God has always placed a premium on children in society. As soon as He brought Eve to Adam He commanded that they multiply and cover the earth with children. As Jesus began His earthly ministry, He told His disciples in no uncertain terms that they were to allow children access to Him because that child-like spirit was what His kingdom was made of. Numerous biblical passages refer to the teaching, training and discipline of children so they would have a better chance of becoming responsible adults who one day would place their own faith and trust in Christ.
Of course, one of the church’s responsibilities is to come alongside families to help accomplish that task. Two years ago, I asked you to join hands together to help develop a stronger approach to reaching children with the gospel. The premise was that 92% of children would play sports before they were 12 years old. Research says that if a child is not saved by the time he is 12, it is 96% likely that he will never be saved. For that reason, we set out together to develop a ministry that would effectively reach kids with the gospel.
In my 34 years as Pastor of FBCIT, I have never seen the enthusiasm and response to a financial challenge that we have seen in these two years. Not only did we reach our goal, we surpassed it by several thousand dollars. The follow through in commitments was the best of any of our previous campaigns. It became real obvious that the vision the Lord gave was a vision that struck a chord in the hearts of FBCIT.
So, here are the results:
- Total Number of 316 Sports Families: 858
- Total Number of Kids: 1825
- Total Number of Coaches: 156
- Total Salvations: Approximately 300
This year (2017) so far:
- Flag & Tackle Football - 18 teams
- Baseball - 12 teams
- Soccer - 50 teams
- Basketball - 30 teams
- Cheerleading - 8 squads