About

We started our sports ministry programs through our new “Multipurpose Facility” in May of 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic. At the time, we were blessed to partner with a national Christian sports organization to give us a launching pad and to inspire us in our mission to reach youth and families in the community with God’s love through sports.

We had learned so much and had been challenged to adapt our program to better fill the needs of those we serve. With this in mind, we had put tremendous time, effort, and prayers into creating a high-quality program while significantly reducing costs to families.

Ignite Youth Sports Ministry was founded in 2023 as a way to run an in-house sports ministry program that met the needs of our particular community of participants, dynamics, and church environment. The contents, lessons, rules, and formatting have all been independently drafted by our program director along with input from members of our leadership team regarding rules and formatting of the particular sports offerings.

Our program offers a 3-year devotion rotation series, which has been customized for each of our current co-ed sports offerings: volleyball, basketball, pickleball, and indoor soccer. Through this series, we focus on the characteristics of athletes, disciples, and servants, taking our players through meaningful, interactive devotion lessons which we hope will connect to them in both their respective sports experiences as well as their daily lives.

We seek to engage families in our ministry through intentional relationship building as well as our unique half-time experiences, which also tie into our weekly practice devotions.

Our memory verse recognition incentive encourages players to learn scripture on a weekly basis. Our goal is to help them develop a toolbox of scripture in their heart that they can access in the future.

A member of one of our sports families said that he appreciates what we do because “we are not turning little Christians into better athletes, but helping to turn little athletes into better Christians.” It is our hope and prayer that we measure up to this impression and open the hearts of kids and families in our community in a new way!

Our youth program has offerings for kindergarten through grade 12. We incorporate flexibility into our rules to best meet the needs of each athlete wherever they are in their skills and abilities. We are an environment welcome to all, and we are light on competition while being heavy on character development and coachability.

In addition to our youth offerings, we also have Zumba and yoga multiple times per week and offer adult programs such as volleyball, pickleball, and basketball various times throughout the year.

Our program’s guiding verse is adapted from Hebrews 12:29 and states “May He be the fire that sets our hearts aflame.” Our church mission is to Invite, Inspire, and Involve. Our youth sports ministry program adds the idea of Ignite: “where kids can play with fire”, by living out our mission through the Holy Spirit. At Ignite Youth Sports, our goal is to Ignite or reignite and grow this flame in the hearts of our players, families, spectators, and our volunteers, congregation, and staff.

We hope that you retain this mission alongside us as we invite you to IGNITE the flame that comes from opening our hearts to the work of God in our lives and using sports as a vessel to do so.