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Sports ministry could bring people to church, Synod to hear

27 January 2025

Sportily/Facebook

Children take part in activities run by Sportily, a sports charity set up by the diocese of Gloucester

Children take part in activities run by Sportily, a sports charity set up by the diocese of Gloucester

USING sport for evangelism is to be debated in the General Synod, which will be invited to consider a three-year sports-ministry pilot project.

The National Sport and Wellbeing Project (NSWP) was launched in March 2020, when eight dioceses were given support, funded by the Laing Trust, to initiate sports ministry. A paper introducing the Synod motion explains that the NSWP sought to gather evidence that sports ministry could be a “significant evangelistic and mission tool”.

Data from Sport England suggest that 16 million adults in the UK play sport weekly. Sport is particularly well embedded in communities that the Church of England struggles to reach: 38 per cent of ethnic-minority British people play weekly, as do 55 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds.

The eight dioceses each developed their own sports-ministry plan, and built relationships with existing Christian organisations working in this area. Other outcomes from the NSWP include a Sports Ministry Programme at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and funding to develop a new discipleship element in the schools-based coaching projects of Youth for Christ’s KICK project.

“Sport fits neatly into the Church of England’s present Vision and Strategy, helping to create a younger and more diverse Church and the development of the mixed ecology,” and is not simply another “thing to do” for already overburdened church leaders, the paper argues.

A sports charity set up by the diocese of Gloucester, Sportily, is now taking on the sports project after the NSWP was wound up in 2023. Sportily is in discussions with the Ministry Development Team about a new three-year scheme to train 1700 lay leaders in using sport for evangelism and ministry.

More than 8000 sport sessions had been run in the four years since Sportily was founded, and 30 per cent of participants reported wanting to find out more about God after taking part.

A separate sports project in the diocese of Ely reported that 77 per cent of participants believed that taking part in the scheme had “helped them think about the Christian faith”.

An independent evaluation of the NSWP concluded that all eight dioceses appeared to now recognise sports ministry as a useful means of reaching “unchurched audiences and communities”.

“The research findings indicate that SWM [Sports and Wellbeing Ministry] can successfully serve as an effective tool for mission and ministry within local parishes,” the paper concludes, argunt that, for it to thrive, it cannot simply be hived off to individuals with a passion for sports, and instead must be integrated into senior diocesan leadership’s long-term plans.

The proposed motion reads: “This Synod recognises the missional potential for churches of sport and wellbeing through its ability to transform the lives of people and communities.”

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