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student ministry, youth worker, youth ministry

Sports Vs. Church

By Doug Franklin September 6, 2011

I can’t stand it when students and parents choose sports over church! To be honest, it makes me even madder when it’s the parents that place youth ministry and church on the back burner. You know when their students get in trouble the first place they will turn will be to the youth worker. So what should we do, condemn them to a hot place or turn the tables? I think it’s time to stop acting like second class citizens and raise the bar. If a student wants to be on the student leadership team they must make the same commitment to the leadership team as they would to the football team. That’s right. After all isn’t church leadership more important than football? What we are saying is, we want a commitment. We want students to practice for spiritual outcomes as much as we want them to practice for track and field. This also means that we can only ask students to make this commitment for a three month period, just like a sport. I think when we put church commitment into the same boat as a sport commitment then parents and students will take us seriously.

About the Author

Doug Franklin

Doug Franklin is the president of LeaderTreks, an innovative leadership development organization focusing on students and youth workers. Doug and his wife, Angie, live in West Chicago, Illinois. They don’t have any kids, but they have 2 dogs that think they are children. Diesel and Penelope are Weimaraners  who never leave their side. Doug grew up in…  Read More