"there has only ever been one perfect man, the Lord Jesus, and we killed him. I only missed a putt."
The saving of sports ministry
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Greg Linville, Canton, OVP, 2020. ISBN 978-0-578-22976-8
The main argument of the book is that much sports ministry practises evangelism based on what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace”. Linville writes: “What is communicated in most…evangelistic proclamations of the gospel is that praying a prayer to receive Jesus as Savior or raising a hand to accept Christ at a church service makes a person a Christian and nothing else is needed”. Linville makes a distinction between what he calls “Day’s Decisions” and “Dedicated Disciples”, arguing that Jesus called on us to make disciples not converts. The author does not hold back, declaring that there is an “increasing scepticism about the effectiveness of sports outreach as a methodology” and the “lack of effectiveness of traditional sports outreach methods”. He rightly points to the danger that what started out as sports outreach can become simply sports activity.
Reading any book from the Church Sport and Recreation Ministry stable always reminds me of how totally different church and Christian life is in the UK from USA. While I have a lot of sympathy with basic message of the book, it is much less relevant in the UK because there is much less pressure on Christian outreach organizations to produce numbers. I would add that while I am in sympathy with the message, I am not sure a full book is required to communicate the simple message. The book takes a while to get going with 40 pages of preliminary material, explanatory notes, acknowledgements and endorsements. A further confusion is that the book ends on page 140 but the contents suggests that there should be 150+ pages.
Dr Linville is a strict Sabbatarian, writing for example: “All disciples of Jesus are commanded to honor the Sabbath. It’s not an option”. He makes “a strong recommendation…to get a solid handle on the doctrine of the Lord’s Day and, on and how honoring it, can catalytically empower the Evangelistic/Disciplemaking efforts of the congregation”. The problem is that many godly Christians do not believe that the issue is as clear-cut as that. I always fear that taking such extreme positions on contentious issues is unhelpful and gets in the way of the main message.
There is a strong but gracious critique of Athletes in Action’s “underdeveloped and actually heretical” approach to evangelism. This judgment is then applied to most of the current Para-church sports ministries.
Sports Chaplaincy also receives some critique as the author believes it to be “at a crossroads… proving less and less effective… flawed in its current state”. Again his comments emphasize the gap between what is understood about their role by chaplains operating to a US model and those elsewhere. His comment “In England that concern lies in the fact that the current model is prone to rarely call sports figures to a personal faith in Jesus” is true but seems to confuse the role of a chaplain with that of the evangelist. Similarly those operating at a major sports event, where proselytizing is explicitly forbidden, would be bemused by the question: “Are you willing to relinquish your status as chaplain if you’re not allowed to freely preach the gospel?”
A thought provoking book but mainly relevant only to USA.