One of the tensions you must manage as a pastor today is church absence because of youth sports. It can be very frustrating. But what happens when it’s your family who must decide between consistent church attendance and youth sports?

Club sports and traveling teams that take kids away from Sunday church attendance is a rising issue in our culture. But could God be providing an avenue of evangelism through this new demographic? In Part 1 of this series, we talked about how we might leverage parents in our church whose kids are in youth sports for new ministry opportunities.

In Part 2, I want to talk about how we might handle this issue when you’re the pastor and it’s your kids who are playing sports. Does the same advice go for us as leaders? Is there a better way to manage this tension?

From One Parent to Another
First, another confession. While I am currently in full-time vocational ministry, my role is not as pastor of a local congregation. That means I don’t preach every week. I do often travel and preach in churches, and I do serve on the team at the local church we attend. But it’s not the same as being the lead pastor and having a weekly responsibility at church.

When I was a lead pastor, our season of life was much different. Our three boys were just beginning to get involved in youth sports and weekend baseball tournaments were few and far between. However, we saw any involvement in our boys’ teams as great opportunities to meet people who were not connected to any church. We created spiritual conversation with them every chance we got during practices or at games and saw several of those families begin to attend our church.

This further reinforced to our boys that church is more than just Sunday attendance but something we practice throughout the week. The tension of church attendance was real, and my wife and I decided to take it season by season with our boys.

Fast forward a few years and all three of my boys are playing competitive baseball on a traveling team. We are still very involved in church work on many different levels. And even though the weekly tension of youth sports and church attendance has lessened, we are starting to see more clearly God’s design for our family and how He wants to use us in and out of church.

Right now, the baseball travel is at an all-time high for my family, and honestly, we love it. We spend hours together as a family, we’re making memories, but more importantly we have discovered an amazing way to create discipleship opportunities and spiritual community with the dozens of families we would not otherwise have a connection with.

Last season I offered to be team chaplain for all three of my boys’ teams and suggested we might do church on the road in the hotel lobby for any interested families. And the response has been incredible. All the families who have attended are not only receptive but excited to study the Word of God and pray together!

Raise up some chaplains in your church to pastor the many teams and families in your community and model this with your own family!

Many of these families already have a church home, but several do not. God is using my family to minister to other families and it’s quickly becoming a favorite part of our youth sports experience.

Making the Most of Every Opportunity
If you’re a ministry leader with kids in youth sports, here are some thoughts on how to leverage this experience for a kingdom purpose. 

1) Change the expectations. Create a culture that gives your spouse and kids the freedom to not be at every church service. Sure, some will be critical of your decision to allow your kids to miss church occasionally, but that’s OK. You can’t please all the people all the time, so instead seek to please God. Family is your top priority, and creating the flexibility for the season of life they’re in right now is one way to serve them.

2) Create more opportunities. If you don’t already have multiple services throughout the week, consider adding a service time to give people, including your family, more options to be at church. When I was lead pastor, we offered three services. And the church I currently attend has seven services across three campuses over two days. Multiple service times allow your kids to attend church and still be involved in sports.

3) Be a chaplain. Make sure other parents know what you and your family are about and offer them something spiritually valuable whether they attend church or not. A chaplain is someone who takes church to where people are. Raise up some chaplains in your church to pastor the many teams and families in your community and model this with your own family! 

4) Make it a family affair. Get your spouse and kids involved in creating spiritual community outside the four walls of the church. This way you model for your kids how to live out the Gospel in the marketplace, not just hear the Gospel in church. I’ve watched my boys own this, and I’m believing your kids will too. 

5) Provide resources. This is how you keep families involved in youth sports connected to your faith family when they’re not present. Live streaming your services is a great way to keep people connected on the road. Another way is to create special small group materials with discussion questions that families can utilize together or with other families while traveling. Consider recording a short video that summarizes the message from that weekend and sets up discussion. The whole point is to get creative and resource families who travel, including your own, with tools for discipleship!

This is a personal decision for each family, and I know not all will share these views on youth sports and the church. I not only believe in this, but I have personally experienced how youth sports can become an asset in reaching people and making disciples. The key is to think creatively. Church attendance is good, but creating spiritual community that fosters discipleship is even better.