 Second-degree black belt John McEldowney works with a young student during a recent meeting of the Christian Karate Club at Arlington Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL. The club was started as part of efforts to use athletics to reach non-Christian youth with the gospel. |
Last year, Andrew Large put a little "bounce" in his youth Sunday School program. This year, he added a little "kick."
Large, minister to youth at Arlington Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL, uses basketball and karate in a unique outreach designed to share the gospel with non-Christian youth and involve them in Bible study.
The "Youth Basketball Sunday School Outreach" started first with the stated goal of "reaching teenagers who would not normally come to a Bible study at 9:15 a.m. on Sundays."
"Some kids in our community wouldn't set foot on our church campus because they wouldn't feel comfortable here," Large explained, "but they will go to gym because it's not threatening to them. And a lot of kids like sports, so if we can use that as a hook to get them involved, then we ought to do it."
The program works like this: Each Monday night at 7, teens begin gathering at Fort Caroline Middle School which allows the church use of its gymnasium. Arlington Baptist youth are encouraged to participate, but to do so, they must bring along a non-Christian friend. The Christian teens also agree to attend an evangelism training session before taking part and adopt sharing their faith as their primary responsibility.
Things get underway with 30 minutes of "basketball practice" and "drills," followed by a "time-out" for a 30-minute Bible study drawn from Life and Work Sunday School literature produced by the Baptist Sunday School Board. Sessions are led by "coaches" -- youth Sunday School teachers or workers from Arlington Baptist and other area churches. The teens are then divided into groups for another 30 minutes to an hour of four-on-four games.
"We usually have about a 50/50 mix of church kids and non-Christian kids," Ôhead coach' Jeff Clarkson said. "We've had street kids, gang members, kids who have been in prison, kids from broken homes. But we've never had any big fights or anything."
The gym grew silent on a recent rainy Monday night as more than 50 teenagers dressed in sweatshirts, shorts, and ball caps listened to Clarkson's lesson on marriage, commitment, and God's love. A 14-year-old neighborhood boy wandered in as another coach was finishing his personal testimony.
Another Good Idea...
Andrew Large, minister to youth at Arlington Baptist Church believes prayer
is the real key to numerical and spiritual growth in any youth program.
The Jacksonville, Florida church sponsors two weekly prayer meetings for youth. Held each Friday at "7:27 p.m. sharp," they are promoted under the banner: "If you don't want to come, don't come." So, are young people taking part on a traditional "date night" usually reserved for ball games, movies, and pizza? "Yes, it's really been incredible what God is doing," Large said. Younger teens meet at a Sunday school director's home for "The Middle School Power House." The prayer meeting regularly attracts between 30-40 youth. The "Large House of Prayer" meets in the youth minister's home, and draws 20-30 older teenagers each week, including several teens from surrounding churches. "At one point in time, we were praying for six different youth ministries around the city," Large said. |
Within a few minutes, the boy had found Large and was praying the sinner's prayer for salvation.
More than a dozen teens have accepted Christ through the basketball outreach this year, Large said, adding some also have become involved in Sunday School at Arlington or other area churches.
"We didn't want to offer just the usual basketball program," he explained. "Sometimes those kind of things can end up like nothing more than a poor man's country club. We want everything we do to have an evangelistic thrust."
That includes the "Christian Karate Club" which started earlier this year and also meets on Monday nights. While originally designed to attract non-Christian youth, the program is still in the development stage and has drawn a wide age-range of church members to date. A recent class, for example, brought out more than a dozen members, including a five-year-old girl and a 73-year-old deacon, but no non-believers.
Still, Large is convinced it will "take off" in time, possibly even surpassing the basketball program.
"It can cost $1,000 to take karate lessons in town. When teenagers find out they can take it here for free, I'm convinced (the program) will take off," he said.
Led by second-degree black belt and Arlington church member John McEldowney, the karate club meets at the church and follows the same basic format as the basketball outreach -- an hour or so of athletics divided in half by a 30-minute Bible study.
"I try to relate the key attributes of the Christian life to athletics. People are really learning things about themselves, improving their self-esteem," McEldowney said. He admitted some church members were concerned about the appropriateness of a karate class on campus.
"Some people think it is all about eastern philosophy or mysticism or that it promotes violence, but that's not where it's at at all. I relate Scripture to specific movements and actions to help reinforce biblical truth. I try to get my students to think about who they are and Who they represent.
"And the type of karate I teach is defensive. I drill my students to run from a fight if at all possible. If they use karate for an offensive confrontation, they are out of the class."
McEldowney said he also stresses "parallels" between karate and the Christian life, such as discipline, courtesy, humility, perseverance, and the courage to stand up for who you are."
While Large has been involved in getting both outreach programs off the ground, he is a firm believer in "finding the interest (among the youth) and finding the leadership" to meet the need.
"This project is our brainchild, but it is his ministry," Large said of the basketball program and "head coach" Clarkson. "And the karate club is John's ministry -- and he's phenomenal at it."
Freeing others to use their spiritual gifts allows Large time to explore other creative ways to link athletics, evangelism, and Bible study.
Next on his agenda? Softball.
Andrew Large has since moved to Hawaii. You may visit the MILILANI BAPTIST YOUTH MINISTRY Web Site at http://www.pixi.com/~mysc/youth.html