Welcome & Vision | 5 Mins
Welcome everyone and particularly any newcomers this week.
Remind each other of the vision of CIS and the purpose of the weekly group meeting. (Consider using CIS videos and resources to keep this fresh each week).
Remind those graduating to fill in this form using a non-university email address so Christians in Sport can stay in touch with them after they leave university.
Prayer & Evangelism | 10 Mins
In pairs look back on your week of sport and discuss how last week’s group meeting helped you. Follow up with anything people asked for prayer about.
In pairs share prayer points for the week of sport ahead and spend time praying for each other.
Some weeks pray more widely for other clubs and teams in your university which are not represented in the group. Alternatively, you can also use the CIS prayer diary to pray for the whole mission of CIS.
You might also want to use this slot to discuss and plan your evangelistic event for the term and pray specifically about it.
Reach the world of sport for Christ | 20 Mins
Intro
As we connect our sport and faith this session will help us think through merging our Christian and non-Christian friendship circles
Read
Read Mark 2:15-17
Reflect
Have you ever seen the impact of a Christian friend on your unbelieving friends’ lives? If so, what effect did it have?
Explain
As Sam Chan writes in Evangelism in a Skeptical World, people are far more likely to believe something is true if others around us also believe it to be true. So what if we applied this idea to our evangelism? Evangelism would become a team sport. An effective model for reaching those in our clubs, begins by introducing our unbelieving sports friends to our believing friends.
Not only is this psychologically an effective strategy, this is also a model we see in the Bible. Such as in the gospels we see Jesus going to and from meals with ‘sinners’, each time taking his disciples with him (Mark 2:15-17). Or when Paul and his team loved those in Colossae such that they shared not only the gospel but their lives as well (1 Thess 2:8) or when Paul sends Timothy to authenticate the gospel to the people of Corinth (1 Corinth 4:17).
This model of evangelism can be hard. It’s easy to keep our sports friends and church friends apart. Often when they first cross paths it can be awkward for your worlds to collide, but as people get to know each other, find shared interests, friendships will begin to grow and this is when the gospel becomes more plausible and opportunities for gospel conversation emerge.
Discuss
How do you feel about hanging out with other people’s sports friends for the sake of the gospel?
How can you create opportunities to merge your own universes?
As a group think of ways you can bring your Christian friends and your sports friends together over shared interests and experiences?
Pray
Praise God that he is a relational God who values people and the gift of friendship.
Ask God to give you a desire to merge your friendship circles, and courage to have a go.
Pray that as a CIS group you can serve and support each other by taking an intertest in each others sports friends and seeking to witness as a team throughout the sports clubs represented in your group.
Notices | 5 Mins
Update everyone on the key messages for the week. These might include:
Promoting your evangelistic event for the term
Reminding people about carol services and other events the group can make use of.
Resources to share
Encourage group members to sign up for Back Pages Online to stay up to date with the latest videos, blogs, stories, podcasts and prayer content from Christians in Sport.
