Christians in Sport reaches 70,000 in Covid and launches new evangelism resource

Jonny Reid of Christians in Sport writes: In the first lockdown, Christians in Sport encouraged sportspeople to Pray STAY Say – encouraging Christians to stay in the lives of their sports mates. As part of that campaign we delivered five online sports quizzes with a short talk explaining the Christian faith. We’re thrilled that over 70,000 people joined in.

In November, the second lockdown saw elite sport able to continue, but for competitive amateur sportspeople, sport halted once more. However, the guidelines gave opportunities for sportspeople to do something outside with one other person, so we launched Train 1-2-1. This brand-new resource encouraged people to go for a run or cycle with friends, and then ask them three questions about Jesus’ identity, mission and call.

Rugby

Becky Dawson plays Touch Rugby at Exeter University and made use of Train 1-2-1 when it first came out. ‘We went on a run, got a pace that we could chat and then often I’d just ask them about, how they found lockdown, how they’re finding the restrictions and not been able to play sport. I think lots of people are struggling with their sense of identity. We’ve not been able to train and do everything that they normally do. And so off the back of that we could chat about something which is a bit deeper and more personal.’

Becky recognises that as we speak about Jesus with our friends, there is a ‘pain line’ to cross. ‘It’s difficult, I know that, they’re gonna probably think I’m silly, but I think once you’ve crossed the pain line, once you’ve begun to speak about Jesus, people are actually a lot more open to talking about it and interested than I thought beforehand.’

Hockey

Rich Kirtley also used the new resource with his hockey teammate. ‘I’ve tried speaking for years to my team mate about Jesus, but he’s never been that receptive. As a result, I’d very much shied away from further opportunities to share the good news about Jesus with him. But with the launch of the Train 1-2-1 and a good amount of prayer, I felt both encouraged and confident enough to try cracking on again, basing conversations around the suggestions that Christians in Sport had put forward in the 1-2-1 resources.’

For both Becky and Rich, Train 1-2-1 opened up new opportunities to share their faith with their sports mates. For Rich, and others like him, it’s also deepened friendships and continued to provide chances to speak more regularly of their faith: ‘We are keeping up the runs now and keeping up the conversations, but interestingly, he has started coming back at me, starting the conversations with questions about Jesus now!’

Whilst Train 1-2-1 was created to help people in the specific situation of the second lockdown, we have seen the potential for this to continue as a useful tool next year. We long for every sportsperson in the world to have an opportunity to respond to the good news of Jesus, and Train 1-2-1 will become another way we encourage people to do that in their own local clubs and teams.