Sports Ministry Update

Every year for the past 20 plus years, the months of October and part of November have been consumed with planning for our upcoming Early Winter basketball season at Shoreline. We are blessed to continue to pull in more than 500 players each year.
As I write this, we have almost 400 players, and I begin to create teams tomorrow (October 22). That process takes about 60 hours as it involves more than 600 requests from parents.

It is truly a blessing to plan this coming season as I am reasonably certain that at least 200 of the incoming players are new to the program and at least half of the players do not know Christ as their personal savior. This is an amazing outreach challenge for the sports ministry.

More than 60 teams will stop once every week from November 26th through February 9 to learn about Christ. I am honored to prepare the devotions for these teams, and I am excited to report that the players love to learn about Jesus and many of them turn their lives over to Him each season.
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As a part of this outreach, we will repeat our Division Parent program from last year. We are very grateful to the more than 50 church members who got involved last year, and I encourage you to come out December 1 on Opening Day to welcome parents and players to Shoreline. We call you “Sports Connection Parents!” Below is an explanation of how you can help.  Please let me know if you have questions.

What is the Division Parent’s Program?: During our Early Winter basketball season, Division Parents from the church have volunteered to connect with the teams and coaches in their divisions. The sports connection parents show up on some game days to help the Division Parents by waving at halftime and talking to teams and parents after the game.

Why: The program is designed to better connect parents who bring their children into our sports program with our church and its members.

Who: A sports connection parent does not need any expertise (or interest) in sports; they need to have a desire to build relationships with parents who need Christ.