Sports Crusaders reap 80 decisions
By Brian Koonce
HOLTS SUMMIT – Halfway into their season and heading into the home stretch, Sports Crusaders is on track for a record-breaking year.
The sports camp ministry recorded 80 professions of faith in their first 12 camps across Missouri.
“If that pace keeps up we’ll break all kinds of records,” said Bobby Shows, founder and director of the Holts Summit-based ministry.
Sports Crusaders’ summer staff composed of 43 college student-athletes, mostly from Missouri, is hosting more than 150 camps and clinics in baseball, softball, basketball, cheerleading, soccer and volleyball.
With camps now in 10 states and even reaching to Mexico and Canada, Sports Crusaders offers children and middle schoolers low-cost sports training, and something a little more valuable. Each camp culminates with an “Impact Day” where they present the Gospel and each day has a “half time” where, according to the Sport Crusaders, kids “come up with a game plan for eternity.” The Sports Crusaders “coaches” go through the same evangelism and leadership training as other Missouri Baptist Convention summer missionaries.
Thirteen years into this sports ministry, Shows says sports have always been an effective way to reach young people.
“Sports is a media that communicates to the vast majority of kids,” he said. “Studies show that 70 percent of kids have played some sport by age 13. Those are pretty good odds when presenting the Gospel.”
For more information and a schedule of Sports Crusader camps through the rest of the summer, visit their Web site at www.sportscrusaders.org.