Onward Christian Athletes

Over the next five weeks I will write a series of articles related to the recently released book, “Onward Christian Athletes – Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers.” It is written by Tom Krattenmaker and published by Rowman and Littlefield. I have read and re-read the book in order to learn what I can from its pages. I would recommend that you buy a copy and read it yourself. This week’s notes will deal with an overview of the book and the Introduction.

Krattenmaker takes Evangelical Sports Ministries; the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Athletes in Action and Baseball Chapel in particular, to task on many issues which he sees as either deceiving, manipulative, dishonest, politically motivated, ignorant or all of the above. He certainly misunderstands a number of matters involving faith and still others related to sports dynamics, but he does raise some important issues for us to consider and to evaluate. If we will not simply dismiss him as misinformed or take offense at him for daring to question us, we can become better and more faithful in the process.

· The author sees the players and coaches who speak about their faith in public settings as often being pawns who are exploited by the Evangelical Christian movement.
· The ministry method most often cited in his stories and examples is that of sports evangelism. That is ministry in sport which has as its aim the sharing of the Gospel of Christ with competitors and coaches or the expression of the Gospel through those same competitors and coaches with others (fans especially).
· He sees all religions and even total secularism as having the same value. He espouses a totally pluralistic view of society in general and sport in particular.
· He sees political angles to everything in the world of sports and sports ministry. He makes direct ties between individual persons and their public political ties and the political aims of their organizations. I am sure that many others do as well, whether or not we intend for those ties to be seen.
· His discussions are mostly about professional sports and primarily about Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association.
· He sees and mentions often, that Evangelical Christians dominate the world of sports ministry and bring with them an exclusive, narrow and even divisive religious view.
· He tells about his pilgrimage of faith through Young Life, Campus Crusade for Christ and other ministries and his brush with sports ministries from his childhood. He has come to this point in his life with no personal faith and says that somehow salvation “didn’t stick” with him.

As with most people who stand at the edge of sport, but don’t live inside it, the author is limited by only having access to the players and coaches whose views find their way into magazines, television and radio sound bites, newspaper articles and those who make public proclamations. He only knows what he sees.

You and I know a number of people in the world of sport who neither seek nor enjoy the public spotlight. They are often the ones who are living out their faith in genuine ways and are being transformational within their sports. They don’t compartmentalize their lives, rather they live with integrity and seek to honor God will all of life, not just when the microphone is open or the camera is running.

A number of the things he mentions were very challenging to me and have prompted me to evaluate my ministry values, objectives and methods. I am confident that this evaluation will affirm and I trust that I will be better for having endured the process. I pray that the process makes us wiser, more effective and most importantly, more faithful to our Lord.