Each October, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes promotes Fields of Faith. FOF is a movement of FCA groups hosting a night on the football field when students lead the challenge for others to live for Christ. It’s an unbelievable opportunity for ministry…if your school has an FCA. Our’s didn’t. Of the four North Texas towns that our small rural, church ministered to, none had an active FCA chapter.

So, two other youth pastors and I began planning to host a Fields of Faith to reach some new kids. We gathered coaches’ permission, student athletes in our youth ministries, very limited financial resources, and called in a few favors to be able to host a FOF on one of the district’s fields. We saw almost twice as many youth come to that event on a Wednesday night than normally would have attended our three churches combined. It was humbling to watch God’s Spirit move through the teenagers, band and speaker to reach a group of youth who otherwise would spend Wednesday night elsewhere. And it all happened because of a little thing called sports.

When it comes to ministry in schools, open doors are increasingly scarce. Gone are the days when school zones were wide open to youth pastors and religion. Today, we have to live Matthew 10:16-17 just so we can get in the school door. I believe one of the greatest arenas in public schools for gaining access to students and faculty is sports. There are tons of reasons why, but let me give you my top five. Sports allow you to:

• Go Deep. Sports involve different students from all grade levels. Most schools begin athletics in seventh grade, and there will be a lot more seventh graders in athletics than there will be seniors of the same class. Start early to reach more kids. The smaller your school is, the larger the percentage of students who will be involved in some sport, which means even larger impact potential.

• Go Wide. Sports pull in students from all social, racial, cultural and economic backgrounds, giving you an opportunity to touch kids your church might not normally be able to attract. Sometimes due to demographics and location, a church simply struggles to reach a certain group of people. Sports are amazing equalizers and bring in all types of people. Use that to your advantage and begin transforming your ministry from the outside in.

• Go Forward. While not all the athletes in school sports are leaders, many are. They’re the team captains and encouragers who command respect from their peers and who have influence over others--on and off the field. Reach them, and you have a better chance of reaching the rest. Some of them probably are sitting in the chairs on Wednesday nights listening to you talk. Enlist them to be your “ministry captains,” and make them a part of your plan to reach their classmates through sports.