Gospel.com Blog

Looking for a way to start out each day on the right foot? Sports Spectrum has a devotional that will help you keep grounded—it’s called Training Table (formerly Power Up), and it provides a short devotional message by a different author each day, each with a sports-focused theme. You can download the September edition (PDF) at the Sports Spectrum website.

In addition to Training Table, Sports Spectrum has a number of changes and new additions coming up later this month, when their magazine switches to a quarterly format. A more interactive The Daily blog and an online version of their magazine are among the promised features—so check their site on September 15 to see all the improvements!

While the Olympics are underway, plenty of ministry and outreach is taking place on the streets of Beijing, and at least one Gospel.com community member is taking the opportunity to partner with Olympic evangelists in China. Answers in Genesis is distributing Chinese-language evangelistic DVDs and books in Beijing. Among the items they’re distributing is a brand-new Chinese translation of their Creation Miniseries:

These DVDs were recorded in 2007 on the Pacific island of Saipan before a Chinese audience and then edited and produced this year. A video crew traveled with the AiG team and filmed the live-translation, and AiG has produced them for global use. As they are being provided, people are told that they can duplicate them as often as they like in China.

As part of these efforts, AiG has put online several videos of a Ken Ham presentation (with a Chinese translation) on their website. You can watch the videos online as they add them at the AiG site. As you watch the Games, take a few minutes to pray for those out on the streets of Beijing with the Gospel message!

If you haven’t heard yet, one of our gospel.com community members, Sports Spectrum, is blogging about the Olympics over at More Than Gold News. They’ve been doing short audio updates on the US team and providing rundowns of the medal results as well as upcoming events.

Head over to this post to hear an audio update from August 14th.

They also have a newsreel widget you can add to your website. Click on the play buttons next to the posts to listen to their broadcasts.

As the eyes of the world are on the Olympic Games in Beijing, there are plenty of amazing success stories on display: incredible athletic achievements and tales of triumphant underdogs. But athletic competition is not the only challenge facing Olympic athletes—and one ministry is highlighting the spiritual victories of six Olympic athletes as part of a ministry to the Middle East.

The organization is SAT-7, and a recent Mission News Network story describes the way they’re “>using the inspiring stories of six Olympians as a way to reach out to the Arab world with the Gospel message:

“The model of Christianity in this region is often that Christianity is only for the weak, for those who are simple and have no other options,” says SAT-7 Acquisitions Manager George Makeen. He says that these stories are important to tell in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Athletes in the Arab world are stars, and people really look up to them,” Makeen said. “So it’s important, especially for young people in this area, to see athletes who are famous and successful and are still followers of Christ.”

Read the full story for more details, or visit the SAT-7 website to see what else the ministry is doing.

The 2008 Olympics were kicked off today in Beijing!

Here in the Gospel.com community, our friends from Sports Spectrum are providing ongoing coverage of the Olympics at the More Than Gold news blog. They’ve got several podcasts up already in which they discuss the sports and athletes on display in Beijing. See recent podcasts that talk about soccer and gymnastics at the Games, and another that tells the inspiring story of Lopez Lomong, Sudanese refugee and US flag bearer at the opening ceremony.

If you’re an Olympics fan, it’s worth adding the More Than Gold RSS feed to your news reader. We’ll point out particularly noteworthy updates here on the Gospel.com blog as the Olympics progress. Now, go enjoy the Games and have a great weekend!

One of the more interesting consequences of the Olympic games being held in China has been the Chinese government’s slight loosening of religion restrictions within its borders.

Granted, there’s still much persecution and government intervention when it comes to religion, but something like this would have been unheard of 40 years ago:

China will provide 10,000 free Chinese-English bilingual Bibles to be distributed in the Olympic Village where the Olympic athletes and media are housed, as reported by the China Daily newspaper. The bilingual Bible text will include the CUV (Chinese Union Version) and the ESV (English Standard Version), appearing in two side-by-side columns per page. The CUV Bible is the most widely distributed Chinese Bible in the world, and the ESV Bible has recently become the fastest-growing English language Bible in the world.

In addition to the 10,000 bilingual CUV-ESV Bibles, 30,000 New Testaments and 100,000 bilingual editions of the four Gospels will also be made available at the Olympic Games.

Because cultural and academic leaders in China are seeking to understand the influence of the Bible on the worldview and culture of the West, there is a growing interest in Chinese-English bilingual Bibles in mainland China. “We are especially grateful,” Crossway President Dr. Lane Dennis notes, “that the ESV was selected by Chinese Christian leaders for publication with Chinese CUV Bible, through our partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since both the CUV and the ESV are ‘essentially literal’ Bible translations, they are ideally suited for a side-by-side comparison of the two languages. What a wonderful thing it would be if thousands of people would learn English—and Chinese!—by reading the Bible in side-by-side bilingual editions.”

Read more over at the ESV Bible Blog.

This month, one sporting event will demand our attention above all others: the 2008 Olympics. Here at Gospel.com, we’ll be pointing out a few people and organizations in our community that do sports ministry: outreach to sports fans and athletes.

Does it seem strange to imagine a “sports ministry”? It might sound odd at first, but consider that athletics is an activity held in esteem by nearly every culture around the world, today and throughout history. Whether you like your football in the American or European variety; whether you run a marathon or swim the English channel—athletic achievement is recognized all over the world as a way to explore our own humanity.

Which means that it’s a natural and universal way to talk about the human condition… and that’s why evangelists going all the way back to the Apostle Paul have used sports as a metaphor for the spirtual life:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. —Hebrews 12:1

We’ll take note of specific sports outreaches and ministries in the next few weeks, as the Olympics play out. But it seems appropriate to start out with a short reflection on Paul’s use of the language of sports to talk about spiritual truth. Ron Hutchcraft has a devotional message (in text and audio) that examines what Paul means when he talks about running the race and carrying the torch, with an Olympics twist:

Now, Paul must have enjoyed the ancient Olympic Games. He made several references to them. As he writes his letter to his spiritual apprentice, Timothy, you can almost picture Paul as a torch bearer of the message of Jesus Christ. Writing from a prison cell, he’s on his last lap before he is going to collapse into the arms of Jesus. But right now he’s concerned about who will carry the torch from here.

Read the full devotional for more—and check back later this week as we look at sports ministries here in the Gospel.com community!

Steve from Sports Spectrum points out a recent NFL ruling on churches showing the Super Bowl. You can read ESPN’s article here.

From Steve:

Due to pressure from politicians echoing their constituents’ outcry, the NFL has relented on their banning of big screen Super Bowl showings at church and ministry outreach parties. Families and those uncomfortable with sports bars/restaurants–as well as churches and outreach ministries–were left to abandon their plans to gather groups for viewing the big game. This was even after they had purchased a big-group-oriented presentation, such as SportsSpectrums.com’s Power To Win.

For SportsSpectrum.com the NFL’s relaxation of this rule is incredible news. One of our major promotions is a half-time outreach presentation called Power To Win. In Power To Win, a prominent NFL player gives testimony and encourages viewers to consider a decision for Christ. The presentation also includes performances from various Christian artists.

This year, Power To Win had to be formatted into a “Halftime HomePak” due to pressure to comply with screen size and viewer limitations (all of which no bar has ever had to comply with). So, the testimony of LaDainian Tomlinson (and, in the past, Tony Dungy) were constrained to small groups huddled around small TV sets.

This ruling means next year looks much brighter for Power To Win and Super Bowl XLIII in 2009!

The day of Thanksgiving can mean a number of things for those of us in the United States. For some it’s the food. For others it’s centered on family. And still for others it’s all about football. Sports are everywhere in the United States and many Christians will find themselves huddled both around the table and television with equal earnest this Thursday.

So, if this thanksgiving weekend you or a loved one will be catching the kick-off in between bites of various meats and vegetables, we’d like to point you towards The Sports Spectrum. It’s a site that “seeks to highlight Christian athletes of all sports and levels to help motivate, encourage and inspire people in their faith through the exciting and challenging world of sports. You can read parts of their articles on coaches Lovie Smith and Steve Kragthorpe, as well as one about David Pollack. Sports Spectrum also publishes a half-time evangelism alternative called Power To Win!. Over the past decade, Power To Win! has:

• Attracted over 2 million viewers
• Been viewed at more than 40,000 outreach parties
• Resulted in over 50,000 decisions for Christ

Also, if you’re looking for a way to share the Good News with a sports lover, Good News & Crossway has sports themed tracts available here.

Perhaps your local sports team is interested in ministry. Word of Life Fellowship sends whole teams overseas to use their talents to reach youth with the Gospel.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we hope your team wins!

What does high-speed ministry look like? Ask the folks at Fast Track Ministries–they’ve got a passion both for motor sports and for the people behind the wheel. Fast Track aims to “show Christ’s love to the racers, their pit crew, and families by working alongside them on the track”–to share the Gospel message with the men and women of the motor sports world. Stop by and learn more about them at their brand new website, and read the “chaplain’s corner” message, which gives the concept of “going live” a fresh devotional twist.