FGA Sports Fellowship

Due to the heavy traffic along Jalan Kuchai Lama, participants to the seminar arrived around 2.40 pm. In total, there were 36 participants and 9 Sports Fellowship committee members who attended. After resolving some problems with the laptop and a time of worship, Pastor Phillip delivered his message at 3 pm.

He started with the topic ‘pray’ and then proceeded to a small group exercise where groups of 3 people, each with a strip of paper called VIP list were told to write down names of 3 unsaved people. Each person would then pray for the names on each strip. Phillip spoke on how every prayer for unsaved friends is heard by god, how his own friend whom he prayed for was saved many years later. Quoting Colossians 4: v 2, 3, 4, he stated how prayer opens doors for the Gospel to be proclaimed, and clearly.

From his own experience, he related how “play “, the way we behave is important before we can proclaim ’say’ the gospel. He showed how he started and maintained a long lasting friendship with his two neighbors by firstly making the first move of exchanging plants with them. From that initial move, they became so familiar that they would talk for hours in the middle of the street. Eventually there came a time when he had an opportunity to share the gospel in a conversation that was “full of grace and seasoned with salt” so that it was not offensive to the other.

Phillip then touched on the topic of sports in friendship evangelism. He stressed how ‘ competition’ in sports is actually good in that it is a word meaning ‘com’ (together) and ‘petere’ (strive). Here in sports competition, people come together in a relationship thru sports and in their performance, each uses his god given talent to the best of his ability to bring out the best in the other person / competitor. Hence, all competition in sports is rooted in our identity in Christ. Rom 12: 1 – 3, Matt 22: 39

We ended when ck yap gave a brief exhortation to the participants to come and help out (a volunteers) in the 1st May Family Sports Carnival 2008, an event where we can put into practice Friendship Evangelism.

Weng Hong.

Organising Commitee
FGA Sports Fellowship
www.fga.com.my/sports/

Ps Philip sharing in Friendship Evangelism seminar

Participants warming up…

Learned new song - Kentucky Fried Chicken!

Testimony time by former national athlete Kenny Martin

By Ps Philip Devadas

Jesus said “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”(Mark 16:15). We cannot ignore the fact that we are to get out of our traditional methods of inviting people into our settings with its walls and buildings. A paradigm shift is necessary, going out of our comfort zone and into the world.

An obvious place for the world outside the church setting is our work place, residential neighborhood, recreational facilities and not forgetting sports arena. People are not interested to go to church these days. There are too many things to do outside. Entertainment outside of the church seem to get the upper hand in the lives of people. So, to put a signboard at the entrance of the church “all are welcome” doesn’t seem to do the trick in bringing people.

Take a ball to a playground full of children and toss it out and in no time at all you’ll see a whole bunch of kids running after it and kicking about. No invitation is needed. Greeting our neighbors “Mr Chong, good morning” or “En Ali, how do you do,” exchanging plants with “Mr Gopal” your next door neighbor or just going for a “teh tarik” with a friend is not a hard thing to do. The amazing thing is that, it is in this setting that we have the greatest opportunity to share the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I took my son out to play football at the neighborhood field 5 years ago and now I’m involved in the work of community transformation through sports. We need to pray and keep a lookout for opportunities wherever we are. Start by building relationship and friendship with people around you and live a life of example unto the Lord and He will open the doors eventually to share His love. The person God will use, is you who are available.

Find out more about reaching out to friends in Ps Philip’s Friendship Evangelism seminar on 29/3. Click here for more information.

Greetings in Jesus’ matchless name!

Thank you for giving us the time to share with you our vision for the FGA Family Sports Carnival 2008 (FSC) 1st May 2008.We had a great time last year and we feel ready to involve our non Christian friends and family members in this year’s event.

We believe that this FSC 2008 can be an effective platform for us to reach and touch the community around us. From one viewpoint it will give others a chance to see what a vibrant and diverse community of believers we are.From another viewpoint, it can help us to learn how we can be witnesses for Christ even in our recreational activities.

Our approach to this event over next few weeks leading up to the FGA FSC 2008 is to open to our mind to the concept of Friendship Evangelism-building bridges through friendships with the purpose of reaching out to others for Christ.

On the 29th March, we are organising a Friendship Evangelism Seminar which is opened to all FGA members. In the seminar, the speaker will share how Christians around the world use sports as an evangelistic platofrm to reach out friends and the community at large for Christ.”Sports” is a useful model for Friendship Evangelism. We would like to encourage you to come.

This year we have restructured the sport tournament into 2 categories to Home Fellowship (HF) Championship and Life Ministry (LM) Championship to cater to the big and diverse group of FGA members. With this, we hope the other language services, various ministries and church staff able to participate together in the event.It is indeed a big challenge and what a great joy if we able see everyone coming together in unity to one mission!

Another difference this year is that we are encouraging HF/LMs to host a post FSC Celebration Dinner to thank members and non-Christian friends who were involved, for taking part. During the dinner, medals won and certificate can be given out or even share photos taken during the event by the members.This can be a great way to introduce your HF to our friends.

Once again thank you and we look forward to seeing you,your family and your friends at the FGA Family Sports Carnival 2008!

FSC 2008 Committee

Have you ever felt that when it comes to fulfilling the great commission of going out and making disciples among men, you don’t really know how?

Have you ever said to yourself that the best I can ever do to reach out to someone is to invite him to church?

Do you feel inadequate, unqualified and clueless when it comes to sharing Christ with others?

If you answered yes to one or all the above questions, than this seminar is for you.

Friendship Evangelism is so simple to understand yet so effective in touching people for Christ. Being a friend is something we can all do. Understanding how that can impact the lives around you can make all the difference in fulfilling your calling to make disciples among men.

Come and hear Ps Philip Devadass share how he uses sports as an evangelistic platform. His testimony can help change the way you think about your lifestyle choices and get you on the path to successful evangelism.

Click here for details on the seminar