How Do You Reach Athletes With the Gospel? · Study Guide

The Big Question

Athletes occupy a strange place in our culture. We elevate them from childhood, define them by their sport, and then ask them to perform their faith the same way they perform on the field. When they walk through the doors of a church or a campus ministry, they often find that people see the same thing everyone else sees: a platform, a story, an opportunity. This study asks a harder question: what does it actually take to reach an athlete with the gospel? And what happens when the church gets it wrong?

Key Takeaways

Athletes are often defined by their sport from a young age. A gospel that does not speak to identity, not just behavior, will not go deep enough.
Black athletes often face an especially sharp version of this identity pressure: raised to become an athlete, with deep family and community investment in that outcome. Ministry in this context needs to understand that weight.
A ministry of presence, being there consistently and genuinely, with no agenda, is more powerful than any single conversation. Trust opens the door; presence keeps it open.
Prosperity thinking runs deep in athletic culture. The belief that faith produces wins sets people up for a crisis when hard things happen. Honest teaching on suffering and faithfulness is not optional.
The local church can harm athletes by rushing them onto a platform before they are grounded in faith. Discipleship first. Spotlights later, if at all.

See the Person Before the Platform

The starting discipline of this whole study is resisting the pull everyone else around an athlete gives in to.

“We really see the athletes not just for their platform, not just for how everyone else sees them as like the glitz and glamor. We see them as human beings and help them really know what does it mean for you to not only worship God in your sport, but worship God in your life.” – Natasha Shorts

Think of one person in your life you have mostly related to through what they do, their role, talent, or title. This week, ask them one question that has nothing to do with that role.

Find the Identity That Survives the Sport

The pressure to become an athlete, especially in the Black community, runs deeper than ambition. It is woven into family hope and investment.

“Especially in the black community, like this is, I've been raised to become. And then when that doesn't pan out, it's like, okay, well, who am I outside of that?” – Natasha Shorts

Jerome Gay's framework on identity is worth sitting with here, even outside the specific context he addresses it in: a feature of who you are, whether that is a sport, a race, or any other strong identity marker, was never meant to be the foundation your whole sense of self rests on. The foundation has to be able to hold when the feature is taken away.

Name one thing in your own life that has quietly become your foundation instead of a feature, your career, your role in your family, your performance at something. What would be left if it were gone tomorrow?

Practice a Ministry of Presence

Anthony's years chaplaining in the NFL taught him that the most important moments rarely look dramatic. They look like being available when no one is watching.

“The wrong kind of people target athletes, especially those that are in the limelight. And they have to have just an extra measure of discernment and wisdom if they're going to survive.” – Corwin Anthony

Identify one person in your life who is surrounded by people who want something from them. This week, be the one person who does not ask for anything.
Practice being available without an agenda in one specific relationship. Notice how it feels different from your usual way of connecting with people.

Confront Prosperity Thinking Honestly

Anthony names a distortion that quietly shapes how a lot of believers, not just athletes, read their own circumstances: the assumption that faithfulness should produce visible success.

This belief sets people up for a crisis the moment life does not cooperate, whether that is a losing season, a layoff, or an unanswered prayer. Honest teaching on suffering and faithfulness has to be in place before the crisis hits, not improvised in the middle of it.

Name one place in your own thinking where you quietly expect faithfulness to guarantee a good outcome. What would it look like to hold onto faith if that outcome never came?

Choose Discipleship Over the Spotlight

The temptation to fast-track a promising new believer onto a stage is not unique to athletic ministry, but Shorts names it clearly in that context.

“Don't push someone up there when they're not ready. And so even just like getting to know them and seeing them as people, seeing them as people who are hurting and broken, who are in need of a savior, just like everyone else in the room, like that makes a difference.” – Natasha Shorts

Think of someone newer to faith in your own circle. Resist any urge to give them a platform, a testimony slot, a leadership role, before they have had real time to grow. Name what slow discipleship would look like for them instead.

Scripture to Sit With

1 Corinthians 9:24-27. Paul uses athletic imagery to describe the Christian life, including self-discipline and running toward a prize that does not fade. He knew the culture of competitive sport. He used it to point past performance to something more enduring.
Colossians 3:23-24. Work as for the Lord, not for people. This is a direct word for an athlete who has only ever performed for coaches, scouts, fans, and contracts. It reframes the entire field.
1 Samuel 16:7. People look at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. Athletes live inside a system that evaluates almost everything by appearance, physical performance, and results. God's frame is entirely different.
Galatians 1:10. Seeking the approval of God, not people. An athlete whose worth has always been measured by public performance needs to hear this plainly. You cannot serve both the crowd and God.
Hebrews 12:1-2. Run with perseverance, with eyes fixed on Jesus, not on the scoreboard, the contract, or what the crowd thinks. This passage speaks directly to endurance, focus, and finishing well.

Discussion Questions

When you think about athletes you know or have known, have you tended to see them primarily as people or primarily as a platform? What shaped that tendency?
Natasha Shorts describes Black athletes being raised with the expectation of "becoming" an athlete, with deep family investment in that outcome. How does that shape the kind of gospel conversation they need? What would you say to someone whose identity collapsed when a sports career ended?
Corwin Anthony describes prosperity thinking as a real temptation in locker rooms: the belief that faithfulness should produce wins. Where do you see that same thinking in your own context, inside or outside of athletics?
What would a true ministry of presence look like in your own relationships? Is there someone in your life who needs you to show up consistently with no agenda attached?
Shorts warns against pushing athletes onto a church stage before they are spiritually ready. Can you think of a time when someone was elevated in a spiritual community before they were ready? What happened? What does slow, steady discipleship look like in contrast?

This Week's Practice

This week, identify one person in your life who is used to being seen for what they do rather than who they are. Not necessarily an athlete, but anyone whose identity is tightly wrapped around performance or achievement. Make one move toward seeing them differently: a question that is not about their role, a conversation that is not about what they produce. Ministry of presence starts small.

Go Deeper

This study draws from The Jude 3 Project podcast episode "How Do You Reach Athletes With the Gospel?" featuring Corwin Anthony and Natasha Shorts of Athletes in Action. For a related conversation on sharing faith across hard questions and cultural barriers, listen to "How Do You Share Your Faith Without Answering the Wrong Question?" featuring Rasool Berry, also in The Jude 3 Project corpus.