Billions of people around the world are passionate about sports. Children from an early age dream of being the next Lionel Messi or Serena Williams. Coaching sports serves as one of the most high-impact ways to reach communities with the gospel. Sportslink International, a ministry of OM, has a vision to see athletes, coaches and sports leaders being discipled on at least 500 sports fields among the least reached by 2025, with 120,000 multiplying disciples by 2030.

Sportslink International Director Christiaan (Chris) Welman, spoke with OM about trends, challenges and opportunities in OM’s sports ministry.

Please share a bit of history about Sportslink and your involvement.

Sportslink is about 25 years young. It started with Martin Bateman in a few countries. My involvement began in South Africa, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We focused on training coaches in Southern Africa. We then started a multiplying discipleship school in sport discipleship training in 2012. I moved with my family to Zambia to lead African sports ministry and worked with amazing leaders. We now live in Mosbach, Germany.

We began 2023 with 237 coaches/sports leaders on 353 sports fields, of which 176 are among the least reached. We have conducted 138 events in 37 countries, trained 685 new leaders and seen 494 people become Jesus followers.

Young refugee boy being prepared for his soccer game

What do you see in sports ministry trends?

Sports ministry continues to open new opportunities among the least reached. Recently, we have seen doors opening in the Sahel and in South Asia.

Sports connect very quickly with communities. That leads to the start of something beautiful as they give access to families and people groups not easily reached by other methods.

What challenges do you face?

A big challenge is to find the right coaches/sports leaders that can sustain ministry. To keep them moving forward, we need to keep investing in leadership development in them.

Sustainability is another major challenge. Coaches need to be able to minister sustainably among the least reached. Many local churches can’t provide full support for them. We’re trying to create ways for them to be self-sustaining, such as helping them start small-business ventures or obtain professional coaching qualifications so they can find jobs in least-reached areas in the sports field.

Do you have a specific age range for Sportslink coaches?

We look for key leaders between the ages of 25 and 35. But we have younger and older leaders. A beautiful example is Sunday, who was 18 when he started coaching 6-year-old boys in the Lake Tanganyika region. Twelve years later, Sunday is still involved and is a father figure to the young men, who are now 18 and all involved in coaching and leadership. We have older coaches, as well. One retired recently who had served for 20 years in Indonesia. It’s amazing to see some of these coaches invest in loads of people over time.

Do you use set curricula to teach biblical principles?

One of the key tools we use is OM Discovery Bible Studies to help people engage with God. We use them typically in gatherings of six to 25 people on or off the sports field.

We also use the Whole Life Coach curriculum that takes a holistic approach. We’re looking to make an investment in every aspect of players’ lives. We help coaches to become involved in people’s lives, going to their homes and seeing how they’re doing, how emotionally healthy their household is.

We have beautiful examples of coaches who tell kids they refuse to coach them until they are back in school. Kids respond because they want to play. Coaches can have a major influence on young lives.

How do you find and train coaches?

It’s easy to find coaches because they’re everywhere. We work when we can through the church because we know if people have a heart for the Lord and Christian values, it’s much easier to just bring coaching skills alongside that. We also find coaches who are interested in our curriculum and methods to reach people beyond the physical coaching and skills, investing in the character of coaches and players.

Besides soccer, what other sports are coached through Sportslink?

We’ve got basketball, netball, women’s hockey, cricket. We’ve got guys climbing in the Middle East and Western Asia. There are so many sports. Those are just some examples.

In some least-reached countries, we’re in there with surfers trying to find access into the community so we can start a Bible study.

How can we pray for you?

We need more workers. That’s probably our top prayer request. Pray Matthew 9:38, that the Lord of the harvest would send workers into the field. We also really need administrative people to join our team.

Pray also for security. Finally, pray God will help us find ways to see sports ministry being locally sustained.

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