Nearly 40 million youth 18 and younger participate in sports. So how do some of the best-known sports youth ministries interact with students? And how have these ministries adapted their missions and strategies to the challenges of contemporary youth culture? Freelance writer Becky Garrison found out by interviewing:

 Vince Nauss
President of Baseball Chapel, an international ministry recognized by Major and Minor League Baseball that is responsible for the appointment and oversight of all team chapel leaders/

 Bill Pugh
President of Athletes in Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ with staff in 85 countries, which uses the platform of collegiate and professional sports to share Christ.

Les Steckel
President of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a ministry with more than 700 staff in 325 offices across the country, reaching 1.3 million student athletes a year on the junior high, high school and college level.

Joe White
President of Kanakuk Kamps, which has 13 sports camps sponsoring 20,000 kids and 2,500 college athletes, as well as a new family camp and other ministries.

YWJ: What’s the historical mission of your organization, and how have you adapted that mission to recent changes in both the world of sports and adolescent culture?

Les Steckel:
FCA’s mission is to present to athletes and coaches and all whom they influence the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and serving Him in their relationships and in the fellowship of the church. We believe our values of integrity, serving, teamwork, and excellence are timeless and have not had to adapt … to the recent changes in the world of sports and adolescent culture. Instead, we believe our ministry efforts are even more important given the challenges and temptations athletes and coaches face in sports and our culture.

 Joe White: The one-minute parents and absent parents leave kids’ hearts lonely and angry. They’re filling the anger with porn and alcohol, sex, drugs, etc. But way down deep, they just want to be nurtured and cherished. … Kanakuk Kamps’ mission of evangelism and equipping the next generation to reach the world for Christ has increased in intentionality and dedication.

 Bill Pugh: Athletes in Action changes as we continue to look for new and different formats for the platform of sports to be packaged to make it clear and relevant to today’s culture.

 Vince Nauss: Baseball Chapel was formed to take church to the park, as the players had to work on Sunday. This mini-church service evolved into a ministry that has become more focused on discipleship ministry. We’re now finding younger kids who come into baseball from high school or college, coming in without any kind of religious background.

YWJ: What are your organization’s primary programs and activities, and which seem to be most effective?

White: We’re a multifaceted organization with 13 sports camps … and a new family camp. … Our Pure Excitement ministries are teen crusades to bring kids to Christ and to give them a lifelong commitment to sexual purity. In addition, the Kanakuk Institute trains 90 college grads a year to become full-time youth ministers; and After Dark Ministries evangelizes to secular college campuses around the country. Kanakuk International does international mission work in several countries. We find our numbers increase every year, as the need is so great.

 Pugh: Our bread and butter, if you will, is working with and through college and professional athletes. The principle that has served us well is to continually look for trusted and objective voices along the way to come alongside our organization to make decisions regarding specific ministry initiatives. While our staff is organizationally about the same, we feel our impact is increasing. As we see a fervor for both the participation and popularity of sports, we need to find ways to use the notoriety of sports to provide platforms for the message.

Steckel: FCA’s efforts are focused on our “4 C’s” of ministry: coaches, campus, camps, and community. … We challenge athletes and coaches to reach their potential by offering comprehensive athletic, spiritual, and leadership training at the camps. As we feel that coaches can be one of the most important influences on an athlete’s life, our coaches’ ministry works through outreach events, training, conferences, and resources, including our new Coach’s Bible. … The goals of our campus ministry on junior high, high school, and college campuses are to enable student-athletes to know and grow in their faith in Christ and to encourage their peers to do the same. Our community ministry, which grew out of the dramatic growth of sports outside of schools—the club, league and church sports—includes our non-school-based ministries made possible through partnership with local churches, businesses, parents, and volunteers. We believe all are effective and necessary.

Nauss: We are in every city where there’s professional baseball to offer a chapel service on Sundays prior to the game. These services cater to the home team and the umpires, stadium workers, and even the players’ families. Depending on the interest of players, we offer a midweek Bible study. Also, our chaplains are available for individual meetings for discipleship or counseling.

 YWJ: What do you see as the unique spiritual needs of today‘s Christian athletes?

Nauss: In many ways, Christian athletes are no different from the average person in society. … What compounds the problem for the professional athlete is the money. They have struggles when they become famous, as a lot of people want something from them; and they need to discern what others’ motives might be. Also, money can mask a lot of problems.

Pugh: They have the added pressure to perform—the whole celebrity side of things. We work with athletes and coaches to focus their identity in Christ so their journey of faith is anchored in terms of those things that God declares are true—believing them intellectually and applying them in everyday life.

White: Everyone has hobbies and passions, but athletes are just like everybody else. They need love, unconditional regard from their parents, and to be loved not because of their successes and failures but because of who they are in Christ.

YWJ: There have been a lot of controversies and scandals in sports, including doping, gambling, and sex. Plus, there seems to be increasing emphasis on money and celebrity endorsements. With these challenges, why do you continue to think sports is an important arena for ministry?

White: The committed Christian athlete glorifies God with all he or she does on and off the field. We train athletes to memorize Bible verses every day, and we have daily chapel and devotionals with players and coaches to build a solid, strong platform of faith so they can play their games all to the glory of God. The more these young athletes mature in their faith, the more they play the game with passion so that they can share their faith in Christ with not just their teammates but with those who fill the grandstands to watch them play. Most of our mature Christian athletes see their sports as a platform on which they can stand to share their faith.

Steckel: We need to help coaches and athletes stand firm to these temptations and help them to remember that through both ups and downs, winning and losing, that the glory is God’s; and His love is the only thing that remains true. As the temptation is to get pulled into the worship of worldly honors and recognition, we hope to keep their focus on staying in the Word of God and growing in their personal relationships with Jesus Christ. Specifically, [FCA] also has our One Way 2 Play—Drug Free initiative. It is a very successful faith-based drug and alcohol prevention program that began in 1991. Just this year alone, over 50,000 students made the commitment to live drug- and alcohol-free.

Pugh: What we have to offer is a timeless message of where true significance, hope and joy are found. The athlete’s personal relationship in Jesus Christ is the anchor to deal with these other issues.

 Nauss: As our ministry starts when they become professional players, there is nothing we can do to lay the groundwork when they’re in high school or college. While Major League Baseball covers some of these issues, our job is to present these problems within a biblical view and steer them toward godly versus worldly principles.

YWJ: How has your organization addressed the growing presence of female athletes?

Pugh: We have several ministry initiatives geared toward women, including a national women’s advisory board and a DVD titled Passion and Power that features stories of faith of successful women’s athletes and coaches.

White: Women’s needs for training and coaching are as important as men’s needs. All our athletes are treated equally, and our facilities are the same for the men and the women.

Steckel: We’ve had specific retreats and conferences for female athletes and coaches and plan to grow in that area also.

YWJ: Elaborate on how you minister in today’s increasingly multicultural world.

Pugh: Regardless of where an athlete is coming from in terms of his or her cultural, ethnic, and religious background, we want to offer the values we bring to the table in a way that is holistically valued. … More than half the people we work with are ethnic minorities, so we look for ways to educate staff and work with minority athletes and coaches.

Steckel: FCA is a ministry serving athletes and coaches; and as that already spans all genders and multicultural groups, so does the reach of our ministries. We do have some specific urban efforts and will continue to grow in those areas. And we are about to publish our first Spanish Sports New Testament.

White: A secular locker room is filled with unbelieving individuals; and whether they fill their lives with a different religion, sex, drugs, or whatever, our athletes are prepared, as Mother Teresa says, “to witness always, and if necessary, use words.” The first thing they do is to show their teammates what it means to play for Christ and to display the fruits of the Spirit on and off the field. Whether or not that other athlete is Muslim, agnostic, or a non-practicing Christian, our athletes are there to show them what Jesus looks like.

Nauss: While our chaplains could refer a Muslim or Jewish player to a mosque or synagogue if need be, this hasn’t become an issue yet.

YWJ: Young people are under a lot of pressure today. How can coaches, youth workers, and parents help them balance their passion for sports with other important areas of life, including things like their studies and  Christian fellowship?

Steckel: That is why our coaches’ ministry is so important. We help minister to coaches in their daily walk, and this helps them in their own balance and role modeling to their players. We also develop student leaders through our leadership camps so that they can be positive influences to their peers. We help our parents and volunteers through local staff assistance, training, and our Campus Ministry Kit, which provides them tools and resources to minister effectively.

Pugh: We really stress the value of becoming all that God has created you to be. One of our messages with regard to the total athlete is looking at all phases of life—spiritual, mental, emotional.

White: When a young person has a mom, a dad, or a Christian coach who builds a solid Christ-centered foundation under that athlete’s feet, then every adverse thing that comes his or her way—such as recruiting, money, groupies, alcohol, or drugs—is water off a duck’s back. … But if a gifted athlete doesn’t have solid Christian faith qualities, then one or more of those vices will capture his or her heart. So, we become that mom or that dad or that Christian coach for those who do not have that in their background. They become our surrogate children; we become their mentors. We get close to them in the summer and stay in touch with them as mentors on a regular basis though e-mails, letters, phone calls, and personal visits. … Also, 7,000 kids around the country do year-round Bible studies called the Victor’s Crown.

YWJ: How do you encourage young athletes to share their faith at public school or at college without causing legal  or social problems?

Steckel: We assist in that area by helping our staff, athletes, and coaches understand their rights. In fact, we have a section on our Web site devoted to that. Also, we have a partnership with the Alliance Defense Fund, the nation’s largest Christian law firm, which particularly assists FCA on challenges that may be presented relative to equal access for religious activities.

Pugh: We work with athletes not in a Bible-thumping manner but in a way that’s certainly appropriate and timely and more a way of life, a personal testimony regarding how God has made a difference in their lives. We’ve found that to be a very clear, relevant, and appropriate way for them to share their faith. White: We teach how to share faith carefully, unobtrusively, as we encourage them to follow 1 Peter 3:15, to always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you. A number of them start prayer groups and Bible studies on their campuses, but we don’t use tracts or have literature to hand out.

YWJ: If one of the young people in your programs goes on to become a well-known athlete, how would you like to see the person live out his or her faith?

Pugh: I’d like to see him living out of where his faith in Christ would be expressed on and off the field in terms of his lifestyle and choices; for example, Tony Dungy, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Steckel: We would hope that they remain steadfast and true to their faith in Jesus Christ and their commitment to being men and women of God.