Every youth ministry camp and retreat center has its own rules and traditions for the dining hall. Some have songs. Some have chants. And some have stacking games and song games with cups. But did you know that cup stacking has left the lowly cafeteria to become a recognized sport—with the world championships aired on ESPN?

According to the World Sport Stacking Association, over three million kids and adults worldwide compete. It is also becoming a recognized high school sport.

Cup stacking (or sport stacking) is not the only emerging sport growing outside the box of normal sports competitions. We’ve all scratched our heads about the poker craze. How did a card game get so much TV time—or Internet bandwidth?

There are also the sports of paintball, competitive eating, and Scrabble, all whose championships are also aired on ESPN. Then there is the crisis in the juggling world. Some jugglers want to keep juggling defined as entertainment, while others want juggling to become a competitive sport (also aired on ESPN).

Odds are that some of the athletes in your youth group are not just into football or basketball anymore.

Today’s youth believe they can be anything they want to be, which includes doing something famous. Sociologist Jean M. Twenge devotes a whole chapter to the subject in her book Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever Before.

“Some people might argue that this is just youthful hope—after all, hasn’t every generation dreamed big during adolescence? Maybe, but GenMe’s dreams are bigger. While our parents may have aimed simply to leave their small town, or to go to college, we want to make lots of money at a career that is fulfilling and makes us famous.” (pp.81-82)

So besides having to schedule a logrolling tournament (also on ESPN) into your schedule, how does this trend of new sports affect youth ministry? If they make it onto ESPN, you’ve got to take them seriously, right?

First, all of your teens’ schedules just got busier. For example, if you have a youth who is crazed about paintball and wants to make it on a competitive team, you have just lost him or her on Sunday mornings, since Sundays are when nearly all competitive teams get field time to practice. (If the teen makes the team, you have also just lost him or her for most weekends, too.)

The overscheduled lives of today’s teens are not a new problem to youth ministry. Back in the 1980s, many churches changed the youth group meeting time from Wednesday nights to a weekend night to better fit with the changing public school schedule. Now weekends are filled with competitions for everything. We may need to take another look at how we schedule youth group or how we fulfill our role in the spiritual training of our youth who have full schedules.

It may be a different form from the traditional youth meeting. Maybe that nontraditional form takes on the look of cup-stacking teams. Most of these emerging sports are outside of public school sports programs, so there are needs for coaches and venues—both of which your church has. Your cup-stacking team could actually become an outreach and discipleship program.

Also, the athletes of these new sports don’t have the “stage” of the bigger, more recognized sports. Perhaps another nontraditional method of outreach would be to have your church sponsor the sports banquet for these athletes in your community, bringing the accolades that they deserve and desire.

Sports have entered into new realms and new traditions, which your youth ministry still has a chance to be a part of. The question then becomes how? Outside of ESPN, the possibilities are limitless.