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It's safe to say that the number of people going to traditional church services are severely down as compared to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. But what is
even more staggering is the number of African-American men that attend church on a regular basis. Having grew up in South Carolina, I have been accustomed to families
going to church on Sundays. As I got older and started to get more involved in ministry, I noticed that black churches spend a lot of time reaching out to women and
kids and asking for money. And less time is spent reaching African-American men. It is also true that many young men today is tired of the traditional styles of
worship service that have been in practice since the inception of the AME Church by Richard Allen and the Free African Society in 1816. As times change, there needs
to be a change in how people are ministered to. Sports and ministry seems to go hand in hand. There are many sports ministry programs throughout the world, but
unfortunately, these organizations are either catered to youth or to athletes playing in organized sports. These are superb organizations, but they lack that one
thing to make them effective to evangelizing to African-American men in various communities throughout the country, and that one thing is outreach. African-American
men going to worship services want to be loved and not judged. They want to go and participate in a service where they feel empowered and not by a sermon. Empowerment
in sports evangelism looks like love, forgiveness, giving hope and helping our fellow brother and sister out. George Hunter III have a book that talks about how the
church needs to change its game plan to minister to people. The church needs to follow this idea and do things differently to invite African-American men into the
body of Christ. God is ready to do a new thing in African-American communities, and that new thing entails sports evangelism.
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