, address or age. That way, if we place a single person on a team where the CORE members are other singles who are plugged in and/or leading in the singles ministry at our church, chances are very good that the FREE AGENT single will be invited and encouraged to get involved in the singles group at our church. The same principle would apply if we placed a person on a team where the CORE members are all members of a home group in the FREE AGENTS neighborhood or the CORE members all serve in a particular ministry together (i.e. – parking, greeting, hospitality, ushers, etc, etc).

ACCOUNTABILITY
The last piece of the puzzle is accountability. As I also shared with you last summer, our pastor, Ed Young, has an old saying that goes something like this, “People don’t do what you ‘expect’, people do what you ‘inspect’!” Therefore, a standard part of our Team Captains’ seasonal responsibilities is the submission of ‘required’ player interviews that help tell us (the church) where each sports participant stands in regards to the following:
(1) Salvation; has this person had a verifiable salvation experience they can identify and share?
(2) Church Affiliation: are they a member, non-member or regular attendee of your church? Are they a member of another church? What is their reason for playing in a church league?
(3) Church Involvement: If they are a member or ‘attendee’ of your church, how else and where else besides sports are they plugged in (i.e. – bible study, small groups, service, tithing, etc)?

ACTION
By requiring and holding our captains accountable for collecting and submitting this information (captains failing to do so face game forfeits, suspensions and even long term expulsion from participating in any sports league for 1 year), we are able to accurately and appropriately gauge a participants status in each of the areas mentioned above. Once we have gauged each player’s status in those areas, we then give each Team Captain specific assignments and instructions for strategic follow up with players who need it.

For example, if a player has been ‘attending’ the church for a couple of years, but has not yet joined, the team captain will be charged with following up with that player about why they are not yet a member. Many times, the reason is something as simple as the person has simply not made the time to attend the churches Newcomer’s Class. But, more often than not, the reasons are much deeper. The reasons are many times relative to confusion, assumptions or fears the person may have regarding their misunderstanding of the churches ‘supposed’ or actual membership requirements. I say misunderstood requirements because, by having our leaders talk with these people one-on-one, we find many people are simply confused or misinformed about the churchs membership requirements and simply needed someone to clear those up for them. The captain will then do his/her best to re-educate and appopriately encourage the player to either attend or pray about attending our church’s Newcomer’s Class. The captain is obviously not held accountable for ‘making’ the person attend the class, but for simply asking the right questions and sharing the needed information (like when and where the next Newcomer's class is offered). This same process is followed for salvation follow-up and church involvement assessment.

RESULTS
Captains subsequently turn in on-line reports, giving us track-able feedback and results from on all the discussions they had with the players needing follow-up. This information is then stored and tracked in a Sports Participant Data base that is used over and over again each sports season to track, assess and measure where we’ve been and where we’re going. The end result is a ‘measurable’ and ‘intentional’ process through which we can evaluate, correct and report the effectiveness of our Sports Ministry programs.

Back from Vacation

2005-06-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

WHEW! The past 14 days have been a literal blur. My wife and I jetted off on vacation on May 29, only to return home and hear a relative of mine had passed away. I quickly unpacked my sandy vacation bags (we spent 5 great days on the beach in Florida!), washed what I could and hurriedly re-packed for a trip to my childhood home in Louisiana.

My trip back to the Bayou State returned me to tender relationships and to loved ones who all played key roles in my life. Many supported, loved and encouraged me during my adolescent years when, like many of us, I was insecure and scared, lacking greatly in confidence and direction. These people never took a 'vacation' from loving and supporting me, even despite the myriad of trials, tribulations and troubles that were often taking place in their own lives.

On that note, millions of people each year vacation and travel in this great land we call the good ole' USA . But sadly, many of them find it convenient to also take a vacation from God when traveling or on the road. They end their days of liesure and adventure without ever taking a moment to reflect and to worship the creator of the very things they are being allowed to enjoy.

Thankfully, our God and creator never does us the same way. His love for us is constant and ever-lasting and is only affected by our reluctance or stubborness to allow Him to fully love us as He intends. And, it's when WE take a vacation from Him that life's troubles and challenges seem to hit us most.

I, for one, hope my vacations away from the J.O.B. and the hassles of everyday life never permit me to take a vacation from my loving heavenly Father!

Employee Fitness Classes

2005-05-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

In celebration of National Running and Fitness week, the employees of our church were encouraged to spend part of their lunch hour in a fitness related activity. Following their workout, participants were asked to share their thoughts on the following questions.

What challenges/roadblocks (if any) did you face getting to the workout in the first place?
Did you have any apprehensions about participating? If so, what were they?
How did you feel during your workout?
How did you feel after your workout and throughout the workday? Did anything ache or hurt?
What, if anything, did you learn?
Are you glad you participated?

Here is what a few of them had to say

Henry A.

Like everyone else, the biggest challenge I faced in getting to the class in first place was just making the commitment to being there. Did I have apprehensions about participating? No; none at all. I know the benefits of working out and how it makes me feel. I felt great during the workout, and it gave me a chance to fellowship with other employees. After my workout was over, I felt rewarded for making the effort and finishing the task. The thing I learned from participating was that I can still make time for fitness and have plenty of time to finish my work. For me, the overall experience was great and it was cool to meet some new people.

Jeph K

After day two… Allow me to summarize via Haiku

My legs hurt a lot....I’m not a big fan of pain....It is for the best

Carissa B

My computer was down all morning, so I had lots to do. On top of that, I just didn’t feel like exercising!

Nope. I need the group setting for accountability. Otherwise, I would never leave my desk.
Good. I felt like I probably didn’t get a very good work out, though. I thought, ”She’s done? I’m just getting loosened up!” Right, well, read #4.
Yesterday I felt great. I didn’t have that usual tired 1:00pm slump.
This morning, though, I am much more sore than I anticipated. All these aches from stretching? Wow.
I learned that Brian and Barry will participate in yoga. Shocking!!
Absolutely! See y’all on Thursday!!

Maryann C
Okay Barry – I come to stand with Laura – her strength is my strength and all that jazz…

My mind said it’s time, my body was saying – are you crazy?
Where are the snakes!
Actually I felt kinda good. (Thanks for being my walking partner Laura J )
You want honest – here goes! Haven’t exercised in forever – so I was not sure what would happen.
I learned that I can walk and talk at the same time and once around the campus is not that bad. ( Remember, it been “forever” since I last made an effort to exercise)
YES – now if things would just break free so I can do this more often that would be great!

Randy H

Enjoyed being out and the walk was a stress buster. I needed to prepare better by bringing sunscreen, hat and shoes. The lake and the track are a great resource and we should use it.

Andy B (the poet!)

The hardest part about running for me isn’t the actual running…its thinking about running. No matter how often I run, I find an excuse every time not to go out there. The funny thing is, when I finally get out there and just do it, I’m relieved. Sure, it’s hot. Sure, it’s physically draining at times. But it’s worth it.

I use that time as a semi-quiet time. I try to focus and just listen to anything God wants me to hear. Sometimes it’s nothing; other times it’s something very important that I need in my life. The point is—I make sure I commit that time to Him. I actually have a phrase that I repeat over and over in my head as my feet hit the pavement that helps me to focus on God.

After I finish running, there’s a sense of accomplishment. I push myself a little more each time—distance, time, whatever. And when I get back to the office, I know that I can complete any of the tasks ahead of me, because I just climbed that mountain on the pavement. It helps me to clear my thoughts for the rest of the day. I don’t hit that 3 pm dead time after I run. My mind is more focused and I’m ready to finish the day strong. There’s no doubt that when I run I feel better—so hopefully, I can keep it up for the long haul!

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts!

Billy the Intern

2005-05-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits associated with hosting a large sports progam is the opportunity to bring on college interns for the summer. This year our summer intern is Billy Sowell, a senior majoring in Sports Management at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA. Recently, Billy and I sat down for a bite of lunch. During lunch we discussed Billy's impressions of his first few days with us. Here is what he had to say.

Barry: Alright,Billy, you have been with us now a little bit over two weeks and we're hoping that you have learned a thing or two. But, before we get to that I know that coming to Fellowship Church was probably an adjustment from where you had previously gone to church. What was the most surprising thing about Fellowship Church when you first came?

Billy: The most surprising thing would probably be how large it is. There's a ton of staff members here. I didn't realize that there would be that many staff members. And it's a big facility. I like Saturday night church. It's really cool. We don't have that around where I live...at least that I know of. I think that's very cool.

Barry: OK, very good. Well you came here to serve as our sports intern and from the beginning from when I first interviewed you on the telephone to now, I shared with you that our sports ministry is hopefully run much different than any one that you may have seen or participated in up until this point. Tell us what you think the biggest difference is in our sport program so far verses the other ones you have seen where you came from.

Billy: Well, for one thing, after being a Fellowship for a couple of weeks I realized that this is actually a sports ministry, and not a church league. Most of the other churches have church leagues. This is actually a ministry. I believe that sports is the easiest way to build relationships with people, or a very easy way to build relationships with people. And Fellowship just facilitates that and gears that towards more spiritual discussions. It requires you to dig deep and discuss your faith with the other players, and that's what it's all about.

Barry: We kinda threw you right into the fire right off the bat, not giving you a lot of time to get acclimated, and we pretty much put you to work right away. What's been the biggest adjustment that you have had to make to come in and work here?

Billy: There hasn't been any big adjustments that I can think of really. I used to do a lot of computer work at my old job, and we do a lot of that administrative work, and organizing. And everything I've had experience in all that before just a little different. So it hasn't been that big of an adjustment.

Barry: So what is the thing you enjoy most about the job now?

Billy: The aspect that I enjoy the most would probably be uh actually watching the leagues and playing in the leagues, and seeing how it works with the sharing of the devotion and everything. Well, game day stuff is what I enjoy the most.

Barry: Alright you knew you had to be asked this, what do you like the least.

Billy: I really can't think of anything I like the least....well....except I guess walking across the building to make copies isn't the best; but you got to do what you got to do. And it would be nice if I could get my own work station instead of having to move to whoever's is out of the office that day.

Barry: That's good. That's good. Alright now I'm gonna put you on the spot. Describe the difference between working for and with me verses working for and with Mr. Jeff (Jeff Slone is the Asst. Athletics Pastor)

Billy: Both Barry and Jeff get the job done, they just do it differently. Barry is a lot more...uh... demanding and he knows what he wants basically. And it's gonna get done that way. Jeff is a little more laid back, and he gets... I don't know... he gets the job done too; he's just a little more laid back and calm about it.

Barry: Alright, next to last question. Tell us about your living situation and the place you are staying here in Texas.

Billy: I'm staying in Lewisville in a house with a guy named Danny Smith and its been really great . We don't have any problems; we haven't had any fights or anything. Yeah... we've had no problems....we just hang out and watch TV most of the time.

Barry: So describe the biggest difference in Texas and Georgia

Billy: The biggest difference is probably the trees.... we have a lot more trees in Georgia, and they grow a lot taller, and we have a lot more shade. And it's a lot hotter here. You don't realize how much a difference 100 and 95 is, but it's a pretty big difference.

Barry: Yes, it is, yes it is! Tell us what you miss most about home.

Billy: What I miss most about home is my girlfriend, Kaleena, and my mother's cooking she's an awesome cook, I really miss that.

Barry: Alright Billy thanks for your comments. The last thing I want you to tell everybody is would you recommend this experience for another college student looking for an opportunity to learn about church sports ministry, and what advice would you give them?

Billy: I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone that wants to be in the church recreation field at all. They do it right here. I don't know of any other place that does it right and as an effective ministry. It's been a wonderful experience. The only advice I would give is to soak up all you can while you are here because you will be able to use it in an effective way whenever you get to wherever you are going to be.

Where do we start?

2005-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

By far, the most common question I get asked is, "How do we start our own sports ministry programs?" As all churches and situations are different, that isn't a question that is easily addressed.

For instance, where you are located (large, metropolitan city; small town; rural community, etc) is a huge factor in determining how you should begin your program and what it should look like. So to give a standard answer for how a church should begin their own program is a bit difficult.

To start with, here are a few factors to consider when deciding when and how to start your own church sports programs:

What is the purpose of having a sports program in the first place? What is your church's intention for hosting or promoting a sports program in the first place?
Who is your audience? Children? Students? Adults? If adults, are you talking about adult singles? Young marrieds? Families with children?
What programs/sports are already the most popular and available in your area or region?
Should you play in 'church-only' leagues or should you rub shoulders with the community by playing in non-church leagues?
Who will be financially responsible for teams fees, equipment, jerseys, etc? The church? The players? Parents? Sponsors?
What facilities are most readily available to you and your programs? Do you have your own facilities or will you be renting them? How does this affect your choice of what sports to play?
Who will make up your teams? Church members only? Church members and regular attendees? Any one who wants to play? What about new visitors to your church? How will they fit in? How will they even know about the programs offered? Are they advertised where they can see them?
Who will lead your teams? The most athletic? The most spiritual? The only ones willing to do so (ha/ha...that is seriously how many churchs choose leaders!)?
What will be expected of your team(s) above and beyond just playing sports? Will they be encouraged/held accountable for their actions on the field? If so, by whom? What does 'accountable' mean? A slap on the wrist? Playing suspension? Nothing?
Will any spiritual principles/reflection be introduced before, during or after the teams play? If so what and who will lead it?

These are just a few suggestions to consider when starting your program. I will share more questions to consider as well as a little bit about what we do in later Blogs.

Until next time, keep running the Race (Heb 12:1)!

Why Church Sports

2005-05-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

After hearing about 'blogging' from our church COO, Terry Storch, I was encouraged to try blogging for myself. Here is my first entry.

My name is Barry Ford and I am the Adult Athletics Pastor at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX (www.fellowshipchurch.com). I have attended Fellowship Church since 1991 and have been on staff since 1998. Since that time, I have seen God do some incredible things not only in our church, but also in the sports programs offered by our church.

Over the years, our sports programs have received minor notoriety, especially in our city and the surrounding areas. As a result, I am contacted several times a year by churches and other organizations asking me about how we run our programs and what has made them so successful.
So, if you are a church sports pastor or a sports volunteer or lay person at your local church, this blog is for you.

Although we certainly don't claim to know everything, we do hope to share a few ideas and suggestions we feel may benefit others. In the process, if you read something that helps you and your church ministry, please let us know about it. Even better, if you have a suggestion or idea on how something has worked or is working in your church, let us know about it. We'd love to share or post it here, utlimately becoming a one-stop resource for sports pastors and sports lay people all around the country. Our ultimate goal is to share with others how a passion for sports and athletics can be used as a powerful tool for sharing the gospel message and for building relational bridges into our local churchs.

Check back later for more stories and information.

Until next time, keep running the Race (Heb 12:1)

Barry