AMANDA NEWS: Parents, Student Ministries Seeking and Finding Ways to Co-Exist with Competing Youth Sports
(691 WORDS) — Organized youth sports provide stiff competition to Sunday morning worship for millions of American families, but a growing number of parents and student ministry leaders are finding creative ways to make sure the two activities aren’t enemies.
These developments result from the fact youth sports increasingly drive a time-and-commitment wedge between a still significant American cultural foundation — attending and fellowshipping in Sunday morning church gatherings — and legions of families whose athletic students are expected to participate even when competitions fall on the day for worship.
Since the mid-20th Century, successive generations of Americans lessened their commitments to church. This trend was strengthened during the Covid Pandemic as church attendance in many parts of the country shifted to the Internet. Six years later, many churches have yet to recover fully their pre-Covid attendance levels.
Student ministries and youth sports programs can work together to be complimentary. (Photo by April Walker on Unsplash.)
More recently, though, many Gen Xers, along with earlier generations, are renewing their commitment to being in church on Sunday, while Millennials, Gen Zers and Gen Alphas display less commitment to church activities.
“As with pastors, age is a factor for how likely a churchgoer is to see missing church for sports as OK. Those 50 and older are more likely than adults under 35 to say it’s never acceptable,” according to Lifeway Research.
Opposing beliefs on church engagement can cause division when Sunday competitions involve playoff and championship games, which are viewed as must-participate events for the students involved.
The challenge thus facing the many sports families who are engaged in church is finding ways to let their students stay involved in athletic activities on Sunday, while providing ways their students can also participate in worship.
Tim Morey, lead pastor at Life Covenant church in Torrence, California, tells Axios that as a solution “some families ‘divide and conquer,’ sending one parent to church and the other to the field. Others have kids attend the first 10 minutes of service in their sports uniforms or stream services live from team hotels,” Morey said.
Overall, parents and church ministry leaders want positive outcomes for the potential divider that Sunday sports can be. They agree that teaching their students about Jesus and the importance of church for developing a relationship with God impacts everything students do.
Church and youth sports can be a home run for everybody! (Photo by Henry Lösing on Unsplash)
Aaron Bryant, former Tennessee Titans player, who now serves as a teaching pastor at the Church at Avenue South in Nashville, shared with Lifeway Research positive results parents experience as they look for opportunities during sports travel and other extra-curricular activities where they can instill biblical truths in the lives of their student athletes.
“Some parents are now embracing more than ever that all 168 hours in a week are important for reinforcing biblical truths, not just taking their children to church for one hour of corporate worship on Sundays. Some are repurposing the time they have with their children, whether in the car during the trip or around the team hotel to invest the gospel in their children,” Bryant said.
Bryant also discusses ways that parents may encourage sports interest and church engagement rather than drive students away from God and church, and how this can help build a commitment to first principles that will last a lifetime.
“Sports mirror the game of life, and our kids can learn perseverance, accountability, hard work, humility, teamwork and much more from sports. However, I would caution all parents to count the cost and the impact sports will have on their child’s spiritual development, the impact it will have on their marriage, finances, etc.,” Bryant emphasized.
Additionally, parents and church ministry leaders recognize this opportunity to reach sports-family peers who are completely disengaged from church, through a common interest in sports.
Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski, authors of “Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports” further discuss on Upward Sports how parents viewing their kids through a pastoral lens, much like a chaplain would, assists partnership with youth ministry leaders to focus on a shared goal:
“Sports are life with the volume turned up. Kids can experience the highest highs and lowest lows within the same afternoon. Parents who come with chaplain instincts maximize these moments by coming away with rich material for discipleship conversations later.”