Baptists prepare for soccer World Cup

Baptists in South Africa have made preparations to use the FIFA World Cup as a mission opportunity. The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world and will be held between June 11 and July 11, 2010, in South Africa, the first African nation to host the prestigious tournament.

Activities planned by Baptists in South Africa include the screening of all matches in churches; witnessing at soccer stadiums; the arrangement of special soccer tournaments, especially for youth and children; the publication of a special World Cup Challenge newspaper; and the distribution of the South Africa flag with gospel messages.

One initiative is the Ignite Internship Program, a ministry of Eastside Community Church in Pretoria which aims to create a team of interns in order to partner with other churches during the soccer tournament; establish a soccer academy; and develop and implement ministry opportunities to complement the soccer ministry.

The volunteers will run street soccer tournaments. Such events tend to draw crowds and thus create opportunities for the presentation of the Gospel.

“With the prospect of hundreds of thousands of international visitors arriving for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in June 2010, the South African church is uniquely placed to impact many for Christ,” the Eastside Community Church states. “Not only can the lives of international visitors be touched, but also locals, particularly those who love ‘the beautiful game.’”

Baptists from the state of Virginia in the United States took a group of volunteers to South Africa to share in the Ignite Internship Program. The volunteers will help to lead soccer clinics, pick-up games, and music and drama, and will provide children’s ministry with a soccer theme.

A team of approximately 180 Brazilian Baptist volunteers are in South Africa, led by pastor and missionary Marcos Grava, coordinator of the Sports Missionary Program of the World Missions Board of the Brazilian Baptist Convention. The team of volunteers is part of the Africa 2010 Connection Program, and is slated to work in the vicinity of several World Cup stadiums from June 2 to July 19.

The Africa Connection 2010 Program is a partnership between the World Missions Board and the Brazilian Coalition of Sports Ministry, with the support of the Baptist Seminary of Theology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Among the events and activities planned by the Brazilians are sporting events, personal evangelism and discipleship, Vacation Bible School, music, dancing, seminars and crusade meetings in churches, children’s ministry, and medical and dental care.

June 10, 2010