How do Christ-followers who enjoy sport and recreation, engage their hobby (perhaps profession) which has been highly secularized and may not support the biblical principles and convictions that they embrace? This course will identify the areas of conflict and the opportunities to live missionally in the world of sport and recreation.
Students will learn how a biblical worldview should shape their involvement in sport and recreation. They will examine trends within these fields and identify areas of conflict as well as areas of opportunity. The result will be more satisfaction in their sport and recreation activities through missional participation.
The responsibility of each believer to live missionally in all areas of life necessitates that those involved in sport and recreation, at whatever level, must think and act intentionally to demonstrate and communicate the Gospel.
The Bible has clear teaching as to who God wants us to be and how He wants us to live. He makes no distinction between secular and sacred places or activities. How we play, coach, or administrate as Christians should fall under the Lordship of Christ.
As we live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission we are to view all of life as a “field ripe unto harvest”. Sport and recreation provide a relationship-rich environment where, if we are intentional, there can be a great harvest.
For competitors and participants, part of the beauty of sport and recreation ministry is that we are in an environment that we feel comfortable in and knowledgeable about. At one level, this is not a cross-cultural situation for us, this is our ‘place’ and these are ‘our people’. This makes the task of contextualizing the Gospel much easier.
Sport and recreation activities are often able to break down racial, economic, ideological, and religious barriers because of the ‘sub-culture’ of the sport or activity. Whether the intercultural occasion is local or international the common language of sport facilitates dialogue and relationship through which the Gospel can be shared.
Students will be challenged to take biblical principles and apply them to their particular sport or recreational activity. They will also identify aspects of their sport or activity that reflect features of the Gospel such as sacrifice, forgiveness, working together as a body and others.
To bring the theoretical into the experiential each student will be given the task of communicating truths of the Gospel through aspects of their sport or activity and within the current relationships that they have with fellow participants.
