Pray, Play, Say

Part 1: Pray Hard!

Prayer is critical to any endeavor for which we want to see eternal results – it is even more important when the endeavor is evangelistic in its focus. The Apostle Paul pleaded with the Colossians to devote themselves to prayer for himself and his co-workers because they were sharing the Gospel. He asks them to pray for:

1. An open door to share the message (Colossians 4:3).
2. God to give the clarity when proclaiming the message (4:4).
3. Wisdom when dealing with outsiders (4:5).
4. The blessing of making the most of every opportunity (4:5).
5. Their conversation to be full of grace and seasoned with salt so they know how to answer everyone (4:6).

All of these are great things to be continually praying as you seek to bring God glory in your sport and impact others. This requires far more than praying at center court after you play a game or in the parking lot after a hike. Even in the simplest and most organic sports ministry, prayer is essential to seeing eternal results.

After personally surveying 94 churches that employed sports for ministry purposes, I hired a professional statistician to analyze the survey data. His purpose was to determine which aspect of sports ministry (e.g., church size, facilities, paid staff, Senior Pastor support, sports ministry budget, etc.) correlated most closely to families becoming engaged in the life of the church (through the bridge of the sports ministry). Intentional and specific prayer was greater than two times more likely to lead to families joining the church than any other aspect!

Don’t overlook the importance and strategic advantage prayer brings as you are Playing For Eternity.

Part 2: Play Well!

I’m convinced that sports is THE best bridge to build relationships with lost people. This bridge is most effective when you put into practice these 3 fundamentals.

1. KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING. Building relationships with the lost people that God puts in your sports universe needs to be a primary goal. This requires prayer and maybe someone to help you stay focused. It is so easy when competing to get distracted by temporal pursuits and miss the eternal opportunities.
2. BEHAVE! Remember the prayer items highlighted in Part 1 of this 3-part blog?
   a. To make the most of every opportunity
   b. To let our conversation be full of grace seasoned with salt

   These two prayers do not include arguing with the ref or with an opponent; and, NEVER includes retaliating. Better to lose a game graciously because of a ref’s bad call or an opponent’s hard foul than to complain or retaliate. The participants watching you will be more likely to listen to what you have to say about Jesus when they see you get fouled and not retaliate or complain. Not easy but impacting.

3. VALUE PEOPLE OVER YOUR SPORT. Be ready to step away from the game or activity to minister to someone who is injured or has a need that requires your attention. And yes, this applies even near the end of the close game! When most people are all about winning, being others-focused leaves a mark – in a good way.

Be OK with being outscored in a game. If you are playing in a competitive arena, play hard and to the best of your ability, but being outscored is not the end of the world. Here’s one way you can show that you value people over your sport: when dividing up teams add the weaker player that others may not want to your team. Doing this will allow you to make the most of every opportunity and it will season your conversation with salt.

Play your sport with your whole heart as unto the Lord, while staying focused on building relationships.

Part 3: Say Something!

Well done, you are Pray-ing Hard for God to use you to impact those around you. And, you are Play-ing Well to develop deeper relationships. But, how do you appropriately begin Say-ing Something? You are in this tension of not wanting to come off like a fraud selling Jesus, but you also don’t want to ignore the eternal consequences at stake. While continuing in prayer, here are some things you can do.

1. Look for opportunities to engage in a conversation that go deeper than the game/activity just played. This may be more natural over food after the activity.

   Seek the leading of God’s Spirit and boldly follow His leading. Sometimes God may be leading you to only address the specific question a person asks, and leave other topics for a later time. Consider leaving a seeker wanting to talk with you again, instead of wishing they had never asked anything about God.

   a. For example, when someone asks to play again on Sunday morning you could respond with, “Oh, I would love to play again but a few years ago my life was heading in a really bad direction and I learned some things that completely turned my life around. On Sundays I get to hang out with people who helped me.” If you stop at that point, the person will probably ask you for more information.

   b. Pray that God’s Spirit will keep bringing your comments to their mind until they ask again.

2. When God privileges you to have the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone, focus on Jesus. Start with where the person is, and focus on Jesus. Don’t let the cultural hot topic of the day dominate the conversation. Jesus is amazing, tell people about Him. The story in Acts 8 about the Ethiopian is a great reminder of this. Phillip starts with what the man was reading (Isaiah 53) and “told him the good news about Jesus”. The story includes the Ethiopian stopping his bike ride (aka, chariot) and asking to be baptized!
3. Trust in God’s Spirit to do the work of conversion. Be faithful, loving, and clear in your witness of the mercy and eternal life offered through Jesus. Our role is to faithfully “go, make, and teach” (Matthew 28:18-20), it is God’s job to do the work of conversion.
4. Persevere. You are in a marathon not a sprint. Paul encourages Timothy to do the work of an evangelist – it is work. Play regularly with lost people using the guidelines included in these three short blogs and God will use the relationships built to do His eternal redemptive work.

To recap…

Pray: Pray specifically for God to use you in your sport to minister to people.

Play: Play in a way that others see a loving and caring follower of Christ.

Say: Say something loving and bold, when God opens the door to have a deeper conversation.

I pray that God will bless you richly as you employ the powerful bridge of sports to build relationships with people and that you have the privilege of telling them about our wonderful and amazing Lord.