When football and faith collide

As you might have guessed from last week’s Facebook live, I love sport, in particular football and F1 so it’s been quite a few days! When faith and football collide, that makes me very happy! My local Messy Church met on Sunday afternoon and we did the Olympic themed session, ‘Running the race’ from Get Messy! Vol. 1. We have a particularly sporty bunch, so they really enjoyed the physical challenges. During the celebration time we pondered on the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ that support us in following Jesus. We also talked about being witnesses ourselves and it was great to be able to reference a couple of England footballers. Bukayo Saka said his faith in God helped him recover from penalty heartache in 2021 to triumph on Saturday night. Marc Guéhi, whose father is a pastor, has been seen kneeling in prayer on the pitch before kick-off.

Sport can be a great way to engage people at Messy Church. In fact, Lucy wrote a whole book on ‘Sports Fun for Messy Churches’. In his foreword, Mark Chester, Family Officer at Liverpool Football Club, says this,

‘But sport has a secret ingredient too. It’s something that, for many, is harder to identify, but it’s the best part of the recipe because it’s the element that makes our spirits soar. The secret ingredient is God. He has designed people for sport and designed sport for people – and as our bodies move and our hearts pump, he refreshes our souls.

Sport can be worship, and where better to enjoy the gift of sport than at Messy Church? We are united as families, all ages and all abilities moving together, talking together and, in doing so, worshipping together the God who designed us and created us.’