The Commission: Go With Sports

Dr. Thamsing Lamkang *

Pastors-Church Sports Leadership Training at Sports Resource Center, Dimapur (With Dr. Lamkang third from left)

Many love sports; sports have no age limit or any gender restriction. Sports have no limits to cross other boundaries. Through sports one can develop friendships so that change takes place! Sport is a unique tool and laboratory for the spiritual growth and discipling especially the youngsters.

"Sports and Recreation" is an avenue that can bring the biggest number of people together. The Bible says that Jesus was compassionate as He saw the crowd. And today sports attract the biggest number of people to involve, to pull the crowd's easiest way. What would Jesus do-what would you do?

The sports ministry or mission was BORN to FULFILL JESUS order to 'GO' and preach the gospel to all mankind, so that many will 'COME' to the knowledge of God. Jesus didn't tell us just to go, He commanded all the believers to go with the purpose of making Jesus Christ known to others. "It is not about you, it is not about sports or about the church, but it is all about Him, Christ Jesus alone". The word 'GO' is written 1514 times in the whole Bible, 233 times in New Testament, and in gospel of Matthew alone it is written 54 times.

Whenever the expression of Sport Ministry is used, there seems to be wide diversity of opinion over the meaning of that term sport ministry. But for clear clarification and communication, it is imperative that there is an agreement on what is meant by Sport Ministry as the best tool for a change.

The church should realize that we can't do discipleship and evangelism only from the church pulpit. We should always remind ourselves that only believers and good people come to Church. What about the non-church goers, drug addicts, alcoholics and the other non-believers? They will never come to church unless the church goes out to reach them wherever they are.

How can they hear the gospel, unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them without being sent? The scriptures say it is a beautiful sight to see even the feet of someone coming to preach the Good News?" Rom.10:14-15.

The Church is Jesus' followers called out from the ways of the world to the ways of the Kingdom. His followers have been given the Spirit of Jesus John 20:21-22 to continue the mission of Christ to establish the Kingdom of God on earth in the hearts, lives and through the obedience of his followers (sometimes described as: "to bring heaven to earth!"). "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known …" Eph.3:10.

The church is described as the Bride with Jesus being the Bridegroom. The people in the church are described as the body of Christ 1Cor.12:26-28. Jesus explained to Peter that he would play an important part in Jesus' work in building his church. "… I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it" Matt.16:18. It is the work of every believer to serve the growth and health of the body of Christ, the church, and the local expression of it. The church is the people of God and not a physical building. While differences over time have led to many denominations, the Bible explains that there is only one worldwide and universal church. In sport ministry, we serve the local church and seek to encourage unity and partnering between them. This reflects Jesus' prayer for all believers, "That they may be one" John 17:22.

Within the church are many roles: "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" Eph.4:11-13. We seek to hold up the Biblical pattern that all members of the church have an active role to play and are given gifts by God. Indeed all are priests. "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" 1Pet.2:9. It is the role of the whole church to keep each other accountable to the words of Scripture. Part of serving and building up the church is helping keep it true to the words of the Bible. It is the building up of the church, the body of Christ that is at the heart of sport ministry.

Serving In and Through Sports

Sport is loved, played and appreciated by men and women of all ages, across cultures, all over the world. Sport can be enjoyed because of God's gift of physical bodies, but also because he has created us with the gifts, talents and abilities to play sport. Yet, as with all of his created order, sport has been spoilt by sin and therefore needs to be redeemed; this can only happen with God's help.

Sport is a way of life for so many people. It shapes their time, activity and focus. Within this world, we seek to serve the needs of sports people as well as their families, helping them to become the people that God created them to be. We recognize that elite sports people in particular face unique challenges and serving them in love is a key aspect of this movement. Sport is a wonderful, universal language that is fun, challenging, competitive and relational. For these reasons, it provides a powerful way of connecting people with one another whatever their age, gender or background. This helps create an environment where evangelism, discipleship, leadership development and even church planting can occur.

Sport adds to the unique style and strength of sport ministry movement. For example, the knowledge of team sports informs our understanding of the importance of teams in ministry. A champion team is often made up of players working together, serving each other and working in unity with a common purpose. This understanding can help the church live out Kingdom principles with each believer playing their part. On the field of play, all are equal and all are valuable. Sport is active and involves the whole person. This is how we have the potential to live as disciples, loving and serving God with our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Practical Steps Through Sports:

We serve "in" and "through" sport.
We serve "in" the world of sport by:

1. Valuing sport. Since God gave us the abilities to develop sport, we should maximize these abilities with responsibility, elevating each other to higher performance and greater joy for the common good of society and the glory of God!
2. Valuing all sport structures, creating the environment for sport. We pray for them and serve them by getting involved so that the governance of sport will be to the benefit of all.
3. Caring and serving sports people and their families. Our service is based on our love for the person and not the value of his performance. We want to take care of the holistic development of sport people and would therefore serve them towards maturity in Christ.

We serve "through" sport by: Understanding that sport is a powerful global language that enables us to build relationships through playing sport and providing sports opportunities. This creates a great platform to:
1. Proclaim the Gospel
2. Develop Discipleship
3. Take the church outside the 4 walls through sport to impact society.

1. We strive to redeem sport:
Since human beings are sinful, all the creations of our hands and minds are sinful and thus need redemption. We endeavor to redeem sport by
a. Training sport people in having positive relationships with team players and competitors.
b. Creatively developing the quality of sport, sport structures and administration, sport rules and all the different aspects making up the world of sport.
c. Life coaching sport people to represent God in all their behavior and to glorify Him through success and failure and general participation.

2. Sport is about people:
Understand that the people of sport are people! They may be high-performance athletes, elite players, celebrities or completely unknown passionate sports people. They need our love and care. Don't put them on a pedestal, because God doesn't. When you are given opportunities to serve, show practical and simple love to them!