The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) often uses goalposts, baseball diamonds, hockey sticks, and soccer balls as tools to reach athletes and coaches with the gospel message. However, the group considers distributing the Bible as their most important evangelistic tool.
The ministry will close out 2022 with having distributed nearly 200,000 Bibles to students in the sports field. This year also marks 68 years of commitment to the mission of leading players and coaches into a growing relationship with Christ through sports camps and Fields of Faith events.
Over the past 15 years, the ministry has distributed three million Bibles with the “commitment to utilizing Scripture.”
“I believe one of the reasons God continues to bless the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is our focus on growing our Bible ministry,” said FCA President and CEO Shane Williamson. “We are committed to God’s Word and biblical truth, and we continue to be amazed at what God is doing to get His Word into the hands of coaches and athletes around the world.”
FCA’s theme for 2022 is “Every”, based on Ephesians 1:3: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.”
The ministry says its goal is to remind Christian coaches and athletes that they already have everything they need in Christ and encourages them to seek Him both on and off the field.
Here is a brief overview of FCA’s Bible distribution history:
1956: The Athlete’s Bible
The ministry first printed Bibles for camp with its logo on the cover. As the camps grew, new Bible covers were designed with each year’s theme, and more programs were added. The Bible became a key resource for those leading huddles and one-on-one discipleship meetings. This is now referred to as FCA’s Athlete’s Bible, which each camper receives and has become the most requested Bible resource.
2003: More Bible Resources
FCA’s Bible distribution exploded when FCA introduced a Sports New Testament that included testimonies from pro athletes and coaches. Today, FCA has printed more than 1 million of these resources. Staff in Mississippi dreamed up the concept of a Coach’s Bible that included 365 devotions written by and for coaches. The resource was a hit! Due to the Coach’s Bible popularity, other devotional Bibles were released. Today FCA prints, distributes, and engages coaches and athletes with more than 10 varieties of Bible resources.
2006: International Bibles
FCA printed its first Spanish New Testament in 2006. Since then, multiple resources have been translated and printed, such as FCA’s Heart of an Athlete devotional in Chinese and Spanish, the Japanese Baseball New Testament, the Chinese Sports Devotional Bible, and the Russian Coach’s Bible.
In 2017, FCA began distributing 50,000 Thai Sports New Testaments and 10,000 Vietnamese Sports New Testaments. The following year, FCA Sports Bible Handbooks were printed in Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Ukrainian, Russian, and Urdu. Today, FCA prints New Testaments, Sports Bibles, Sports Bible Handbooks, and more in Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Urdu, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese.
2013: The Digital Age
FCA partners with YouVersion to release electronic versions of all camp Bibles. Today, FCA has more than 50 Bible reading plans in multiple languages on YouVersion, including Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, and Korean.
“For 67 years, it has been FCA’s priority to make Jesus known throughout the world,” Williamson said. “We have a wonderful gift to give to our coaches and athletes, the hope and truth of Christ through His everlasting Word!”
To find out more about Fellowship of Christian Athletes, click here.
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