In May 2015, Craig Bellamy, former rugby league player and coach of the Melbourne Storm in the Australian NRL for the last 21 years, wrote a column in The Australian newspaper that said sports chaplains are a much-needed resource in rugby league. By implication he was stating that every sports team needs a chaplain, particularly within the high-pressured environment in the modern era of professional sports.
Chaplaincy in its various forms is not a new idea in New Zealand; people have been working for years as chaplains across many sectors including the military, in hospitals, prisons, schools and the workplace, but chaplains within sports teams and sporting organisations are still a relatively new environment for chaplains to operate in.
Originally established in 1982 by Baptist minister Mark Tronson and called Sports and Leisure Ministry (SLM), Sports Chaplaincy Australia (SCA) have been the exemplar for chaplaincy within sporting environments in Australasia. Sports Chaplaincy New Zealand (SCNZ) was established in 2013 following the framework and example that SCA had laid and will celebrate its 10th anniversary since being registered as a charity in October of this year.
As Kiwis, we know that sport is an integral part of our society and ‘punching above our weight on the global stage’ is something we’re proud of. Unfortunately, the church has often felt threatened by sport rather than embracing it as an opportunity to interact with people we don’t generally reach, particularly as an increasing number of sporting events are held on Sundays. However, sports chaplaincy is an opportunity to embrace and minister within the sporting environment, and the doors are increasingly being swung wide open to provide sports chaplains to provide pastoral care and associated services to players and administrators from the grassroots to professional levels of the sporting landscape.
My personal story reflects the value that sports chaplaincy could add to the life of the local church. As a practicing pastor in Auckland, I served for 12 seasons as the chaplain to the Sky Sport NZ Breakers who play in the Australian NBL basketball competition. The relationships formed over those twelve years enable me to now place other chaplains within the NZ basketball scene. Basketball New Zealand embraces the provision of chaplains and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SCNZ that opens the doors for chaplains to be placed at all levels of the basketball landscape.
Over the last five years this story has been repeated in other sporting codes due to the excellent relationships that chaplains have established within their sporting circles. Rugby League NZ, Volleyball NZ and Gymnastics NZ have similarly signed MOU’s that indicate their willingness to allow chaplains to provide pastoral care and mentoring throughout their organisation.
From having only five active chaplains in NZ five years ago, SCNZ now has 84 active chaplains volunteering within eighteen sporting codes. SCNZ’s growth curve shows that this figure will potentially rise to 200 within the next three years, with the objective of having 700 chaplains within the next decade, being 10% of the 7,000 sporting clubs and organisations in NZ. The demand for chaplains now exceeds the supply of those being trained to be chaplains.
In 2 Corinthians Chapter 2, Verse 15, the Apostle Paul writes, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” At a time when the Christian voice has lost all sense of significance within our society, it will increasingly be up to followers of Jesus to be the ‘aroma’ through how they live their lives. Sports chaplaincy provides an environment for this aroma to be fostered through the lives of individual chaplains, those who represent Christ in places where the church is excluded from.
Sport will always be a big part of NZ’s culture and the ministry of sports chaplaincy should be increasingly embraced by members of local churches as a way to interact and reach our local communities for Christ. Indeed at a time when the church is seeking missional opportunities to, the doors to sporting organisations are wide open.
Check out their website here for more information, www.sportschaplaincy.co.nz.