To watch the full clip click here.

The leader of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby, has declared his excitement at the work being done to proclaim Jesus to sportspeople in the United Kingdom, particularly through a developing initiative within the Anglican church, the Ministry of Sport.

Opening a consultation day for all diocese within the Southern Province, he said, ‘reaching into an area of life where huge numbers of people across the country are involved, particularly on Sundays, is something that is critical to expressing what it is to be a Christian.’

The Archbishop reminded the attendees, that, ‘evangelism is not a survival strategy for the church, it is integral to being a Christian.’

Following the address, Graham Daniels, Director of Christians in Sport, shared the history of sports mission in this country before a series of interviews were held to help share best-practice when it comes to sports ministry.

As the representatives of all 29 dioceses reflected and planned for future engagement with sport, a new resource created to aid the growth of sports ministry was introduced. ReadySetGo.ec is a website full of resources to aid all practitioners as they think about the countless opportunities for ministry that can be found with sport and play. It is free to use, copyright free and currently in 15 different languages making it accessible to many communities that can be found throughout so many parishes.

The Archbishop closed his remarks by stating, ‘There are two things every single Christian should do, out of an overflow of God’s love, one is to worship and the other is to witness, you could say apart from those two everything else is decoration.’

Christians in Sport and all those involved at the Ministry of Sport are passionate about doing these two things within the world of sport and our prayer is that the meeting at Lambeth Palace is a catalyst, so that many of the 10 million people playing sport each week, can have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus.

To see all the talks and sessions from the Ministry of Sport day please click here.