connecting points

Quinn: What is The Way of Christ in Sports?

Benjamin Quinn | March 24, 2025
Post Icon
Editor's Note

"Connecting Points" is Dr. Quinn's monthly column. He introduces our monthly topic and explains how we can advance the way of Christ in all of creation. This month, the theme is The Way of Christ in Sports.

Baseball, basketball, and football seasons formed my liturgical calendar as a kid. I knew where I was in space and time based upon what gear I put in the gym bag for that day’s practice.  Even now, more than twenty years since playing competitively, fall weather still feels like football, and the blooms of spring call for getting out baseball gloves and bats.

The Westminster Catechism begins with the question, “What is the chief-end of man?” Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

The Lord’s invitation (even, imperative!) to rest is an invitation to play, to enjoy God and his creation, to rest from “producing” and enjoy the freedom of play.

Sports is one of the ways we are invited to “enjoy God.”  Connected to rest and leisure in the Christian tradition, sports provide one of the greatest opportunities for play, community, growth, and formation in God’s good creation. Of course, sports also present great opportunity for idolatry and the emergence of the darker side of our character.

Yet, few things create such cultural impact as sports. So how do we think about sports as Christians? And, what is the way of Christ in sports?

A Great Commandment Opportunity

Competition is part and parcel of sports. Sports are goal-oriented, physically rigorous, governed by rules and boundaries unique to the game, all to the end of declaring winners and losers. Such conditions draw out emotional extremes, the highest of highs and lowest of lows, sometimes moving from one to the other in seconds. Competition thus runs the risk of devolving into a malice, turning opponents into enemies. But, Jesus declared that love for God and neighbor is the greatest of all the commands, applicable to everything in life, including sports.

Some suggest that competition is intrinsically bad, claiming it is rooted in pride and only serves to provoke vice rather than virtue. I disagree, however. Indeed, competition unchecked is sure to breed sin and strife.  But, when neighbor-love is applied amidst competition, it transcends the rules of the game, declaring that our opponent is not an enemy but a neighbor who plays opposite us in the game for our good—to make us better! Thus, when we lose, we thank our opponent for helping us grow. When we lose, we encourage our opponent with gratitude and charity.

A School of Formation

Few commitments are more formative than sports. The demand, the discipline, the struggle, and the grit required for success in athletics force an orderliness of life, a singularity of heart and mind beyond that of most other extracurriculars.  To say “yes” to the sport is to say “no” to much more. This “yes” entails countless hours of practice, a change of diet, specialized exercise before and after practice, studying the opponent, meditative practices for mental and emotional stamina, and much more. Suffice it to say that sports become its own school of formation for the whole person—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

When ordered unto Christ, this school of formation can cultivate remarkable virtue in a player, molding him or her into a person prepared not just for the school of sports, but for the school of life—one that can be equally relentless with struggle, demand, wins, and losses.

A Showcase for Character

In addition to the school of formation, sports provide a showcase for character. This is especially true of the athlete, but it extends as well to coaches, parents, and officials. The high-intensity competition environment tends to reveal the best and worst of people that may otherwise remain concealed in the everyday goings-on of life. We’ve all known that player, parent, or coach who is the most mild-mannered until the whistle blows. Suddenly, like flipping a switch, mildness turns to madness in the heat of competition.

Sadly, the same story can be told of many who are mild-mannered and respectable in public, but when the door closes at home, and the pressure of marriage and parenting bears down, the fury comes out. Sports serve as a laboratory for stress management, dealing with high-pressure situations, learning to fight for the good when the game seems stacked against you, and doing so without attacking your own team. When coaching, I often tell players, “You can win like a loser, and you can lose like a winner. Learn this character now so you’re prepared for the wins and losses of life when you have a big boy job and a family who depends on you.”

An Avenue for Mission

For players, coaches, and parents, few cultural spaces offer greater opportunity for mission and evangelism than sports. The player-to-player and coach-to-player impact can be immeasurable on players of every age. Parents also spend hours sitting shoulder to shoulder in the bleachers for games and practices. For all Christians, our calling to Christ includes a certain gospel intentionality, sharing with others the hope of Jesus in both word and deed.  This may take the form of offering to pray for the parent who admitted marital struggles or a recent cancer diagnosis. It may be inviting a teammate to a Sunday night youth group meeting. It may be simply asking a player or parent if they know who Jesus is and that He died for them.  These are just a few of the hundreds of examples of living on mission for Jesus amidst the sports arena.

An Intrinsic Good

Certainly, sports offer an instrumental value for formation, character, and love as discussed above. But, an intrinsic value is woven into the very nature of sports that should not be missed.  This connects with the enjoyment of God aspect of the Westminster Catechism.  Something akin to wisdom’s “rejoicing in [God’s] inhabited world and delighting in the children of man” (Prov. 8:31). The Lord’s invitation (even, imperative!) to rest is an invitation to play, to enjoy God and his creation, to rest from “producing” and enjoy the freedom of play. This may be a hide-and-seek game or front yard kickball with the family, or it may be organized athletics. Regardless the game, we do well to recognize God’s gift to us in sports and play, the gift that goes beyond knowing and glorifying God to enjoying Him.  As the poem says, “For Christ plays in ten thousand places.” (G. Manley Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”).

This is why the over-commodification and over-monetization of sports pervert its very existence in God’s economy. Reducing athletes to entertainers or pawns in our betting schemes spoils the gift of game and breeds undue dissension between players, teams, fanbases, and beyond. I pray more will give attention to this in the days ahead for the sake of both players and sports.

A Warning: Playing with Fire

Yet, among all of these wonderful gifts and opportunities that sports offers—we are playing with fire. Few will argue that sports is one of the greatest idols in western culture today. We valorize and glamorize our athletic heroes, celebrate sports accomplishments, and sometimes make excuses due to cultural pressures not to criticize a sacred cow when “Christian” athletes, coaches, and families behave in a way that is clearly out of step with the way of Jesus.

In this vein, the areas of conduct among players, coaches, and parents, as well as boundaries regarding commitments to sports, must be carefully attended to as Christians. Few things are more distasteful than a player, coach, or parent losing their temper due to a bad call and becoming the next viral Instagram post.

And, it is especially egregious when that person is recognized as the greeter at church, or worse, one of the pastors.  Parents and coaches, begin each sports season with a conversation and prayer with your players and fellow coaches about how to honor Christ on and off the field, especially when the call doesn’t go your way.  What could be more like life than learning how to honor the Lord amidst disappointment?

Finally, consider establishing boundaries for your sports commitments.  Much could be said about how travel ball controls many family schedules and finances.  For Christians, it is important to consider these commitments ahead of time by asking, “How will this commitment affect our family calendar, finances, and church commitments?”  I fear too many commit without much consideration, then suffer the financial, physical, emotion, and time costs after the fact.

We must remember that money and time are a gift from the Lord to be stewarded for his glory and the blessing of our families and neighbors. This is not a subtle attempt to outlaw travel ball. But it is a loving reminder that if Jesus is our King, He and His way must be our highest commitments. Our commitment to sports should thus be made prayerfully in submission to King Jesus, and in keeping with love for God, neighbor, family, and church.

Never miss an episode, article, or study.

Sign up for the CFC newsletter now!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

adblock image

Dmin Faith and Culture

Learn how to to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate 20th century perspectives on theology and cultural context with our Dmin Faith and Culture.

  • connecting points
  • Culture
  • sports
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).

More to Explore

Never miss an episode, article, or study.

Sign up for the Christ and Culture newsletter now!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.