In The Game
What does a typical Upward Sports game day or practice night look like? To League Director Andy Barnette, “It looks like life on our campus.”
One morning, a few months into his role as the Family Ministries Pastor at Greenville First Church of the Nazarene (GFN) in Greenville, South Carolina, Andy was driving up to the church and started thinking that the campus was not being utilized to its full potential. Soon, he was having conversations about starting a sports ministry at GFN.
Less than two years later, Andy walked out to the first-ever practice night for the church’s new Upward soccer league to see the church’s normally empty field and parking lot full of people.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Andy says, “not just to have a presence in the community, but to actually be present in the community, to have face-to-face interaction with people in our community and to develop relationships.”
Beauty in Diversity
GFN’s new sports ministry is all about sharing life with people—and not just people with similar backgrounds. The church’s league represents the diverse cultural community of Greenville as a whole.
“One of the most beautiful things about this league is the diversity,” says Andy. “The diversity of language, the diversity of cultures. My wife said that this is what heaven must look like, to hear families cheer on their kids in multiple languages.”
GFN has leaned into the multicultural makeup of their league even more by partnering with organizations that work with refugees in their community and offering scholarships to some refugee families to participate in the league. The church is transporting the families to and from games and practices. They were also able to provide the players with equipment such as cleats and shin guards. Sometimes, Google Translate is required to help with communication, but it’s all worth it to connect with and support these families.
“We’re trying to develop relationships with our community,” Andy says, “But through soccer, we’re able to help these families develop relationships in the community, as well.”
In The Game
Andy also coaches one of the teams in the league. When he made substitutions in a recent game, one of the players, a little girl whose family recently settled in Greenville after moving from another country, went over to the sideline for a few minutes, then came back to Andy and said, “I don’t want to take a break. I want to be in the game!”
Andy says, “I couldn’t help but think, you know, what if the church kind of had that attitude? Too often, I think the church wants to be on the sidelines watching and taking a break, but what if we had this attitude of, ‘I want to be in the game, I want to be in the middle of what’s going on, I want to be part of this mission.’”
This proactive attitude is one the GFN congregation has embraced. The church’s Life Groups have all adopted a team or two within the league. The group members rotate attending game days. They bring snacks and cheer on their teams, run concessions, and get to know the athletes’ families.
“Our Life Groups are coming,” says Andy. “They’re a part of it. They’re talking with the parents. We’re getting a ton of people, just being here, just showing up and talking to people because that’s really what I want. I want our church just to be out here and be a part of it.”
Blessing Their Community
The level of investment the GFN church members have already shown is impressive, especially considering that the church decided to move forward with the league sooner than expected.
“We weren’t quite ready to begin,” Andy says. “But things just kept falling into place for us. And so, we’re like, ‘Alright, if we’re going to do this, let’s stop waiting. Let’s just take a leap of faith, and let’s just do this.’”
One of the things that encouraged GFN to hit the ground running was a special partnership between the Church of the Nazarene and Upward Sports. As part of the Church of the Nazarene’s Blessing our Community initiative, churches in the denomination that sign up with Upward receive several benefits, including a startup grant from Upward and funding from the Church of the Nazarene. It was through a grant from the Church of the Nazarene that GFN was able to provide for the refugee families to participate in their league.
For the past several years, GFN has used the phrase “For the Upstate” to describe their focus as a church in upstate South Carolina. When Andy arrived, he wondered about how the church could expand beyond traditional Bible studies, children’s ministry, etc., to serve their community.
He says, “I couldn’t help but think, you know, what if we started a sports outreach ministry to really be present in the upstate and create a presence here in Greenville, in our neighborhood, to not just be a place for people to come to on a Sunday morning for worship. But what would it look like for us as a church to provide a service for the community? Not just to grow the church. It’s great if that’s what happens, but really, it’s all about just providing this service for our community and developing relationships with people in the neighborhoods.”
Past to Future Ministry
Andy grew up attending the youth group at GFN as a high school student and received a call into ministry during that time. After more than 20 years of ministry, serving as a youth pastor and senior pastor in other places, he and his family moved back to Greenville to care for his parents and to follow an exciting career opportunity for his wife. When a staff position opened up at GFN, Andy stepped into an interim position before officially becoming the Family Ministries Pastor. He is passionate about helping the church that ministered to him as a teenager positively impact the community today.
“With a sports ministry, we’ve got people who are on our campus at least twice a week,” Andy says. “You’ve got kids, you’ve got families, you’ve got parents, you’ve got friends, aunts and uncles, grandparents, you’ve got all these people who are coming. It’s just a great way for our church to get to know people and for people to see our church and for our church to just let our community know, ‘Hey, we see you. We’re right here. We’re right here with you.’”
GFN is still in their first season of Upward soccer, but they have big plans for the future.
Andy says, “The vision is to be a church with a sports ministry that is providing a lot of different opportunities for kids with different skill sets and talents and interests . . . Our goal is just to continue to grow and develop this ministry. This is just the first small step of what we’re hoping is a giant, long journey of sports ministry.”
Written by Laura Coulter.
