This was originally posted on the CSRM Blog in 2016, and is featured in Dr. Linvilles Book Sports Outreach Fundamentals.
This series of blogs will describe and explain the “5-B’s” of Evangelism of The Sports Outreach Movement. This blogs continues the discussion with the four conduits of moving people from the Sports Outreach to the broader church.
The belonging/believing starting point of the “5-B Rubric” provides natural conduits to the broader church.
Conduit #1 - The primary conduit is in the form of relationship; either a deepening of the relationship the unchurched person had with the church member who invited them to join the league or activity and/or in the initiation and development of relationships with new friends who are also members of the church.
Conduit #2 - Another primary conduit based on relationships is getting to know the pastor, pastoral staff and other church members. Sports Outreach Ministry leaders understand the strategic relevance of engaging other church staff and leaders in regular participation within the Sports Outreach. The most significant participation would be for church staff members to coach, compete or otherwise take part as a participant, but if ability, interest, age or gender precludes such participation, wise pastoral staff will welcome the opportunity to periodically (once each season or session) “stop by for a visit” or to lead a sports devotional for one of the leagues. The same would be true for all church staff.
Conduit #3 – A third conduit for connecting non-churched Sports Outreach Ministry participants with the broader church comes through making them aware of other services, programs, activities the church offers. This could include a multi-faceted approach combining: a) distributing hard copy brochures and flyers; b) verbal announcements and invitations presented by church staff and leaders; and c) social media outlets. The absolute most strategic approach is for the various church departments to collaborate on synchronized ministries. These could include the sports and children’s ministries combining on summer day camps and/or having the children’s ministers prepare and deliver the devotionals for children’s leagues ending with a league-ending invitation to a special children’s day at the church. Similar collaborative approaches can be envisioned for the sports department to work with the youth, men’s, women’s, young adult and senior adult ministries of the church.
Conduit #4 - The fourth conduit is often taken for granted, or never even comprehended, but should not be overlooked. As previously, mentioned, the very reality of being present on the site of a local congregation is itself profoundly helpful in transferring sports participants to the broader church. When the non-churched are comfortable on the church’s campus it makes taking the next steps for participating in other church activities much, much easier.
The next blog explains the third “B” – Baptism.
You can get a copy of Sports Outreach Fundamentals in the bookstore: https://csrm.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/csrm/product.jsp?product=10&