Recreation and Sports Ministry

the long version

As an open-group, open-door strategy, recreation and sports ministries may represent the most effective way to reach the postmodern culture of today. Popular culture is saturated with recreation and sports. Each time they are held, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, X-Games, Iron Man events, the Final Four in college basketball, and the playoff series in professional basketball capture the imagination of millions of people in America. The questions are, according to general editor John Garner, where is the church, and will the church see the opportunity to use recreation and sports as ministry tools to reach these people? The fact is, most churches are not reaching the postmodern culture and are being ignored by an increasingly non-Christian American culture. To many people, the church has no relevance to their lives, but re-creative leisure is relevant. They pursue it at breakneck speed and often at great costs. Somehow the church must learn to "capture the imagination" of a world that is passing it by. If the church can capture the imaginations of people, it can get their attention, gain access to their minds, and reach their hearts with the message of God's love. - Back cover.