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The commitment of Christianity and badociative football is a long story. In the 16th century, Puritan Christians in England opposed contemporary forms of football because of its violence and practice on Sunday, the Sabbath rest day.
However, from the nineteenth century, Christians espousing the movement of "muscular Christianity" encouraged the game for its physical and social benefits. Several of the major English clubs, including Everton, Manchester City and Southampton, were founded by churches, as was Celtic in Scotland. St. Mary's Church, in Southampton, founded Southampton FC in 1885. The team, known to this day as "The Saints," plays at St. Mary's Stadium. Leagues have also been created for Christian clubs outside the national league. pyramid.
In 2007, the departments of the mountain of fire and miracles of Lagos (MFM) a Pentecostal church with chapters around the world, created an intramural football competition for the sole purpose of providing advice to Nigerian youth.
Less than ten years later, the MFM FC became the first religious club to play in the country's first league. Today, their success illuminates the situation of Nigerian national football.
Arthur Connell was the rector of St. Mark's Church in West Gorton in Manchester. There was a lot of unemployment in the area and in January 1879 Connell created a soup kitchen and a relief fund for the poor in the area. In its first week, more than 1,500 gallons of soup, 1,000 loaves and 10 tons of coal had been distributed by Connell and his badistants. His daughter, Anna Connell, is also involved in helping this community. She thought that the creation of male clubs would help to improve the community spirit. This included the creation of the St. Marks Church football team. This team was finally renamed Manchester City.
Everton was founded in November 1879 when St. Domingo Church held a meeting at the Queen's Head Hotel, Village Street. They already had a cricket team but wanted to find another sport for the winter months. The St. Domingo team played at Stanley Park and won their first match against St Peter's Church. The following year, the club was renamed Everton F.C. after the surroundings.
The church and football in Ghana
The introduction of football in the Ashanti Kingdom took place in 1921; during the first years of its introduction, the game did not go beyond the recreational pastime stage. In 1922, there were only two clubs. One of them, Everton FC, was created as a leisure club for the Kumasi Roman Catholic Mission School. There is attached a fanfare to serve as a bait to seduce the spectators.
The second club called Royals FC was sponsored by the Wesleyan (Methodist) Mission School. Patronage was strictly based on religion. Incidentally, the practice was that the fans of both teams wore the same shirts and sleeves as the teams they supported to facilitate their identification.
A more serious club, Rainbow FC, was added to these leisure clubs in 1924. In 1926, it became the first Ashanti football club named "Ashanti United", the precursor team of the current club, Asante Kotoko, in 1935.
In 1931, the Kumasi Cornerstone, consisting mainly of young Fante migrants to Fante New Town, was located in the central part of Kumasi. Thus, in 1932, it became apparent that the Ashanti Regional Football Association was becoming the regulatory authority.
Techiman Holy Stars who played the Ghana League in 1985/86 with Emmanuel Armah "Senegal", belonged to the Roman Catholic Church of Techiman.
Among the Techiman Holy Stars players were: goalkeeper Oppong Kyekyeku and his badistant goalkeeper Wofa Yaw and Asiedu, Mallam Awudu, Agya Ba, Abeka, Emmanuel Armah & # 39; Senegal & # 39 ;, Suraju Musah, Fuseini Sulemana , Yusif Salifu and company.
The head coach of Holy Stars was Dan Owusu, a former Bofoakwa Tano player and Black Stars and his president was Alhaji Agyaa. Dan Owusu left the club along the road to join BA United to train them in the middle of the league.
Church and sports
The church has always struggled to understand rightly the role of games in God's higher plan. The apostle Paul seemed to enjoy sports or he knew them at least, using sports metaphors such as running the race (1 Cor 9:24), fighting for the good fight (1 Tim 6:12) and s & # 39, lead to righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).
During the early centuries of the church, however, Christians were largely against sports of the day, though for understandable reasons. The first Olympics were dedicated to pagan gods such as Zeus and Nike, and the athletes usually fought naked.
In addition, the most popular sporting event – gladiatorial games – was to throw Christians into the ring with bears and wild lions.
Until the end of the eighteenth century, sports were mostly recreational. However, the industrial revolution created the railroad for the professionalisation of sport. The train arrived at the station in the second half of the 20th century.
With the professionalization and popularization of sport today, Christians have sided, to say the least, to see sport as a potential clbadroom for morality and a platform for evangelism.
Benefits of sport in the church
Why do people play sports? On the one hand, men and women play sports because they are created to play and want to use their gifts to glorify God. On the other hand, people often play sports to justify themselves; to prove oneself to the world.
Many may identify with the scene in Chariots of Fire where Olympic runner Harold Abrahams, while preparing for the 100m, says he has "ten solitary seconds to justify my entire existence".
Fortunately, Jesus saves not only forensic guilt but also false gods. When sinners understand that they are justified by the blood of Christ, it saves them from being justified in sport by fame, money, and achievements.
New identity
Second, the gospel gives the athlete a new identity. Sports go beyond what we do, they talk about who we are. The power of sport that shapes identity is obvious because the sport we play often plays on the way they dress, the music they listen to and the friends they spend time with. None of them are bad unless they have managed to get to the center of a person's identity.
A new ethic
The gospel gives the athlete a new purpose, a new identity and finally a new ethic. The winning mentality at all costs of modern sports (where to win is an idol by which the athlete is willing to sacrifice everything) seriously undermines the integrity of the sport. Sports ethics is played on the field and off the field.
This statement applies to churches in evangelical missions. When churches go out in evangelism to win souls or to prepare souls for salvation, they set themselves the goal of winning souls and sacrificing their time to make sure that the goal is achieved, that is. that is to say the winning mentality at all costs.
What the church needs to do for the sport
Intensify Christian Leagues
The Christian League has existed since Antiquity, but religious organizations can do more with respect to the development of the game. The Christian League must be professionally managed to train sports professionals who can easily switch from one to another. league or from a Christian competition to traditional professional sport. Through Christian competition, members are physically fit as they participate in exercise, aerobics and other physical activities.
In the future, the church can create a professional sports club to participate in national events such as first division football, weightlifting, boxing, etc. Thus, sports events will provide a major platform for churches to promote the ministry of sport, as it has been accomplished. at the FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 to win souls and promote the salvation of Christians.
Finally, churches should adopt and develop the communities in which they operate. While Ghanaian churches are adopting sporting facilities for their activities, it will be prudent for churches to develop and build sports facilities that will promote the health of their members, help develop local talent and, finally, promote sport development. inter.
The world's richest churches such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, Opus Dei, D & D A value of 40 billion USD, 30 billion USD, 7.8 billion USD and 2.8 billion USD respectively, do not have their pastors among the list of worlds the richest churches.
People like Mgr. Oyedepo, Mgr TD Jakes, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and Benny Hinn, Adeboye, worth $ 150 million, $ 147 million, $ 50 million, $ 42 million and $ 39 million, respectively. do not have their churches among the list of the richest churches.
Conclusion
From time immemorial, the church is part of the sport and it is time that we consider the church as an actor and see how it can contribute to the development of its sport.
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