adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
IS there anything like “sports evangelism”? A protégé of Faith In God Ministries’ Prophet Blessing Chiza, Pastor Emmanuel Hove, last week launched his book “The Secret Behind Soccer” which according to him is a spiritual revelation of the game. Driven by the fact that soccer is a worldwide sport that unifies people from all races, Hove led by “the Spirit” of God decided to penetrate the “market” and spread the word through writing a soccer inspired book.
“The Word of God spoke to me and said since there are a lot of people in soccer, I should reach out to them through this book. The secret behind the game is about the kingdom of God. There are a lot of people in stadia who miss the Word of God and if soccer is a medium to reach out to them, then let it be so. The end goal here is to win souls for Christ and there is a lot that people can learn in this book,” said Hove.
The slim-built pastor said lessons like faith, character building and motivating a person can be learnt through soccer.
“This is a motivational book which helps nurture one’s gift. It encourages people to run the race through to the end and if you look, footballers never give up even if they are down the team continues to fight hard. They have faith that they might overturn the result if they are down and we should have the same belief and faith in God that no matter how difficult things might be, with God’s help we will conquer,” said Hove.
He said just like discovering that one is talented, a person can also discover the greatness of God through soccer.
Hove used an example of legendary striker Peter Ndlovu who has in many interviews testified that had he known Jesus during his playing days, he would have been a better player.
“Christ commanded the church to go out and make impact in the systems of the world, all platforms without exemption. If the people are in sport then the Man of God has to have a way of grabbing the sport lover’s attention before ministering Christ to him. We are called fishers of men, and no fish rises up to the fisher without some juicy bait.
“Empty churches are proof of bait-less preachers. If I were to preach to political figures I would show them the Daniel that never preached any fiery sermon but faithfully served in three different Babylonian administrations. If I were to talk to business people I would show them Abraham or Job, men that knew God but were the richest in their day. The parable of the talents is not about spiritual gifts, it is about physical tangible abilities that should be used to benefit individuals or groups of people. Sport falls into that category and it would be my starting point.
Jesus Walks Ministries’ Witness Nare-Mdluli came to the support of “Sport Evangelism”
“Let the gospel be preached from every platform. The people are not coming to church and rightly so because the church should start by going to where the people are. We need more people like Kaka on these platforms. If people won’t listen to the pastor or dare to read the Bible they will meet that Bible when they pick up a magazine that has a Kaka interview,” said Nare.
House of Nations Worship Centre’s Frank Sithole had this to say about Sport Evangelism; “Personally I believe that when God gave us the Great Commission, He instructed us to go into the world and that means we have to enter into all pillars of the world. Just like we have Christians that are making impact in the world of business with the likes of Strive Masiyiwa, Christians must affect and influence the world using the talents that God gave them.
“I remember at the Bible School in South Africa we used to employ many types of evangelism for instance we would show the Jesus Film and we would complement this with a friendly soccer match whereby our Bible school soccer team would play a friendly game with the community soccer team. This would draw many soccer lovers. After the match we would screen the Jesus Film and have someone preach salvation briefly. Many were led to the Lord through sports. So we need to note that soccer is one of the top sports that pulls crowds and can be used to reach out to many people.”
Online Reporter