Christianlympics: Bringing People to Christ Through Sports

WORSHIP centres like churches and mosques can be found on almost every street in Nigeria today. Their popular mode of getting God's mind across to the people is the sermon, which many have come to hear over and over again.

However, while the sermon easily reaches out to the people, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Oyo State, Barrister Michael Lana, got a vision to put together Christianlympics, a sporting event in the mould of the Olympics, which would be used to channel the latent energy in youths on positive paths, in addition to bringing them closer to God in their journey through ministering to their souls during the event.

And precisely on Tuesday, September 30, 2008, stakeholders overseeing the proposed Christianlympics held a seminar in Ibadan, Oyo State, where discussions were held on how to make the games a success.

While declaring the seminar open, the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, Felix Alaba Job, said the seminar was aimed at finetuning strategies for achieving a successful competition.

Archbishop Job said the visioner of the Christianlympics, Barrister Lana, was reaching out to stakeholders to bring their expertise to bear on the planning. "And that is the reason why this seminar is holding, where eminent scholars will present papers on how to make Xtianlympics a success."

While speaking, the chairman, Main Organising Committee of the Xtianlympics, Chief Theophilus Akinyele, said the seminar was aimed at sensitising the public on the games, while attracting and winning the interest of potential volunteers, sponsors and partners.

Chief Akinyele further stated that the event, otherwise called Agape Games, wouldcombine sports, entertainment and evangelism (SEE) to bring Christians and non-Christians all over the world to meet, connect and interact in an atmosphere of joyful liberty, irrespective of race, denomination or doctrine.

In her speech, the Acting Chief Justice of Oyo State, Justice Badejoko Adeniji, commended the initiator of the event, saying it would help reduce the various vices in the society, like stealing and robbery, cultism, drug and human trafficking, prostitution, examination malpractices, among others.

Justice Adeniji charged parents to always take care of their children's material and spiritual needs at all times, saying this would help prevent them from taking to crime to survive.

Speaking on the economic implications of the Christianlympics, the Oyo State Head of Service, Dr. Ebenezer Okebukola, stated that just like the Olympics always impacts on the economy of a host country, the Christianlympics would also have its positive impact on the host state or country.

Dr. Okebukola, while commending Barrister Lana, said the Christianlympics is an emerging evangelism tool in the Christendom, aimed at unifying Christians all over the world for sound spiritual and physical development.

"It also cements friendship between Christians and non-Christians who would also be encouraged to participate actively in the events," the Oyo State Head of Service remarked.

Chief Gbadebo Falayi, while speaking, said since sports is a veritable means of bringing people together, the idea of using it to evangelise the people, especially the youth, is a good one.

He said the games are scheduled to hold between October 16 and 19, 2008, and this would then be used to plan ahead for the international version coming up in 2009.

Among the events that would hold are athletics, football, basketball, table tennis, ayo game, etc. and they would hold at the Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan.

Chief Falayi then called on wealthy individuals, corporate organisations, sport federations and even governments to support the event, as it would lead to the discovery of new talents in sports.

Thanking the people for their support, Barrister Lana, explained that the idea was to bring youths out of the streets and make them put their energy into a positive cause. He said the event would herald the discovery of new talents in different sports categories, while also producing decent and godly youths.

Source: Nigerian Tribune