Spreading Gospel is ‘winning’ for some world-class athletes
Religion Today, August 30, 1999
What’s more important to a world-class athlete than winning? For Christians competing at the highest level of their sports, it’s spreading the gospel, Michael Wozniak of Major Sports Events Partnerships told Religion Today.
The testimonies of some of the world’s fastest and strongest athletes are included in videos, daily devotionals, booklets, radio spots, and sports programs used by the Partnership.
It works in more than 100 countries to add muscle to outreaches led by churches, schools, Bible societies, denominations, church-planting agencies, relief-and-development ministries, and Christian media. For example, a church hosting a Super Bowl party might show a video featuring Christian athletes, while Christians going to a stadium would distribute booklets with player testimonies. “You don’t have to go to the event. You can have an outreach right where you are,” Wozniak said.
World Cup, Olympics are focus
Soccer’s World Cup and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney are the ministry’s focus. The Partnership has produced 22 resources for the more than 50 agencies that plan to hold Olympic outreaches.
Ministries will meet Sept. 17 in about 150 countries to learn more about the resources and discuss strategies. “We want to get them all in a room to look at the resources and begin talking about how they can use them and work together,” Wozniak said.
Outreaches last longer than just during the games. “This is more than just a two-week event. It can be a half-year ministry window,” Wozniak said. The Partnership is encouraging ministries to create a six-month strategy to take advantage of the mounting excitement of the Olympics. Ministries can distribute literature about Christian athletes and events, and run radio spots encouraging them to do well, he said. Churches can host children’s competitions in their neighborhoods to build relationships.
The materials can be translated into various languages and adapted to cultures by local agencies. The testimonies of local athletes can be edited into the videos to make them more credible, and the films can be cut to the desired length of time. “Depending on the culture, you could air them on big screens in malls or you may only have five minutes. That’s why we’re giving them a year to plan,” Wozniak said.
Film about Olympics roots
Beyond the Goal is a 15-minute video about the spiritual roots of the Olympics. The games originally celebrated the Greek gods, but that element has been lost, Wozniak said. Information about the spiritual history of the games gives athletes an opening to talk about “how they came to Christ and how others can, too,” he said. More than Gold features profiles and testimonies of 20 sports figures, one for each day of the Olympics.
Outreaches during the 1998 World Cup were a big success. Hundreds of thousands of people heard the Gospel and tens of thousands became Christians through 15 resources distributed in more than 100 countries, the International Sports Coalition said. More than 113,000 copies of the Jesus video were distributed, and Jesus: Special Sports Edition was given to 23 of the 32 teams.