Volleyball and Jesus

 Darrell Cook at Virginia Tech recently had this headline in his newsletter, "Volleyball and Jesus".  It went on to share the testimony of a former student.

" As a freshman in 1985, I might not have had an awakening in my spiritual life had it not been for volleyball.  I thought I knew what BSU was and I thought I was not very interested.  But Red family invited me to join their team, I then got comfortable jumping into Bible study with them, God started moving in my life and the rest is history."

I am all about "Non-Spiritual Stuff" like volleyball, intramural football, etc.  They can be tools God uses.

At Arkansas State a tradition developed at our Back-2-School Retreat of the Challenge of the Classes, which was a volleyball tournament where each class, Freshmen, soph, etc would have a team and play for the championship.  It happened quite accidentally many years ago when at a break students were playing volleyball with too many on each side.  I said, "Let's have a tournament" and went inside and ripped a plague off of an old trophy and said the winning class would receive it.  The Challenge of the Classes was born.

Students were recruited to the Retreat to be on a class team.  Students would stay for the whole Retreat because it was the final event.  Previously, students would often have to leave early to get back to campus to meet parents, get ready for the football game, etc.  Now, nobody left early.  The competition became quite intense.  In our leadership meeting one year, we discussed whether we should continue with it due to the intensity.

One upperclass leader said, "I think it is too competitive and people get too angry and I think we ought to keep doing it."  What?  She went on to say, "The guys love it and come for it." It is a reminder to me that we need to do volleyball and all kinds of other things that are not "Spiritual" in nature in themselves.  But, God can use them.  There will be freshmen guys who played football in high school looking for an Intramural team they could play on this fall.  They might meet Jesus on your team.

What is your ministry doing that is "Not Spiritual" to reach into the lives of some students that are NOT looking for you or Jesus as a priority?

I will confess to being called to the Intramural Gym to help break up a fight between one of our girls basketball teams and another team.  Some of our key girls had enlisted some "non-spiritual" girls to play and none of the BCM girls could come that particular day.  So, sometimes it is messy.  

What is your ministry or church giving to high school seniors or incoming Freshmen?  Check out "Tips for College Freshmen:  124 Tips for Fun, Faith & Good Grades" at Amazon.com/dp/B09QFB9DJ9.