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The ministry of Sports Friends began in 2001 when God brought together two Charlotte area leaders with very different, yet complementary, skills and experiences. Brian had been a pioneer and leader in the development of sports ministry in the U.S. for 21 years. Traveling to over 30 countries, he realized that many sports ministry initiatives, though well-intended, failed to leave the local church with the tools and resources to continue outreach into their communities. God gave him a vision to work more directly with churches, training them in how to use sports to build bridges into their communities, resulting in sustainable outreaches that are marked by relational evangelism and intentional discipleship.
Tripp, a successful investment banking executive and Harvard MBA, had been sensing God’s leading to leave the business world and work full-time in Christian ministry. In 2001, he joined Brian on an exploratory trip to Africa and quickly became enthusiastic about the potential for church-centered sports ministry. Tripp saw many opportunities to integrate proven marketplace principles into the vision of empowering churches in sports ministry and developing and multiplying effective leaders.
Brian and Tripp approached SIM to explore the possibility of partnering together to realize their common vision of developing effective church-centered sports ministry overseas. SIM was thrilled! The ministry vision fit well with their focus on the church and a growing desire to impact youth around the world.
Both families moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2002, where they began to pour themselves into the task of training and equipping Ethiopians to reach their neighbors for Christ using sports. Prior to Sports Friends’ involvement, there was no church-centered sports ministry of any significance in Ethiopia, nor any efforts to use sports as a church planting tool. Today more than 2,500 trained Ethiopian sports ministers are using a variety of sports to build relationships with youth and their families. More than 1,200 churches have initiated sports ministry programs, both in the cities and in rural areas. More than 100 new churches have been planted and thousands of people, including many from hostile religious groups, have placed their trust in Christ. This is just the beginning of what we believe God is going to do in Ethiopia through this ministry!
In addition to continuing to develop and grow the ministry in Ethiopia, Sports Friends has also been focused on expanding the ministry by serving churches and church planters in other countries. Many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have enormous youth populations. Church and mission leaders in these countries are eager to develop new strategies for connecting with these youth and their families. Sports Friends has already established a Strategic Training and Resource Center (“STRC”) to serve the regions of East Africa (located in Ethiopia) and West Africa (located in Nigeria). A leadership team has also been recruited for our newest STRC in Asia; this Sports Friends office opened in summer 2008. Current plans call for the opening of our fourth STRC in Latin America in 2010. Various partnership opportunities are already being explored in anticipation of developing the ministry in these regions.
God is opening up many doors of ministry opportunity for Sports Friends around the world. He has been faithful to bring new staff, resources and partners to help follow through on these many opportunities. As we look to the future, we hope you will join with us in some way in seeing many thousands of churches and church planters around the world using sports ministry to expand God’s Kingdom and declare His glory. We look forward to participating with you in this mighty move of God as He engages the Church worldwide in the task of mission.
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