“It’s a developmental basketball league for first through sixth-grade boys and girls,” says Senior Pastor Robin Crouch, who served for five years on the Board of National Ministries. “But really, it’s an evangelistic outreach to adults in the community. It’s given our church an outward focus, and equips church members to share the gospel.”

For ten weeks each year, Upward Basketball becomes central to congregational life. On Saturdays, the church gym is filled from nine in the morning until six at night, and games start each hour on two different courts. Every game begins with the referee leading the two teams in prayer. At halftime, while youngsters are in the locker-room, an adult or teenager from First Baptist shares his or her testimony with friends and family gathered to watch the games.

Becky Crouch, pastor of children’s ministries at First Baptist, coordinates a team of volunteers who oversee the basketball league. She says the program is “one of the most effective ministries our church has been involved with — not just in the way it reaches out to the community, but in what it challenges our church members to do.”

The ministry requires a huge commitment from the entire church family. Each of the 36 teams has two coaches, therefore involving 72 adults. Different church members offer testimony during halftime of each game. Other adults volunteer as referees and greeters, and run the concession stand. “We have lots of families where multiple generations are involved — kids, parents, grandparents,” says Terry Isham, the league’s commissioner for the past three years. “We’ve got grandparents who arrive at 8:00 with their grandkids, so the kids can play and they can run the concession stand.”

This past season, the program added nine cheerleading teams, which require another 18 coaches. Other adults commit to pray daily for each child involved. “As the program grows,” says Robin Crouch, “we’re moving beyond the members of our own congregation and involving adults from other churches in the community who just want to be part of this outreach. It’s become a city-wide opportunity.”   

First Baptist Church’s basketball program is done in partnership with Upward (www.upward.org), a ministry that helps churches set up children’s sports leagues in their communities. Every effort is made to avoid an ultra-competitive spirit that characterizes many youth sports leagues, and mandatory substitutions ensure that every child gets equal playing time during the season. Emphasis is placed on every child playing, having fun and improving. Each team practice also includes a devotional time led by one of the coaches.

Coaching Commissioner Kirk Rickerd describes himself as “crazy passionate” about the ministry. Rickerd says the program merges three great loves of his life: love for basketball, kids and Christ. “It’s great to have this time with the kids,” says Rickerd, “first, to teach the game that I love, but also for that one-to-one opportunity to share my faith.”
 
About 70 percent of the kids playing basketball at First Baptist Church are from outside the congregation and about half are from families with no church affiliation. “Some families are there just because it’s basketball,” says Rickerd. “And if that’s what it takes for us to have an opportunity to reach those families, then I just thank God I have the gift of basketball.”

“Every year we’ve had parents and other adults who receive Christ as part of the ministry,” says Robin Crouch. “We’re known throughout the area as ‘the church that cares about kids,’ and now have a number of families active in our church whose first contact was through the basketball league. It is the single best outreach to the community I’ve ever seen.”

Doug Davidson is a freelance writer and editor living in Berkeley, Calif. He served on the Boards of American Baptist Churches USA and National Ministries from 1996 to 2001. Davidson attends Shell Ridge Community Church, an American Baptist church in Walnut Creek, Calif.

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