The History of Sports Ministry

History of Sports Ministry Movement

1st Century

Paul, in many of his letters in the New Testament, features sports (Galations 5:7; Philippians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 9:24-26; 2 Timothy 2:5). He clearly understood the role of sports in the cultures he served. He featured sports as a metaphor and the discipline of sports as a helpful way to understand what it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

18th Century

It was 1,750 years after Paul’s writing before sports was again mentioned explicitly in regard to following Jesus.

19th Century

A hundred years later in the mid-19th century, a movement which emphasized the more physical and muscular aspects of faith emerged, combining faith, philanthropic service and sport.
Amazingly, the church and sports had featured prominently in the 1800s in the United Kingdom with several of the Premier League football clubs starting in churches. Sports and the Gospel spread around the world as the British Empire spread and took many of the sports we know today across the globe. Organizations like the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) also had a focus on sports. Basketball was created for Christ-centered ministry in a YMCA.

20th Century

In the early decades of the 20th century, this vision of sports as an important ministry of the body of Christ largely disappeared. Despite this, many notable sports people in this period, like 1924 British Olympian Eric Liddell (featured in the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire) and others, were faithful followers of Jesus.

After the World War II, sports emerged as a ministry opportunity in the US and a few other places. However, across the world, very few countries knew anything about sports ministry and the church was largely ignorant and mostly negative towards sport. At the time, there were a handful of sports ministry organizations but little happening in 98% of the nations of the world.

1960s

The current global sports ministry movement started in 1969 as a result of a vision to see churches and ministry leaders understand and engage with sports. At the heart of this vision was a desire to make disciples in every country and city on earth stood at the heart of this vision. Chaplaincy to top level athletes also began in the 1960’s. It rapidly spread and today serves team and individual sports across the world.

1970s

An increasing number of people started to catch the vision. Sports ministry work started in parts of Europe, Brazil, India, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

1980s

A significant moment happened in Hong Kong in 1982 with the first global sports ministry gathering. Out of this gathering, sports teams traveled to new countries and new ministries started. The start of outreach around major sports events began with the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. New activities emerged at the Barcelona games in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.

1990s – Now

Since that first global sports ministry gathering, sports ministry has continued to expand. Sports ministry training programs and schools have been launched. Numerous sport specific ministries are currently laboring to make disciples all over the world. Now, tens of thousands of leaders are trained each year in sports ministry strategies and millions of people are influenced by them. There are few places on earth where sports ministry hasn’t had some impact.