I've been praying a bunch lately, definitely trying to grow in faith and open myself up for whatever God wants to do in my life.  Not as easy as all the people talking about it all the time make it sound, as if it were a matter of switching what type of cheese you put in your sandwiches.  Something stirred in me recently to see if it can be done, because what I'm learning says it should be what we're doing.  We're supposed to give God everything we have, because ultimately He owns everything because He made everything, and we have nothing without what He gives us.  We're supposed to use our talents to minister and do His work, right?  Well, one big thing I have is my guns, shooting, reloading, and competition shooting.  Somehow I got directed to it through my life's chain of events and I put a lot of time, money, and effort into it and it's something that motivates and moves me in ways almost nothing else does.  Just getting started, really, only this past year doing a full season start to finish.  I'm not all that good compared to people who do more per year and have been at it longer.  But what I've noticed is that there's a lot of advertising, lots of folks putting out the "Buy This" message on their shirts, signs, etc.  Yet nobody I see so far advertises Christ, the church, the message of salvation, etc., yet clearly there's lots of advertising going on and opportunity.  God should be there.

Is there a Christian shooting sports ministry like Fellowship of Christian Athletes which I saw in high school in football?  Is there a way to put this to work somehow to put serving Christ into the sport that I do?  I'm not a paid minister.  I have no experience being one.  I'm just a guy who God said "Hey you, you're on my team now."  He gave me a wife, a kinda weird life path, a job path I'm working on that's taken a long time to get, some stuff I'm good at and a lot of stuff I'm not.  I'm not perfect by a long shot.  But the preacher at my church pointed out that most of the people in the Bible who got the word of God out and served His purpose, doing some really great things, were average or even below average people who often said "Who, me?  I'm really curious if anyone has done something with this for USPSA, IDPA, 3 Gun, etc.  I haven't seen it where I am yet.

I do church security but that is the only thing i know of right now, tagging this for sure

Upon a little research, I see that Athletes in Action has their ministry materials online.  They make no mention of having applied it to competitive shooting--all baseball, football, the usual usually school or pro oriented team stuff--but it seems the basic principles apply.  I'm going to read through all this stuff, learn from it, and see if it can be applied.  Will definitely have to bring in some outside help on this if I try to implement it.

Anyone seen any shooting ministry/evangelism yet anywhere?  Some events are pretty big so that's a pretty good way to reach a lot of people, and we shooters are athletes that a lot of folks don't even think about when they think sports.  It got my attention seeing recognizable names like Chris Costa, Julie Golob, et al. on their Facebook pages having the category listed as Athlete.  I'm hitting the gym this winter to get myself in better shape to perform as one, or as close to being one as I can be having been now 17 years out of high school and probably a full 15 at least since I played a team sport of any kind.  So why not an athletic ministry?

What size of a ministry do you have in mind?  Actually holding an event, or gathering people to practice and then attending events?

I felt the same way about 5 years ago and wondered what I could do for Christ and the Church using what little bit of talent I have combined with my passions in the shooting sports. It became pretty evident we wouldn't be able to push a firearms ministry because it didn't make since logistically with the distance to a range, safety factors and equipment costs. One summer I took my daughter to an archery camp and the light bulb went off. I got certified as an Archery in the Schools instructor and started recruiting people I knew in the church that had interest in these things. We raised some money, bought some equipment and started offering archery as part of our summer youth program. After a couple of years in the summer with 30 or so kids we decided to move the program to Feb/March. It blew up quickly. We went from 30 kids to 165 kids this past year. We now have 10 instructors and several line helpers. We have about 300 people come to the church (parents/grandparents/participants) that get to have fun with archery and hear a message on Christ.

Very good question. What I have in mind is utilizing existing matches I attend as an opportunity for outreach/evangelism, prayer, and encouragement.   Basically make the fellowship, message, and image of Christ present there by prayer before matches, hand out Gideon Bibles for people to keep in their kit, maybe Bible study afterwards or at least connect people with them.

That sounds awesome as long as the people that are running the event are on board with it. If not, maybe you could have your group of Christian shooters gather together for prayer before/during/after and let it be known that it is open to anyone that wants to participate. That way it wouldn't interfere with the operation of the match. Maybe wear something that advertises your group. For example, my church has a small group that ride motorcycles called Ridge Riders (my church is named West Ridge) and they had patches made for their jackets that say Ridge Riders.

But the most important thing is to make sure everyone that is in that group behaves in a way that glorifies God as y'all will be among a lot of unbelievers.  I'm sure you're well aware of that though.

These are just some ideas off the top of my head, maybe one will be useful.

I'll be praying for you and the ministry. I have been thinking of starting a small group for shooters as well, I just don't have the time right now.

Well, so far I've put together a couple of things.

First off, I figured a way to attach a prayer request box to my gun cart.  I ordered some prayer request slips to put in the holder on the front, and will mark it clearly as a prayer request box and NOT a donation box.  My match fees, ammo, and other expenses are my donation to ministry in general, so I'm not expecting anything back.



Second, I designed a logo and am working on shirts for it.


Still figuring out the other details.  I see some pocket sized Bibles on Amazon I might pick up to hand out as appropriate.  My wife brought up the point to not be pushy and I totally agree, instead presenting the idea on the shirt and having the prayer box handy with pens and slips there for people to put in as they feel comfortable and answer as many questions as anyone cares to ask.  It's going to be REALLY interesting.  

I'm strongly considering inviting a minister or two to be out there with me to speak to people as opportunity arises--maybe hand him my camera to take pictures of me to fit in a little better.  It's apparently REALLY hard to find someone who's familiar with shooting sports AND evangelism--I asked one pastor and his reply "Oh yeah, I know some guys who hunt" was rather...disappointing...like someone responding to you telling them you have Hispanic family members "So which lawn care service do you work for?"  How do you explain to them...uh, NO, it's NOTHING like being a hunter, more like being a track athlete, race car mechanic, and symphony orchestra clarinet player all at once.

Something I'm struggling with, and maybe you guys can help me out:  how do you get over the awkwardness of asking others to pray with you before a match?  I feel really embarrassed to say I've never done that before.  I went to a Christian high school (20 years ago!) and played sports there so it wasn't on me to do it because the coaches already did and it was in Alabama in the 90's---not spoiled by the whole PC anti-Christianity brainwashing crap, not 700 miles away from all the people I went to church with, etc.  I know that being among shooters at very least they're above the whole leftist cultural junk regarding guns--so they SHOULD be above it too when it comes to Christianity too, right?  But I'm the new guy in the crowd, so I don't know.  

Why does it still seem hard when I know it shouldn't be?  I know not to fear rejection, yet I still do because I also know to expect it.  Maybe I'm concerned about who it'll come from, maybe the ones I know I have a good chance of reaching?  I've come to know lots of people and because I'm new to the area they're a very large majority of the people I know and have spent time with, so to lose them would be a very high cost.