Church and Travel Ball

Benjamin Quinn | March 23, 2026
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Editor's Note

Equipping articles aim to equip ministry leaders to advance the way of Christ in all of culture by 1) clarifying a particular cultural issue, 2) identifying the challenge it presents to Christians and the Church, and 3) offering a way forward for Christians and ministry leaders. These are typically short-form and not comprehensive in nature.

The below includes sections from Dr. Benjamin Quinn’s paper for Baylor University, with particular emphasis on his introduction and conclusion.

 

The proliferation of travel sports over the past three decades has brought many challenges as well as opportunities to faith communities. The purpose of this paper is to offer theological reflections on navigating the tensions between participating in sports—especially travel sports— while maintaining the priorities of the Christian faith and its necessary commitments.

My approach in this paper is research-informed and argument driven, but it will also take the form of pastoral reflections and suggestions amidst the data. As such, I will organize my comments according to three recognitions that are necessary for faithful and wise navigation of this tension that neither assumes a separatist/rejectionist posture on one side, nor capitulates to cultural pressures on the other. Rather what follows is rooted in an optimistic, faith-forward approach to life before God in His good world—especially the good gift of sport.

Let us consider the way of Christ amidst these challenges and offer a more excellent way for how to think about and participate in youth sports.

I. Recognize the Challenges

Building upon the social equality concern noted above in relation to the financial challenge, the growing negative social impact of travel sports deserves mention as its own challenge. While connected to the financial, the social challenge recognizes the harm dealt to local communities, especially the lower income families, as an unintended consequence of ever-growing cost and high demands placed on travel sports.

The widening gap of opportunity to participate in competitive sports clubs for those with means and those without should concern all citizens who desire flourishing communities. Christians especially do well to reflect on the very purpose of sports and play, and how love for God and neighbor informs such participation. If this cross-shaped command is the fundamental shape and direction of the Christian life, are we not obligated to consider how our time, money, and travel-heavy decisions are affecting our neighbors and neighborhoods, as well as our churches and families? If so, why are we so quick to travel so far and abandon our nearest neighbors?

II. Recognize the Opportunity

As with all of life, each challenge presents opportunity. And, who better to take up a good challenge than the competitors among us?

While the challenges are real and serious, the opportunities are equally so. Our posture need not be negative, defeatist, or separatist. Rather, in a good transformational spirit, let us consider the way of Christ amidst these challenges and offer a more excellent way for how to think about and participate in youth sports.

Christians share a long tradition of principle-based resistance to cultural movements whether related to the gladiator games of the early centuries, the slave trade of the 16th-19th centuries, abortion, marriage/gender, immigration, racism, etc. In our current climate of ever-growing pressures that undermine the priorities and health of faith, family, and finance, practicing principled resistance is necessary.

III. Recognize the Way Forward—Practical Action Steps

For the sake of time, allow me to close with merely an outline of recommended action steps especially for parents and for pastors/ministry leaders.

A. For Parents

i. Call for Principled Participation (over pragmatic acquiescence)

a. Communication before commitment

i) Communicate priorities to coaches before committing

ii. Call to Explore New Models

a. Faith, family, finance friendly local models of play

iii. Call for Shared Stories of Struggle and Success

   B. For Pastors/Ministry Leaders

i. Vocalize pastoral concern with patience not belligerence

ii. Offer principled models for parents

a. Budgeting time (like finances)—example of 4 Sundays per year

b. Communicating with coaches—pre-commitment email and text examples, offer to help find tournaments that do not conflict with Sunday worship

c. Creative missional strategies—i.e. mission trips to travel tournaments

Conclusion

In their chapter, “How Did We Get Here?”, Smith and Uszynski observe,

Whereas kids’ schedules used to orbit around parents’ schedules, increasingly it was the kids’ organized activity schedule that dictated parents’ calendars, creating a gravitational pull that required more and more family time. Summer schedules? Packed. Weekends? Booked. Family meals? Extinct. Even classic cornerstone commitments like church attendance and involvement became casualties. The family schedule fell hostage to a sports industry not interested in negotiating.[1]

This calls for careful reflection, especially by the church. I offer three questions for closing consideration.

First, do we love Christ and His bride enough to keep the commandments of God and prioritize the community of faith, not allowing coaches to function as kings of our family calendars but pushing back against weekend schedules that effectively punish people of faith (Christians in particular) for worshipping with their faith families?

Second, do we love our families enough to protect against over-play, over-spending, and outsized attention to only one dimension of our formative responsibility for our families?

Third, do we love sports enough to resist the economic opportunism that is growing in youth sports? Private investment that will further pressurize the already suffocating cost to play, time required, and the growing divide between those who can afford it and those who cannot?

What Abouts?

Anticipating the many “what abouts,” allow me to summarize the chief concerns of this paper as follows. Can we agree that the current youth sports culture grows increasingly hostile to fundamental Christian commitments to Church, wise financial stewardship, knowing and loving our neighbors, and the intrinsic goodness of sport as a gift from God? If so, the “what abouts” should not be ignored, but must begin in submission to the clear teaching of Scripture. Here, the concerns about college scholarships, quality of competition, etc. should drive us to creativity and the pioneering new programs that honors God and blesses our neighbors, rather than allowing it to justify a compromise of Christian principle.

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The PhD in Apologetics and Culture is to prepare persons to teach within an academic setting or work within a church and/or campus ministry seeking to have an effective apologetic voice by understanding and engaging culture with the truth claims of Christ.

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Photo retrieved from Unsplash.

[1] Smith, Brian; Uszynski, Ed. Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports (pp. 4041). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Benjamin Quinn

Director of the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture

Dr. Quinn is an Associate Professor of Theology and History of Ideas. He also serves as the Director of the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. He is the author of Christ, the Way: Augustine's Theology of Wisdom (2022), Walking in God's Wisdom (2021), and the co-author of Every Waking Hour (2016).

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