Sports Outreach Resources

Team RFC (Racers for Christ) is a unique fellowship for Christians involved in motor racing. Team RFC, an international organization devoted to ministering to the emotional and spiritual needs of both professional and amateur racers, provides inspiration and encouragement to anyone in the racing community. Access online devotionals, testimonials and information on various Team RFC ministries--chapel services, pastoral care, outreach programs and more. Team RFC members participate in races, car shows, cruise-ins and tractor pulls. Find collectibles in its updated store--proceeds support the Team RFC ministry. Whether you race boats, motorcycles or cars, Team RFC is a great center for ministry and fellowship with others who have similar interests. Team RFC says, "Cars are our passion; people are our purpose."

Team RFC: http://teamrfc.gospelcom.net/

The Goal, a Christian sports-related Web site, features LifeStories, testimonies of athletes in all sports--from aerobatics, baseball and cricket to soccer, volleyball and weightlifting. The comprehensive database is searchable by athlete or by country, and includes stories about Twan Russell, Jay Bell, Jannie de Beer, Chad Hawker and more. Read "House by the Side of the Road," the story of Ernie Harwell, and other exciting testimonies of faith by hundreds of Christian athletes.

The Sports Channel in partnership with Sports Spectrum magazine and radio, sponsored by RBC Ministries, offers daily features such as sports news and analysis; a free daily sports newsletter; and "The Insider," a sports-related daily devotional featuring insights from Christian athletes in the news. Other features include articles from Sports Spectrum magazine, a question of the day, message boards, sport pages with info about each sport and links to Sports Spectrum radio and other RBC Ministries.

TheGoal.com: http://www.thegoal.com/
CT Sports Channel: http://www.christianitytoday.com/sports/
RBC Ministries: http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/

RBC Ministries (formerly Radio Bible Class) presents a variety of resources, media presentations, sports info and news. Find devotions--Our Daily Bread (in English, Korean, Indonesian and Spanish); Campus Journal and My Utmost for His Highest by J. Oswald Chambers. Read "Ten Reasons to Believe," "Answers to Tough Questions" and more. Access Discovery Series Study Booklets, and visit Discovery House Publishers for books, music and videos. Listen to Words to Live By, Discover the Word, Our Daily Bread and Sports Spectrum Radio. Enjoy excellent sports-related resources--Sports Outreach America, Straight Trax and Sports Spectrum Online.

RBC Ministries: http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/

http://www.sportsoutreach.org/

(Also see the info. on their new poster!) They've also got a great outreach booklet for ministry at the World Cup. If you're in Europe contact Jorgen at katarina@ibseur.se, USA contact Davyd at davydh@ibs.org, UK and others not included in the two above groups contact cpo@pavilion.co.uk.

The purpose of Infinity Sports is to reach the people in the 10/40 window (more about that on the website) through sports.

INFINITY SPORTS involves Christian sportsmen and sportswomen in international sports ministry. Their focus is on the UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS and Major Gateway Cities in the RESTRICTED ACCESS countries of the 10/40 WINDOW (World A).

Find out how they use sports to bring the Gospel to the 97% of the least evangelized people on the earth. This is a resource site - not an evangelistic site. And it's redemptive analogies and contextualization again!

http://www.InfinitySports.com/

Light Magazine goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of top athletes committed to serving the Lord, not just in athletics but in all aspects of life. The magazine's special sports issue features inspiring stories from top athletes--some are Olympians--and is available online. Articles spotlight athletes like four-time U.S. Olympian Madeline Manning; top world-ranked tri-athlete Barb Lindquist; Sports Illustrated for Women's top 25 female athlete of the century, Jean Driscoll; basketball player Brent Fuqua; tennis pro Dennis Ralston; and many more. The issue also includes articles on sports evangelism and its impact worldwide. Light Magazine is sponsored by the International Bible Society.

Light Magazine: http://www.ibs.org/light/

Gospelcom--Fellowship of Christian Athletes, RealGold 2000 and RecFX, listed at the Web site listed below. Now grab some popcorn--and go, team, go! Gospelcom sports links: http://www.gospelcom.net/welcome/categories/coaches.shtml

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ss/outreach/

For links to these sports ministries, please go to the web site above and click on the link for Sports Information Directory.

Sports ministries which have tracts:

Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Email: kharlan@fca.org or lmccown@fca.org

Athletes in Action
Email: aiacom@aol.com

Winning Run Foundation
Email: nurniw@aol.com

Atletas de Cristo
Email: atletas@ibm.net

Greek Youth Ministry (GYM)
Email: kivotos@otenet.gr

International Christian Cycling Club
Email: M3Wells@aol.com

John Kregel Ministries
Unlimited Potential
Email: UPI@UPI.org

Christian Living Today Magazine
Email: today@nis.za

Cross Training Publishing
Email: crosstrainingpub@computer-concepts.com

Athletic Ministries International Inc
Email: brilla@athleticministries.org

Texas Sports Reach
Email: eanderson@SportsReachTexas.com

Sports Christian Union International
Email: scunerrands.skannet.com

SU Sportz
Email: jimd@nsw.su.org.au

Sports Spectrum
www.sport.org/

The home of Sports Spectrum radio show and magazine.
Straight Traks cassettes - cassettes with David Robinson and Reggie White - sort of like an audio testimony tract - links to a lot of Sport ministries which sell tracts.

American Tract Society
PO Box 4620008
Garland TX 75046-2008

Toll free: 1 800 548 7228
Tel: (972) 276 9408
Fax: (972) 272 9642
www.gospelcom.net/ats
http://www.goshen.net/AmericanTractSociety/
http://www.atstracts.org
https://www.gospelcom.net/cartoonworks/atsmain.html

amtract@aol.com

American Tract Society has a few titles of well done sports testimonies tracts. Well written tracts in comic and non comic format on glossy paper. Large selection in a English Spanish and other languages including Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Romanian, Japanese, and French. ATS has new cybertracts, which is an interactive cd-rom. One looks like a comic book.

ATS has evangelism, African American, discipleship, children's tracts, tip cards, marriage and family, sports evangelism, audio tracts, tract displays, door hangers. ATS also has many of the Last Days Ministries tracts.

www.mfinder.org/

Links about missions opportunities for architects, athletes, business persons, veterinarians, engineers, teachers, academics, nannies, mechanics, aviation, medical personnel, etc. Many of the agencies organize short-term trips. Some offer long term or even career opportunities. If you can't find what you're looking for yourself, they'll personally tap their resources and database to find some possible matches.

But how many evangelistic websites are devoted to sport?

Here are two:
The Goal: http://www.thegoal.com/
Michelle Akers homepage: http://www.michelleakers.com/

There is a huge potential for evangelistic sports pages. Literature producer Christian Publicity Organisation in UK http://www.cpo.org.uk/index1.html has for many years produced (among many other thngs) excellent give-away booklets relating to specific sports events, particularly football. These have included lots of factual information and history, as well as testimonies of players. These booklets have been a model of effective targetted evangelism. As such, they represent an ideal structure for a 'bridge' website. But no one has yet taken up this strategy.

You can find testimonies of professional sports figures from the USA at the Athletes in Action Web site, http://www.athletesinaction.org.

On Mission Sports Evangelism
Evangelism is not a spectator sport article.
http://www.onmission.com/webzine/Sept_Oct99/spectator.htm

Steve Klusmeyer wrote to share about several sites he looks after, including profiles for two Christian baseball players. These sites give a natural reference to the players' faith, within the overall context of the biographical details:
JONATHAN JOHNSON: http://www.jonathankjohnson.net/
R. A. DICKEY: http://www.radickey.net/

And Doug Reese shares about his sports site TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
"I was directed by the Lord to start a web-based sports ministry. I was on a long trip home after a wrestling tournament when the Lord clearly spoke to me. He told me to call it "To The Next Level" and showed me rather clearly the layout of the site. I argued with him about that I could not do this...I had really no knowledge of websites. He told me that "not too long ago you did not know anything about the sport of wrestling." (I am a college and national coach in the US.) There was no arguing with Him.

"I knew I had to do this, but I did not know where to start. I put it off for two months...then I felt like Jonah, so I thought I better get going. I started surfing the web and found the Web Evangelism site. I read everything I could, I checked hundreds of links from the site. I then sought out some students from our college who were in studying computer science. I wore them down with numerous questions. Slowly but surely, within 3 months of part-time work our website was on-line and growing.

"I felt I was not qualified or skilled to do this kind of work. But, what I learned was if you are called by God, He qualifies you to do His work. And that is a tremendous blessing!"

Take time to look round this excellent site. Note the way that sporting needs are gently pointed in a spiritual direction. See the carefully-chosen Bible verses at the top of the front page - but they don't LOOK like Bible verses because they are wisely offered without references after them! They appear therefore, at first sight, to be motivational statements (as indeed, of course, they are).

TO THE NEXT LEVEL: http://www.tothenextlevel.org/

Christian web and maintains lists of useful resources, was able to share a range of sports sites. The majority are not evangelistic sites aimed at sports fans, but ABOUT evangelism to sports-people and fans, and are usually written primarily for Christians. If you are interested in finding out more about who is a Christian in the world of sport, perhaps in order to produce an evangelistic sporting site, check them out:

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ss/outreach/ministry/
http://www.sportsoutreach.org/
http://www.InfinitySports.com/
http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/
http://www.ibs.org/light/
http://www.gospelcom.net/welcome/categories/coaches.shtml

Sports ministries and others which have tracts:
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ss/outreach/ http://www.sport.org/
http://www.gospelcom.net/ats/ http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/olympic.html

Secular articles about St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner:
http://www.wildabout.com/newsletter/view/dspViewNewsletter.cfm#StoryID_249
http://www.gazetteonline.com/sports/9910/oct002.htm

However, none of these are designed as primarily evangelistic vehicles - they are mainly for Christians to read. The only one I noticed (sorry if I missed any) which is written to be evangelistic and particularly accessible to non-Christians as well as Christians, is CrossWalk's SPORTS CHANNEL (which also includes the hosted ATHLETES IN ACTION and SPORTS SPECTRUM MAGAZINE:

http://sports.crosswalk.com/

So the field remains wide open - there is enormous potential for developing sport-related evangelistic pages! No one has attempted an outreach site around a specific sport, team, or international competition.

Michelle Akers is prominent on an evangelistic sports website called www.thegoal.com and has her own site: www.michelleakers.com. Audio of Michelle sharing the way to salvation is found on thegoal.com. Let a young Christian soccer fan pick up the story from there, as she told it to Michelle via e-mail:

A young friend of mine came by to watch the [World Cup] game with me. A few weeks before I had given her all the stuff on you and your faith that I had hard-copied off your website. We have been talking about God for a couple of months now. I have been sharing my life and faith with her. After the game, [my friend] asked more about God and you and overcoming adversity. She has been on the streets for a few years. I pulled up your Real Audio clips on the Internet. She listened intently and she prayed that prayer with you, Michelle. I had never seen her smile until she prayed and began to grin. The young lady received Christ across the bridge of sports evangelism. The Internet is a powerful tool for evangelism of all types, including sports. Some key sites and their purpose include:

www.thegoal.com
An evangelistic sports website with the testimonies of approximately 400 athletes, as well as timely feature stories. This site, created by Dave Hood of Genesis One design in Seattle, is a great tool for kids or adults to share their faith with friends by showing them the life stories of their favorite athletes. The site received 135,000 hits in June and is being promoted by various athletes, including Akers, who wore a www.thegoal.com wristband during the women's World Cup.

www.sportsoutreach.org
Your comprehensive guide to the church and para-church agencies doing sports evangelism around the world. Check out the sports information directory to find details on resources, organizations, church ministries and sports persons. Other site highlights include event outreach information, planning guides and postings for staff needs. For information on Major Sports Evangelism Partnership, go to http://www.sportsoutreach.org/msep/

The official website of Athletes in Action.
www.aiasports.org/

The official website of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
www.fca.org/

The official website of Sports Spectrum magazine.
www.sport.org/

Michelle Akers' website.
www.michelleakers.com
Michelle Akers is Founder of Soccer Outreach International, an organization that helps to create movements and resources for individuals, agencies and churches to teach people around the world how to integrate faith and sport into their daily lives.

David Robinson's website.
www.theadmiral.com

Michael Chang's website.
www.michaelchang.net
www.mchang.com

The mission of Motor Racing Outreach (MRO) is to introduce the racing community (racers and fans) to a personal faith in Christ, growth in ...
www.gospelcom.net/mro/ministry/ministry.html www.gospelcom.net/mro/

Fans of auto racing, motocross, powerboat racing and other motorized sports are racing to the Internet these days. In March, NASCAR's official website garnered nearly 1.5 million visitors, and hundreds of fans are creating sites for their favorite drivers, riders or teams. One ministry attempting to reach out to this audience with the message of Christianity is Motor Sports Outreach ( http://www.go2mro.com/ ). With testimonies from racing stars like Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Darrell Waltrip and others, MRO's website is an extension of the ministry's outreach efforts on and off the race track.

We hope MRO's online ministry really takes off and travels fast with the good news. Motor Sports Outreach is not only a great pit stop along the information superhighway, but also our E-vangelism Site of the Week for the week of May 14, 2001.

Bethany House, an evangelical Christian publishing company that seeks to "help Christians apply biblical truth in all areas of life," presents "Sermon on the Mound," a unique devotional book that ties into baseball and makes a great Father's Day gift. Written by a baseball fanatic who came to Christ in part due to an error in the World Series of 1986, the book "reveals that God is available to us everywhere even in our national pastime." In addition to books of all sorts--fiction, devotional, children's literature--Bethany House also provides an online calendar that lists their latest author appearances, events and holiday gift ideas.

Bethany House: http://www.bethanyhouse.com/