October 1, 2026
McDONOUGH, Ga. — Families across Georgia are looking for places where their children can play sports, build friendships and learn character. Three Georgia Baptist churches are using that opportunity to build relationships, share the gospel, and connect families to the life of the church.
Salem Baptist Church in McDonough, First Redeemer Church in Cumming, and Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins have developed thriving sports outreach ministries that intentionally combine athletics with evangelism, devotions, small groups, and discipleship.
“Our new Christian classes have been filled with families who've come through our sports ministry recently. We're seeing more families now than previously that are visiting and enjoying the church,” said Kada Rapoza, Salem’s recreation pastor.
Salem offers soccer, baseball, and softball. The church has 560 soccer players and 450 softball and baseball players. Soccer has 120 volunteers, while baseball and softball have 75 volunteers. Some players attend Salem, some attend other churches, and others have no church connection.
Salem’s ministry strategy intentionally focuses on coaches. The church’s life groups pray for coaches, contact them weekly to ask for prayer requests and needs, and visit them in person every other week to invest spiritually in their lives.
“The relational equity is what we're kind of working on,” Rapoza said.
Salem also has growing spring and summer men’s softball leagues. It’s a way to reach men who will not come to church on Sunday but will come play softball at a church, “which, you know, is also talking about Jesus.” Recently, five men started coming to Salem because they got connected through softball.
“We would not have been able to build some really cool relationships with men and their families if we didn't play softball, which is great,” Rapoza said.
Second Baptist has 560 participants and 150 volunteers in spring baseball and softball, 550 in fall soccer, 180 in adult volleyball, and more than 600 participants and 200 volunteers in winter basketball.
Coaches are trained and lead devotionals before games, after games, and throughout the season. Some coaches attend Second Baptist, and some do not, but relationships are built through consistent communication.
“Sometimes they want to talk, or sometimes they need help,” said Jesse Ramirez, Victory Sports director at Second Baptist.
Second Baptist also holds discipleship classes to train referees and umpires.
“They're kind of our leaders during game time,” Ramirez said.
The classes teach them how to handle conflict during games without compromising their Christian witness. Church leaders also intentionally spend personal time with them.
At First Redeemer, coaches are trained and give devotions over the course of the season. They also share testimonies.
Kane Gonzales, pastor of sports ministry at First Redeemer, said the devotions and testimonies help coaches build real connections with families.
Those relationships have led to changed lives.
One hits home for Ramirez. Sports ministry changed his life.
At 21, he moved to Warner Robins from Los Angeles in 2011. An invitation to play ball eventually led to him accepting Christ. The sports director at Second Baptist invited him to church, to his home, to Bible studies, and to coach a team.
“It meant a lot because I didn't have much family background,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez never imagined he would go from getting saved through the ministry to coaching and eventually directing it.
“Sports is what drew me, and I thought it was cool,” he said.
At Salem, one family first came for T-ball two seasons ago. Their 5-year-old son asked his dad to go to T-ball, or “baseball church.” The family began attending church, even though the wife was not connected to religion.
“We did an outreach event through the church, and the wife ended up accepting the Lord during that event, which is really cool,” Rapoza said.
The whole family was baptized a couple of weeks later, and the father now serves as a guitarist on the worship team.
At First Redeemer, a family came for sports, then brought their children to children’s ministry activities.
“They volunteer in the kids ministry and Vacation Bible School, and they coach just about every sport we do now,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales also shared about a man who was saved a couple of years ago through soccer.
“He had never served and didn't know what it meant. His words were, ‘I've never served God before, and every Saturday I come here. I can just tell it's bringing me closer to Him just by volunteering my time. I've never experienced anything like it,’” Gonzales said. “We know that our volunteers get a unique experience when they serve.”
Ramirez sees sports ministry as the front lines.
“We attract people through sports, and they have a good experience, and then that leads them off onto the next thing,” he said. “I feel like we're like those relationship connectors.”
Ramirez said that to build a successful sports ministry, everyone must know their role and realize they are part of a team loved by the perfect coach, Jesus Christ.
Gonzales said sports is an opportunity to point people to Christ and away from self.
“We have an opportunity for our coaches to kind of live that and show what it's like to be different,” Gonzales said.
Rapoza said sports give families a safe environment where they do not have to worry about inappropriate language or the people around them.
“It allows us to have a wonderful opportunity to talk about Jesus a lot,” he said.
Ramirez’s advice to other churches that might want to do sports ministry is not to get so caught up in the sports. If you love God, you love people, and if sports attract 100 people, then do whatever it takes so they can hear the gospel.
Rapoza advises churches to start small.
“It’s not expensive,” he said. “If you just bring a ball and invite families, it opens up an avenue of conversations.”
He said there is nothing special about sports by itself, but it can be a powerful tool.
“Families will do anything to put their kids in sports,” Rapoza said.
Gonzales said churches willing to walk alongside families and children will find sports ministry worth the effort.
“No other ministry will connect with your area better than sports,” he said. “Sports is a universal language.”
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