In a running race
There are three words used at the start of many running races:
Ready - gather at the starting blocks |
Set - prepare to start the race |
GO - start the race |
In the sports movement these 3 words describe our "race" of following Christ and making disciples in the world of sport and play.
READY | Ready is the process of gathering and envisioning people to make disciples for Christ in sport and play. |
SET | Set prepares everyone to be a disciple-maker. |
GO | Go gives us strategies to make disciples in the world of sport and play. |
We don't just run a race once, we run it again and again.
In the sports movement this is also true. The process of getting people ready, set and then sending them out happens over and over again.
It is a cycle of making disciples who also then make disciples.
The race starts with Jesus
It all begins with Jesus.
The book of Hebrews says "let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Hebrews 12:1b-2a
Jesus is the starter and the finisher of this great race we are describing.
Every city Every community
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus asked us to go and make disciples. In Acts 1:8 Jesus told us He would teach, empower and guide us with the Holy Spirit and asked us go to the ends of the world. Start where you are and move outwards.
To every city. To every community.
What a remarkable moment in history you and I live in. We are seeing the Great Commission being fulfilled in the world of sport and play.
It is hard to find a village or island where there is no sport or play. In most of the world's cities, towns and villages, sport is the language that is understood, experienced and enjoyed. No activity other than a global Games or World Cup style event has a viewing audience in the billions.
In sport, there is a harvest that is ready, however as Jesus explained in Matthew 9:37, the laborers are few. Our challenge and opportunity is to raise up servant-hearted local sports ministry teams, which multiply themselves, to serve each village, town and city.
Making disciples who make disciples
ReadySetGO is about disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
The sports movement seeks to be faithful to Jesus' command to make disciples everywhere. As we learn in team sports, any team effort requires each person to play their part.
Disciple-making is the same. This is a team effort where we all play a role in making disciples who then join in and also then make disciples. Jesus has gifted everyone in the Body of Christ with a part to play.
Whether a child, a teenager, an older person, an athlete, an official, a coach, a parent, a professional person - all have a part to play in making disciples for Christ in sport and play.
See the opportunity
In Matthew 9:36 it says that when Jesus "saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
We live in a world of need. How will you use your days, weeks and years to serve the Lord?
Are you one of Christ's followers within the world of sport? Can you encourage sportspeople to live out their faith at the highest and most demanding levels of sport?
As you pray and talk with your team do you believe you are being led to travel to nearby locations to raise up a local team? Or called by the Lord to distant locations on your continent or beyond?
As a sports movement, we believe that together we can accomplish Jesus' call to raise up and train disciple-making teams to the ends of the earth. The most remote, uttermost and farthest parts of the earth.
There is a remarkable opportunity before us to serve the world of sport and empower every community with a team ready to serve.
Will you join God in what He is already doing in many countries, cities, islands and villages?
If you are willing, then let's get Ready.