So the question is: What are we to do? I think we have two choices. Moving Away from Program-centric Ministry I wish our students and their parents were in a place where church participation was seen as valuable as sports participation, but it seems that in most cases it’s not. When a significant number of teenagers consistently miss youth group because of sports, not only does it present logistical problems for you, but it deprives your other students of vital members of their faith community. For many of our students, youth group is the only source of a true community in which their faith can grow. We see ample evidence of this with the emergence of the New Testament church. In the New Testament, Jesus called a distinct people to Himself. While this is essentially true, I think there is something we should consider: The Bible is clear that God designed spiritual growth to happen within community.
It’s pretty easy to point out that youth group attendance doesn’t define our students’ spiritual identity. While our numbers are healthy overall, it’s quite common for students to miss youth group functions because of sports commitments. Additionally, I know several students who won’t attend our winter retreat because of athletic commitments. My church’s summer camp numbers were impacted by the high schools in our community and its football practice. AAU basketball, cheerleading, baseball and softball take up a lot of his students’ weekends. He’s struggling to get 20 to show up on Wednesday nights, and the main culprit is practice-all sorts of practice-football, basketball, cheerleading, you name it. He has close to 50 kids on roll in his youth ministry. He’s having a really hard time competing with sports for his teenagers’ time. As he talked about his current struggle, I heard frustration in his voice. He’s a competent, passionate youth worker, the kind of guy you’d love to have on your team. On the contrary, it’s always been a pretty important part of my life.Ī while ago, a youth worker dropped by the youthministr圓60 office. I say all this so you know I’m not someone who is anti-athletics. As a family, we’re very aware of the positives and negatives of playing and watching sports. My middle and youngest daughters are involved in gymnastics. Our family loves spending fall Saturdays tailgating with friends and watching the game. We’re season ticket holders for Auburn University Football.
A lot of my family time is sports-centric. I played football, baseball and basketball in high school.
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