Friday, November 7, 2008

Beach Soccer

It's coming up to the summer holiday season, and it's about the time when people start pulling out the BBQ, hitting the Gym, going to Music festivals and eating too much Icecream.

An initiative of Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Hobart is the 'Endless Summer of Love' (Their brochure is here and here)
This is an excellent encouragement to actively seek to use those summer months for the furthering of the Gospel.

Along independent but similar lines, I am looking to begin somewhat of a Beach Soccer mission or ministry.
I don't know how it's going to take form yet, there are many ideas going round in my head, but here are a few currently in focus:
- Provide regular (weekly) game/games of soccer on a Sandy bay beach. (local for most)
- Provide an opportunity for Christians and non-Christians to mix in fun, team based, but completely informal sport. Extending to potentially a few games running simultaneously.
- Potentially Christians can provide food or drinks weekly for those attending and spending time after playing sharing a meal together.
- Prayer time before and after our games, and seeking opportunity to invite our friends along to church, or where our model of church may not resonate with them, invite them to a different church!
- Actively initiate healthy discussion on issues of faith amongst those attending.

My difficulty is in knowing how far to go. This is essentially 'pre-evangelism' (not so much a fan of that concept, as pre-evangelism is still evangelism in my mind) and will depend on the individual to use the opportunity to expose their friends to the Christian community, and seek the support from fellow Christians to talk about topics of faith.

Any thoughts, suggestions, critiques? Feel free to pass on this blog if you feel others can contribute to the discussion, I'd appreciate the input!

Edit: I must give much credit to my friend Hannah, who got 'the ball rolling' and had all the enthusiasm!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My experience with this is that this can be great for evangelism. you'll get the 'how do you know each other?' type questions, link that to church, and an invite to come along some time... you'll get some great conversations!

*~Beck~* said...

Hey this sounds like a great idea. Its always good to do something for the community and just be able to give to people without expecting anything in return. My experience is that then people start asking questions and want to know why we do it! It also gives christians a chance to meet people and chat...Also anything that includes the beach or soccer is a great idea!! :D Id love to help:)