USING sport for evangelism is to be the main target of a debate on the General Synod next month, when members will likely be invited to contemplate a three-year project piloting sports ministry.
The National Sport and Wellbeing Project (NSWP) was launched in March 2020, when eight dioceses got support, funded by the Laing Trust, to initiate sports ministry. A paper introducing the motion and debate ahead of the Synod meeting explains that the NSWP sought to assemble evidence that sports ministry might be a “significant evangelistic and mission tool”.
Data from Sport England suggests that 16 million adults within the UK play sport weekly. Sport is especially well embedded in communities that the Church of England struggles to succeed in: 38 per cent of ethnic minority British people play weekly, as do 55 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds.
The eight dioceses each developed their very own sports ministry plan, and built relationships with existing Christian organisations working on this area. Other outcomes from the NSWP include a Sports Ministry Programme at Ridley Hall, in Cambridge, and funding to develop a latest discipleship element to the schools-based coaching projects of the parachurch group KICK.
“Sport suits neatly into the Church of England’s present Vision and Strategy, helping to create a younger and more diverse Church and the event of the mixed ecology,” the paper argues, and will not be simply one other “thing to do” for already overburdened church leaders.
A sports charity arrange by the diocese of Gloucester, Sportily, is now taking over the sports project after the NSWP wound up in 2023. Sportily is in discussions with the Ministry Development Team for a latest three-year scheme to coach 1700 lay leaders in easy methods to use sport for evangelism and ministry.
More than 8000 sport sessions had been run within the 4 years since Sportily was founded, and 30 per cent of participants reported wanting to search out out more about God after participating.
A separate sports project within the diocese of Ely reported that 77 per cent of participants believed that participating within the scheme had “helped them think concerning the Christian faith”.
An independent evaluation of the NSWP concluded that each one eight dioceses appeared to now recognise sports ministry as a great tool to succeed in “unchurched audiences and communities”.
“The research findings indicate that SWM [Sports and Wellbeing Ministry] can successfully function an efficient tool for mission and ministry inside local parishes,” the paper concludes. For it to thrive, it cannot simply be hived off to individuals with a passion for sports, and as a substitute have to be integrated into senior diocesan leadership’s long-term plans.
The motion that members of Synod will likely be asked to debate after which pass reads: “This Synod recognises the missional potential for churches of sport and wellbeing through its ability to remodel the lives of individuals and communities.”