GAME PLAN 4 OUR THREE YEAR PLAN: SEP 2017 – AUG 2020
INTRODUCTION We love to see the good news of Jesus Christ transforming lives: the young person who realises that sport is a way to worship God; the student who discovers Christ through the witness of a teammate; the professional athlete leading Bible studies to interested teammates.
W
e praise God there are hundreds and hundreds of stories like this!
Our mission will always be reaching the world of sport for Christ - and so, at one level, it’s “business as usual”. We’ll carry on helping sports people understand that sport and faith can go together, training Christians to live out and share their faith, and giving opportunities for sports people to respond to the Christian message. And as we continue this work, a number of challenges remain: from the unique and distinctive pressures of playing sport, the way Sunday is now increasingly a second Saturday, and the struggle of families to navigate this. Therefore, we are looking at how we can work faithfully and effectively in the future to fulfil this exciting mission. So what’s different about this Game Plan? Firstly, we are focussing on expansion. We want to see growing numbers of sports teams and clubs, within hundreds of towns
and cities, being reached consistently. Secondly, we’re going to work more at a local level. For the expanding work to be sustained, we need to empower local leadership to grow the work into the future. And if we can do this, we’ll reach more of the world of sport for Christ, which is the purpose and passion behind everything we do! We hope that as you read these pages, you will be inspired and moved to partner with us as together we get stuck into the world of sport for Christ. Graham Daniels General Director
THE LAST 4 YEARS Game Plan 3 ran from September 2013 - August 2017 and we’re thankful to God for what He has done in that time.
ENGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE WITH CHRISTIANITY
EQUIP LEADERS INTERNATIONALLY
Goal: 2 guest events per day
Goal: Leaders in over 120 countries equipped for mission
There were 4,270 events over the four years which worked out at 2.9 per day.
Leaders from over 150 countries were equipped.
This compared to the equivalent of 2,080 during Game Plan 2, or 1.4 per day* At the events we spoke at, 102,630 attended with 60% being guests who would not call themselves Christians.
We had a key focus within Europe with 4,000 leaders trained from 38 countries.
*Game Plan 2 ran for 5 years so figures have been scaled to reflect a 4 year time period to compare to Game Plan 3.
ENGAGE CHRISTIANITY WITH PERFORMANCE SPORT
ENABLE THE WORK THROUGH PARTNERS
Goal: A Christian presence within 20 sports at the elite level
Goal: Double the donation base to help grow the work
409 elite sports people supported in 34 sports.
100 elite sports people were supported across 12 sports in Game Plan 2.
Total donations grew by 67% and unrestricted donations grew by 51% during the four years of Game Plan 3.
GAME PLAN 4 TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST IN GROWING NUMBERS OF SPORTS TEAMS AND CLUBS WITHIN 300 TOWNS, CITIES AND ELITE LEVEL SPORTS. THE 300 CONSISTS OF: 121 TOWNS AND CITIES IN THE UK
170 TOWNS AND CITIES GLOBALLY
9 ELITE SPORTS
Our three priorities for 2017-2020 are to:
ENGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST EXPAND TO NEW PLACES AND ELITE SPORTS ENABLE THE WORK TO GROW
GOAL
To share the good news of Jesus Christ in growing numbers of sports teams and clubs within 300 towns, cities and elite level sports.
PRIORITIES
Engage sports people with the good news of Jesus Christ
Expand to new places and elite sports
Enable the work to grow
Goal
Goal
Goal
150,000 sports people given Grow the number of leaders Raise annual donations opportunities to hear and expanding the work to 1,000 to ÂŁ2m respond to the good news of Jesus Christ
ACTIONS
1. E ngage sports people in the UK
5. E xpand the work through leaders and partners
2. Engage elite sports people
6. E xpand to more towns, cities and elite sports
3. E ngage sports people internationally 4. Engage sports people through digital resources
7. Enable the work financially 8. E nable the work through prayer, partner communications and a strong operational core 9. E nable the work to grow through special projects
ENGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST Our mission is to reach the world of sport for Christ and the way we do that is simple: we train Christian sports people so they are equipped to live out their faith in their clubs and teams. Together, we actively seek opportunities to share our faith with all sports people and invite them to respond to the gospel.
GOAL 150,000 SPORTS PEOPLE GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES TO HEAR AND RESPOND TO THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST
© Nottingham Trent University
As we seek to engage sports people with the good news of Jesus Christ in the next three years, we will focus on four key actions:
ACTION 1: E NGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE IN THE UK Within 121 target towns and cities through our partnership with churches, we will seek to find more Christians involved in sport, provide access to training and resources, alongside reaching out in the right ways to sports people who have not heard the good news of Jesus. We will also seek to grow the number of Sports Plus camps and our investment in students through our university groups.
ACTION 2: E NGAGE ELITE SPORTS PEOPLE Whilst retaining an offer for all elite sports people, we will focus on nine sports, namely football, track & field, rugby union, tennis, cricket, rowing, golf, hockey and netball. We will also seek to scale up our work with young performance athletes, disability sport and at major sporting events.
ACTION 3: ENGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE INTERNATIONALLY We will commit to delivering mission consistently to the sports communities within 120 European cities and towns, and 50 cities outside Europe, through indigenous leaders. We’ll also seek to develop important and sustainable links and partnerships within our tour-based focus sports such as golf and tennis.
ACTION 4: E NGAGE SPORTS PEOPLE THROUGH DIGITAL RESOURCES In the last three years, over 1,200 sports mission packs were given to leaders and churches and our training and evangelistic materials were accessed in every country of the world. Over the next three years, we will update, develop and translate our resources for delivery across digital platforms and global regions.
EXPAND THE WORK TO NEW PLACES AND SPORTS In order to reach the world of sport for Christ, we’ll work to grow the base of leaders and partners so they can serve in towns, cities and within sports at the elite level.
GOAL GROW THE NUMBER OF LEADERS EXPANDING THE WORK TO 1,000
In order to expand the work we have two key actions:
ACTION 5: EXPAND THE WORK THROUGH LEADERS AND PARTNERS We will work to empower 1,000 leaders to serve the expansion of the work from a range of training programmes and regional internships, through to upgrading and translating our digitally accessed training materials. We will also continue building the right strategic partnerships with UK, European and global agencies and networks.
ACTION 6: EXPAND TO MORE TOWNS, CITIES AND ELITE SPORTS We want to train and empower leaders who can grow the numbers of sports teams and clubs within 300 towns, cities and sports at the elite level being reached consistently with the good news of Jesus Christ.
ENABLE THE WORK TO GROW As we look forward, we want to have the right infrastructure that is dependent on Him and fit for purpose to sustain a growing work and expanding vision.
GOAL RAISE ANNUAL DONATIONS TO £2M
In order the enable the work, we have three key actions:
ACTION 7: E NABLE THE WORK FINANCIALLY Our work is entirely supported by donations and we’re thankful to God for all those who partner with us financially. During Game Plan 4, we are seeking to grow donations by 48%. To achieve this, we will focus on retaining existing partners and finding new ones which include churches and trusts as well as individuals.
ACTION 8: ENABLE THE WORK THROUGH PRAYER, PARTNER COMMUNICATIONS AND A STRONG OPERATIONAL CORE Prayer is the lifeblood of this work and we’ll continue to enable partners to pray daily for the work. To build a infrastructure fit for a global work requires us to take advantage of new technology. All of this will be supported by excellence in operations and governance.
ACTION 9: ENABLE THE WORK TO GROW THROUGH SPECIAL PROJECTS We’re excited about the new season ahead and plan to complete a number of projects and campaigns that require specific organisational focus. These include a national campaign to find more Christian sports people as well as investing in the development of Christian coaches.
01869 255 630 info@christiansinsport.org.uk www.christiansinsport.org.uk Frampton House Unit D1 Telford Road Industrial Estate Bicester OX26 4LD Registered Charity number for England and Wales 1086570 Registered Charity number for Scotland SC045299. Company number 4146081 Designed by Max Randall