Sports and Leisure

Ever wonder how sports and leisure fit into your Christian Worldview? One excellent sermon I've found on the topic is by a man named C.J. Mahaney, its entitled "don't waste your sports"

Click here to read "Don't waste your sports"

Additionally, an excellent article that I've read is by a man named Kevin DeYoung, and its entitled "a simpler view of sports" I encourage all to read the article and visit the comments section for further interaction with DeYoung's article.

"A simpler view of sports"

Sports Ministry in Africa

Here's an article from Mission Network News about Sports Ministry going on in Africa.

Team uses sports ministry to relay Gospel

Do you have a passion for soccer, baseball, basketball, or any other sport? Recently, a team from E3 Partners traveled to Uganda to connect with unreached people with the Gospel through their passion for sports. At five new churches they planted, sports clinics were held, and at least one person was trained in sports ministry. In addition to helping with sports ministry and church planting, the 32-member team helped with medical aid and HIV/AIDS education. Pray for God's blessing on these ministries.

Full story: http://www.MNNonline.org/article/13910

"The Art of The Start" Pt. 2 - Rainmaking

One concept that Guy Kawasaki talks about is the art of Rainmaking. To those who don't know what this is, its simply a synonym for networking. Guy presents the following points that are helpful in considering how to spread your idea/product.

• Conduct small-scale seminars to introduce the product
• Give speeches
• Network and participate in industry organizations
• Find decisions makers to enable him/her to do job and not waste time
• Find customers willing to consider you
• Let sales prospects talk


Before I started participating in sports ministry, I did not understand how important it was to build a contact base. Forming such a base is the goal of Guy's rainmaking idea. The above model is for businesses, but can be applied to the sports ministry structure as well. Sending a representative to the CSRM conference is equivalent to networking and introducing your ministry to possibly its largest target audience in a matter of a week. There you will find people who are like minded and can offer suggestions as you try to find the most effective ways to use your new ministry. Furthermore, the CSRM conference is connected to the church, and since that is the case you know that your going to be staying close to the biblical plan for world evangelism and discipleship.

What other methods or "rainmaking" or networking have you found that work well?

"The Art of the Start" Discussion Pt. 1 - Causation

Recently a classmate of mine led a discussion on the book "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki. Guy has had much experience in the field of jump-starting businesses from the ground, up. I think it is very beneficial for us as Christians and sports ministers to read literature from people who are not necessarily christians, but have experience as an entrepreneur. I think many times we almost immediately discount any literature that is not written by christians because it is coming from a secular viewpoint. But I think there are many valuable lessons and principles that we can learn and apply to our ministries, as long as we run the principles and lessons through a Biblical grid.

With that in mind, I would like to review a couple points that I found most helpful and interesting in the discussion of this book.
More after the jump...

Guy talks about "Causation" in his book, and he lists 4 things that an entrepreneur must do at the beginning, before they do anything else.
These are:

1. Make Meaning: create something that makes the world a better place.
2. Make Mantra: a powerful statement including what the business model is about.
3. Define your business model: Target the customer, make it simple.
4. Weave a "MAT": Milestone, Assumptions, and Tasks.

I won't talk about each of these specifically, but I think many times when starting something new, ministry or not, we get too far ahead of ourselves. We start thinking about the small details of how we are going to do everything before we actually figure out why we are doing what we are doing. Specifically in sports ministry we might start worrying about where are resources are going to come from, and what facilities we are going to use before we even figure out who we are targeting.

Guy points out here that before we get bogged down with all the small details, we must first give meaning to our ministry. What does this look like?

This means writing a mission statement. It means thinking about who your target audience is. It means, laying out the big milestone goals of the ministry before worrying about how we are going to achieve those goals.

This is just one aspect of many that Guy discusses in order to start a successful business.

I think it is also important to remember that in many aspects our ministry is a business. While we shouldn't treat it exactly as we would a business, in many respects we have to, and causation is just one way in which we should treat our ministry as a business.