This year presents a huge opportunity to engage sportspeople with the good news of Jesus around major sporting events.
Alongside a Sports Mission Pack, Christians in Sport has partnered with publisher 10ofThose to produce a tract titled ‘Racing for Glory’ on the life and witness of Eric Liddell, a century on from his famous gold medal winning performance at Paris 1924.
Thousands of these tracts have already been given away, including at the ‘Chariots Race’ event, an annual mass participation run on West Sands Beach in St. Andrews, the location famously used to introduce the British Olympic team in the opening sequence of ‘Chariots of Fire.’
This year, across the weekend of the Chariots Race, church minister and keen runner, Hugh Wallace, gave away 900 tracts to those participating in the race, as well as the St Andrews Park Run.
Hugh said: ‘We arranged a small exhibition of the life and faith of Eric Liddell with tracts available to take away for free. We gave them to finishers to take home in their race goody bags and had lots of positive responses. God blessed the occasion with so many opportunities for lovely conversations.
‘They ranged from those who’d never heard of Eric and people sceptical of Christian faith, to some missionaries from Asia and someone who’s relative had heard Eric speak!
‘After the weekend I was also able to go into local schools to speak about Eric, and I’ll also be taking booklets to my running pals, a number of whom helped in setting the gazebo up at both events.’
This is a brilliant example of the opportunity an Olympic summer presents. Both the Sports Mission Pack and ‘Racing for Glory’ aim to resource Christians to share the good news with sportspeople during this window through events like sports quizzes, school assemblies and watch parties, through to individuals giving away tracts to their friends.
To find out more about the sports mission pack and to order copies of ‘Racing for Glory’ head to christiansinsport.org.uk/2024 or find the tracts on the 10ofthose website.
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