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MANSFIELD—For many families in this fast-growing community on the southern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, this week’s soccer camp at TCAL Church is about quality and value. The camp lasts five days, offers bilingual instruction, and includes training from a group of professional soccer players from Ecuador.
TCAL Church sees the camp as offering an even greater opportunity.
“We are living out the gospel in very practical ways, in ways our community needs,” said Paul Mints, TCAL’s lead pastor. “We’re getting to serve them and earning the right to be able to share the good news of Christ with them. … I think we’re most like Jesus when we’re giving or when we’re serving, and this week gives us the opportunity to do both.”
For TCAL Church, the investment—including months of planning, countless hours of preparation, and enlisting “an army of volunteers” and community sponsors—has already been well worth the return.
The timing of the camp is no accident. Many Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches across Texas have planned similar outreaches to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, one of the world’s most popular sporting events that attracts the attention of millions of fans when it occurs every four years. This year’s World Cup is being held in North America, including matches in the Dallas and Houston areas, with millions of fans from across the globe expected to flood into those cities.
A majority of SBTC churches hosting outreaches are focusing on soccer camps and block parties, with some planning mass evangelism events and compassion-based ministry. To resource these churches, the SBTC hosted a pair of trainings in the spring and developed a gospel tract called GOAL that was made available for use by churches.
Tony Mathews, senior strategist for SBTC Missional Ministries, visited a pair of soccer camps this week and plans to drop in on more events before the World Cup ends in July. He said he is grateful for the churches and the behind-the-scenes workers who have labored to make the World Cup outreaches possible.
“I’m excited to see people fully engaged in these soccer camps, knowing the gospel will be clearly shared with them,” Mathews said. “Watching pastors connect with parents and build relationships that open doors to share Christ with entire families is a tremendous joy.”
Those connections are being made at places like TCAL. Parents of campers are thanking the church for offering the camp, and many are staying and striking up conversations with pastors and volunteers. On Thursday night (June 25), the church will host a World Cup watch party featuring more skills training, food trucks, and a gospel presentation. The gospel will be presented again on the last day of the camp the next morning.
“We just have such a heart for the community,” Mints said. “You really are the hands and feet of Jesus. We’re getting to speak the heart and love of Jesus.”
