Faithful and Flourishing Athletic Programs
Let’s talk about faithful and flourishing athletics in our schools.
Did you know that a number of American sports, at least in part, started as a Christian outreach movement in the 1800s intended to promote Christian virtue and moral character and to compete with the draw of places like brothels, gambling halls, and pubs as working class men migrated to cities for factory jobs and other employment created amid the Industrial Revolution? That was the inspiration behind the formation of the YMCA in London in 1844 and the YWCA in 1855, and later their arrival in the United States.
I’ve been doing some reading about this. I have much more to learn, but following are some insights for a little historical perspective followed by five practical tips for your school. Before I start, if you like the history and want to learn more, most of what I’ve found so far comes from a handful of places: The Springfield College Online Archives, a great book from Harvard University Press called Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant American (1880-1920), a few Theodore Roosevelt speeches at the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library, the YMCA publications collections over at the Internet archive, a book from the 1800s by Thomas Hughes called Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and a sermon by Charles Kingsley called The Greatness of the Body. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get into it.
In 1891, Rev. Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian involved with the Christian outreach efforts of the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, created basketball as part of a movement sometimes referred to as “muscular Christianity,” which entailed the use of sport as a Christian outreach and formation.
In 1895, William Morgan, athletic director at another YMCA in Massachusetts, drew from ideas in tennis, baseball, handball, and basketball to create what was originally intended to be a less strenuous alternative to basketball (it has evolved, of course). Again, Morgan’s motives were clearly tied to a Christian mission that was explicit in the early YMCA.
The story of football was not so pleasant. Inspired by rugby and related sports, it was incredibly violent in the early 1900s, so much so that there were 19 documented deaths in a single year, which led to codifying rules and eventually the establishment of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later renamed the NCAA). Yet, even with that, there is an argument to be made that the YMCA and Christian colleges helped to tame the extreme violence, striving to turn it into a means of moral training and with more ethical oversight. It was not perfect, but there was definitely progress.
To the best of my knowledge, baseball emerged out of a series of stick and ball sports that were played even in Europe and then in early American communities, gaining traction with community club teams in New York in the mid 1800s and spreading across the country. There was not an explicit Christian mission advancing it like some of the other sports, although as it grew, Christian colleges and other groups certainly welcomed it into their mission. By the way, softball was another creation of the early YMCA mission, intended to offer a form of baseball that could be played indoors in winter months.
All of this was fueled by a Christian mission combined with the longstanding influence of classical education concepts, like the conviction that physical training prepared the body for virtue and service in the same way that music and philosophy helped shape the soul and reason. This grew into a vision of sport as a valued tool for cultivating virtues like teamwork and discipline, along with leadership formation, and that amid it all, there was great opportunity to point people to the truth of God’s Word.
Reading about such a history reminds me of one of the many reasons I love being part of Christian education, more specifically Lutheran education. We are at this incredible moment in time, when we can learn from the mission minded efforts of the past (successes and failures) to create learning communities that are intentional, formative with students, sometimes even influential in society, and Christ-centered. There can and will be a broader social tendency to forget the history and the mission minded reason for such efforts, which is why Christian schools have this incredible honor of, by God’s grace, being salt and light in such a world, and just as it was done at Springfield College in Massachusetts and the early YMCA, there is a wonderful opportunity to do so in areas like sport and recreation.
So, what does this have to do with our schools today? As I reflect on the topic of having a faithful and flourishing athletic program, following are five good starting points.
Assign a faculty or staff member to formally lead sport and recreation ministry efforts…with the authority to establish priorities and integrate initiatives across teams. Make this someone who sees it as his or her mission to lead the charge and keep the mission front and center. They are not just there to find coaches and run programs. They are there to live out the mission through athletics.
Build a schedule of athlete-specific formation opportunities. These might include pre-season retreats, off-season reading groups, training for leading devotions and virtue lessons, or maybe issue-focused seminars. Whatever it is, invest in training coaches in what it looks like to run a Christ-centered athletic program.
Make the selection and vetting of coaches a top and mission-minded priority. Also, consider redesigning coaching contracts and/or evaluations to include measurable goals related to character and faith formation. Make the mission a centerpiece of this vetting and review.
Develop a required first-year course. It doesn’t need to be a formal credit-bearing course) for all student-athletes, orienting them to the mission and goals. It can even be a short orientation, but be intentional about telling people the purpose of athletics at the school and your expectations.
Build strong and formal partnerships between athletics and campus ministry for pastoral care, team devotions, faith formation efforts, conflict resolution, prayer support, etc.
There are plenty of other things that can done, but these are probably a great foundation. Let’s see what happens if athletics is more than an after-school add-on…but instead one more beautiful harmonizing contribution to our school’s mission and shared confession.
By the way, I’ve also put together a video version of this article over on the Faithful and Flourishing Christian Schools YouTube Channel. If it isn’t up already, it should be there soon.
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