1. We love sports

2. Snohomish is a huge sports town

3. We shouldn't have to choose between sports and church

4. 80% of sports fans believe in God

5. Many sports fans have quit on God

"Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8

Sports Church reaching out to fans, families in Snohomish
by Bryan Malley
SNOHOMISH — "Many times the Church today expects people to come to us, dress like us, act like us, talk like us, etc.," said Pastor DJ Rabe. "Jesus met people where they lived and brought the gospel to them. According to the Barna Research Group, North America is the only continent where the Christian Church is not growing. This being true, something needs to change in the way we are attempting to reach people for Christ."

One aspect of that change comes with the launch of Sports Church, a ministry of The House, a new church Rabe and his wife Dottie founded in Snohomish.

DJ Rabe and his friend Mike Unverzagt, a pastor in Vancouver, Wash., began discussing the idea for Sports Church a few years ago.

"As pastors, both Mike and I have noticed that many times men are made to feel guilty by 'the religious crowd' for wanting to be in front of the big screen watching the game instead of in a church service," Rabe said. "People shouldn't be made to feel guilty about not wanting to attend church. If a person doesn't want to attend our church services, then maybe we should ask ourselves why?"

Sports Church invites attendees to watch football, socialize and hear a spiritual message during halftime of each game. Because the events are geared toward men, Sports Church meetings will not feature a time of singing.

The Vancouver Sports Church will begin Sept. 9 with the opening of the NFL season and will meet in a local sports pub. The Sports Church in Snohomish begins Sept. 10 for "Monday Night Football" and will meet at the Snohomish Boys and Girls Club each Monday night, rounding out the year with a Super Bowl party.

"I see this initiative reaching the entire family—men, women, teenagers and children," Rabe said. "As a father, I am excited for the opportunity to experience Sports Church with my 7-year-old son."

The House church services will also be held at the Snohomish Boys and Girls Club on Saturday nights beginning Sept. 15. Services at The House will feature a laid-back atmosphere, song, sermons and socializing.

Rabe—who also runs a consulting service for other churches—hopes to build a ministry that focuses not on building itself but rather on "ministering to people." He said momentum has been building for Sports Church even before its launch.

"People are absolutely pumped for Sports Church to begin, both in Vancouver and Snohomish. I have even had a ministry leader call me asking how he can implement some of these concepts to reach more men in his church," Rabe said. "The response has been amazing."

To read more about Sports Church, visit www.sportschurch.net. For more information about The House, visit www.experiencethehouse.com.

In the Seattle area where I live less than three percent of the population attend church on a regular basis. They attend the mall regularly. They attend the movies or the movie rental store regularly. In fact, here in the Pacific NW most people spend more time in a Starbucks per month than in their local church. I can here some faithful churchgoer right now saying, "These people need to get saved!" Maybe the same churchgoer would also agree that a person who spends more time at the mall, watching a movie, or drinking coffee than in church has their priorities out of order. I'd say that before we jump to take the seat of judgement, perhaps we should ask ourselves, "What causes a person to drive right past our churches each Sunday taking little thought of attending our services?"

Months ago I remember being asked to participate in a church leadership meeting. In this particular meeting the leaders were being asked to give a report of their progress of following up with recent church guests and regular attendees. The facilitator of the meeting went around the table asking each leader questions like, "Where has so and so been?", "Did you call or contact them this week?", "Were you able to find out why they have not attended service regularly?" Each leader shared the reasons the people told them for their lack of church attendance (work, school, family, sports, too busy, too tired, don't know anyone etc.) Then I realized something, "These were not the real reasons why they chose not to attend church, these were just excuses people gave them to get them off their back. As our meeting came to a close I was becoming very eager to hear the facilitator's solution to the challenge the leaders were having encouraging people to attend their church more consistently. Suddenly the solution stated, "As ministry leaders you need to get these people plugged into the church!" That was it! I could not believe what I was hearing however I did learn a powerful lesson from this meeting. "If we fail to discover the real reason(s) people don't want to come our churches, we will be forever unsuccessful in growing our churches."

What then, is the reason, or reasons people choose not to attend church?" The answer is easy, "They don't want to." Now that was deep but it's the absolute truth. It's about time we begin to face reality and ask ourselves the more important question, "Why is it that so many people don't care or have any desire to step foot inside the local church? Not long ago, a friend and I were sharing the Lord with a man in the lobby of a hotel. This man told us that his faith in God was wavering. As he continued sharing with us, he mentioned that he had recently visited and/or attended five churches in the local area. After sharing his many frustrations with his church experiences his said something that shocked me. He said, "Church is stupid!" Being a Christian, my first thought was church is not stupid." In contrast, the church is an important part of God's plan of salvation and expressing His love toward us. My second thought was, "What could I do in this moment to help this man to see the church from a different perspective?" My third thought was one I couldn't even believe I asked myself, "Is there such thing as a stupid church?" Now I know that third thought was a bit on the edge but remember I'm sitting right across from a man who is searching for genuine Christianity and had recently attended five churches near his home. So why then was this man sitting before me saying, "Church is stupid?"

Two full days after sharing Christ with a stranger in a hotel lobby, I found myself unable to shake this man's comment to me that church is stupid. I think it was just hard for me to see the word stupid and church right next to each other. That word "stupid" just kept bugging me! Oddly enough, the word stupid had never really sounded that harsh to me until I heard it said in front of, and connected to the word church. In fact, I admit to being one who has done stupid things, said stupid things, and had numerous stupid thoughts. Even though I felt that I and everyone else knew what the word stupid meant, I decided to just look up the word stupid in the dictionary. The dictionary defines the word stupid as lacking intelligence, lacking common sense, dazed, unable to think clearly, a word used to express irritability or boredom. Have you ever irritated in church? Have you ever felt you lacked the intelligence to understand what was being taught? . Have you been bored in church? I don't know about you but after reading the definition of the word stupid, I can better understand how an unbeliever would come to the conclusion that church is stupid, Honestly, even being a believer, I have experienced these feelings during church many times! Let's be honest, without a real, relevant, and genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ it's not too far fetched to think that church is stupid.

In life, we all have to come to our own conclusions about what we believe or don't believe. With that being said, my personal conclusion is two-fold, 1. Church is not stupid. 2. It is a reality that many people have the perception that "Church is stupid." This perception is not only a common one, but is creating a real and active attitude that is rapidly becoming an epidemic! I believe God is calling us to reconcile people back to Him no matter what it costs us or how weird or fanatical we appear. Instead of turning a blind eye, we should rise up and take the perceptions of the people God has called us to reach seriously and accept the challenge of demonstrating true authentic Christianity.

So what do you do when potential church-goers would rather watch Monday Night Football? If you're pastors in Vancouver and Snohomish, you bring church to them. I interviewed some folks who are starting a "Sports Church" in both communities, inviting guys to come watch the game, drink some root beer and listen to a spiritual message at half-time. "We've got a bunch of people out here that are sick and tired of church. Our goal is to redefine it." -DJ Rabe

Written By Katherine Sather from King 5 News. To read the complete Sports Church article copy the link below in your web browser. Bring it!

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_072007WAB_sports_church_KS.943e9203.html

1. The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that's 61% female, 39% male. This gender gap shows up in all age categories.

2. On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America's churches.

3. This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands.

4. Midweek activities often draw 70 to 80 percent female participants.

5. The majority of church employees are women (except for ordained clergy, who are overwhelmingly male).

6. As many as 90 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it by their 20th birthday. Many of these boys will never return.

7. More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only two out of six attend church on a given Sunday. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church.

8. A significant number of churchgoing men attend out of habit, unaffected by what they hear.

9. Quite a few men go to church simply to keep their wives/mothers/girlfriends happy.

10. The majority of men who attend church do nothing during the week to grow their faith.

11. Relatively few churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men's ministry.