Standing up for Jesus in sport | Feat. Simon Barr

We know why we are on this earth and that is to proclaim the praises of the one who called us from darkness to marvellous life, yet, there are some dark environments that can be testing. Sporting environments can be hard to stand for Jesus, so in this podcast we are joined with Simon Barr as he speaks in to this context and gives insight as to how we can STAND FOR JESUS. 

Time Codes:

0:00 - Intro
2:59 - Is sport something christians should engage with?
10:27 - Conforming instead of informing
15:05 - How do we stand out for Jesus?
18:14 - Meeting people & making friends vs meeting people & making disciples
18:59 - How do I discern what I should and shouldn't do?
21:26 - Do I go out drinking?
22:26 - What advice would you give to disciples in sport?
27:08 - Simon's one thing...
27:23 - Summary
28:47 - Don't try building his kingdom without spending time with the King
30:03 - Conclusion 

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:59 Is sport something christians should engage with?
• 10:27 Conforming instead of informing
• 15:05 How do we stand out for Jesus?
• 18:14 Meeting people & making friends vs meeting people & making disciples
• 18:59 How do I discern what I should and shouldn't do?
• 21:26 Do I go out drinking?
• 22:26 What advice would you give to disciples in sport?
• 27:08 Simon's one thing...
• 27:23 Summary
• 28:47 Don't try building his kingdom without spending time with the King
• 30:03 Conclusion

Transcript

Wildfire, the youth branch of Hope2Families, seeking unity and community, helping people come to know Jesus, and pointing people to the local body.

It's not hard, did you kick your ups?

Right?

Have you ever done it before?

Yeah, exactly.

So, Simon, it's good to have you here on this podcast.

I was wondering if you could maybe tell people, for those who don't know you.

Tell them who you are.

Sure.

Look, firstly, super privileged to be here.

Delighted when you asked me, just to be able to share a wee bit about sport and faith, and any other questions that you have in there as well.

My name's Simon Barr.

I'm 31 years old.

I'm married to Lois, and we have a daughter called Bonnie.

And over the last 10 years, I've worked with a ministry called Coaching for Christ, seeing lives and communities transformed by Christ through sport.

And as a result of that, I've had a little bit of experience of faith and sport in the same context.

Man, whenever you said, and any other questions you want to ask me, that was dangerous.

That was dangerous.

Explain to me in workings of the Trinity, right now.

Okay, could you cut that?

No, so we're specifically thinking about standing for Jesus in sport.

Now, maybe I should be honest about this, or maybe I shouldn't.

Maybe this is one of those things like, I can't believe he just disclosed that.

But I was like, I was sitting last night and I was like, when am I doing that podcast with Simon?

And then I checked my phone and I was like, oh, it's today.

Like the night before.

If I could just have a moment of honesty as well, just to get this off my chest, I thought it was the 7th of April.

We were meeting, so I was delighted to get your midnight message.

Because I did text you a half hour ago and I was like, oh my goodness, I better text him and be like, hey, are you still good for the podcast?

Trying to do my due diligence.

So it's good to see that we're on the same page.

But I didn't know that was happening.

But actually this week, earlier this week, I was in my football changing room and I was just faced with this block eight, right?

In any other context, I find it quite easy, actually, to talk about Jesus.

And I find the bridges to those conversations come up quite naturally.

But whenever I was in the changing room, just this week, I felt like this block eight, I was like, I'm sitting with a person beside me.

I have no idea how to navigate this conversation towards Jesus.

I have no idea.

I want to, but I don't know how.

And how fitting it is that two nights later, God will remind you, hey, you're doing a podcast about Jesus in sport and how you stand for him in the sporting context.

So the first question I want to ask you is, is sports something Christians should engage with, or should we separate ourselves from this?

Now, I'm gonna get your obvious answer for that first, and then I'm gonna push back.

Absolutely.

Sport is an opportunity to reach out into our world with the message of Jesus.

That's how I see it.

If my purpose is to know God, firstly, and then to make him known to other people, I think sport is a platform that I can use, that you can use, me as a coach, you as a player, to reach my world.

I can't reach every person in the world, but I can reach those around me.

And if that's my changing room, I believe that's where Jesus is calling me to.

I feel like maybe the problematic thinking comes when we are not viewing it that way.

Right, because if I'm viewing it that way, that was the most stupidest question I've ever asked in my entire life.

Like, should Christians engage in sport?

If I have that answer in my head, the problem is people don't have that in my head.

In my head, our heads.

If I can say all that, look, it's about kingdom mindset.

It's seeing this world around us, indeed the way that Jesus sees it.

I remember listening to a sermon whenever I was in my late teens about compartmentalizing our lives, whereby faith was this little thing that we did in church on a Sunday, maybe even at the prayer meeting on a Wednesday.

But then we had work and then we had family, and then we had football or whatever else it was.

But how I came to understand it was that all these things are key and important parts of my life, but they need to be encompassed by my faith.

It has to take in everything.

So it's switching our mindset from seeing our lives in these little bubbles, these little moments, and saying, my mission here in this world is to, A, as I've already said, to know God and build intimacy with him for myself, but then to go and share that good news with others.

It's like, if I wasn't doing that for me, it would be like a man in a desert, he's found water, but he's gonna keep it to himself.

I found life in Jesus and the gospel.

I want to share it with the world around me, but we first have to see it that way.

We have to see the changing room as a mission field.

Right.

Okay, so I think it's okay, we can see, we can put up photos of countries around the world, boys and girls that need to be reached, something that we do in Coach of Her Christ.

But what about, I'll give you an example, I used to work in Domino's Pizza before I joined Coach of Her Christ.

Yeah, yeah, and every, every single time I was challenged, I was in this boxing room where we didn't fight.

Instead, we made boxes together for pizzas.

And I was so challenged at this is my world right now.

I'm not doing, I'm not a minister.

This is what I've got.

Let me make the most of it.

But you have to start seeing things that way.

Yeah, so I'm hearing that you're saying, with a specific lens or perspective, that's whenever the question arises.

Should I be doing X, Y and Z?

Sure.

But if you have a kingdom mindset, that's when answers start to become a lot easier.

And it's actually about, hey, take yourself out of this context of sport and look at every context the same.

So by taking a step back and seeing it for what it is, an opportunity to advance the kingdom of God.

And I think many of us are, as you're saying, compartmentalizing sport as something other than that.

And that's why it's so difficult.

I had this guy, I don't know if you've ever experienced this.

I played with a guy once, a guy, a lot of respect for, Christian, but 15 years older than me.

And I remember we played this little charity match.

And he said to me at halftime, Simon, leave your faith at the sideline.

And that disturbed me.

Even where I was as young, I was like, I don't think that's the message of the kingdom.

I don't think I can leave my savior, my faith on the sideline.

I need to bring that onto the pitch with me.

But there is that mindset out there of compartmentalizing and separation.

That's not how I see it.

I don't think that's what God's trying to describe for us in the word either.

Yeah.

And mentioning the word, distilling everything that you just said there.

Jesus' words is seek you first, the kingdom of God, and all of these things will be added onto you.

That is literally exactly what you're saying.

Seek his kingdom first.

All of these things will be added onto you.

It's kind of minding this.

Every time.

Look, even going into Colossians in three, see whatever we do.

See if you're spending some time right now, you take out the sports context, you're doing your dissertation for university.

Do it like you're doing it for Jesus.

If you're going to play this Saturday, go and play like it's for him.

Because the things that are valuable to us in this world, I think are valuable to him too.

Man, if he's going to every hair in my head, how much are my things that are important to me, not all so important to him.

And so I think it's seeing God as that loving father who wants the best for us as well.

Man, it's all about perspective.

Sorry if I'm talking too much, but if I give another quick story, and I've always had quite an evangelistic mindset.

And I remember sitting outside the Tesco's car park across from Domino's, where I used to work, and saying, God, why would you not just give me an opportunity to share, like give me something really good, like make it easy for me today to share my faith with others.

So 10 minutes later, I was sharing my testimony in the boxing room with 10 of my colleagues.

But it wasn't that God gave me a new opportunity.

He just said, Simon, open your eyes.

This is what you have in front of you.

And I have had to live with that every day.

And that's challenging.

Because when I go to the hairdressers, Simon, open your eyes.

This is your mission field.

When I'm on the plane, Simon, open your eyes.

Who's that person sitting beside you?

And that's tough.

I quite like talking to people, but the reality is you're getting pushed out of your comfort zone to do that.

I think that's what God's calling us to do.

Yeah.

I call them Simon stories because you have no short supply of them.

And I think that is an encouragement for me, definitely, but it should be encouragement to all of us that the stories that you tell or the stories that you have to tell are a reflection of the faith that you've lived.

And you have lived such a faithful life, and that is the reason why you have so many stories.

And I think if people resonate with me, I think we're maybe lacking of stories of that in our own life in a sporting context.

And maybe there's a correlation to a lack of faith.

And actually, if you want stories to tell, which I think we all do, kingdom stories like you, yeah, we need to step out of our comfort zone and live in faith.

But what about if I'm looking in and I'm seeing other followers of Jesus, and they're just not being a witness to Christ.

I think that the sport is having more of an impact on them than they are having an impact on the sport.

I think that their sport is actually becoming an idol to them, a distraction to them.

And I think they're actually becoming a part of the darkness and they're conforming.

Would you like to speak into that?

Sure.

Look, this is real.

And can I say on this, I don't want to bring any condemnation to anybody today.

We're free and we're blessed.

And my life is a story of grace and mercy.

And man, the older I get, the more I realize I need both of those things, day in, day out.

If you're struggling in that context, and I've had friends seen it happen, whereby they're being conformed by their environment other than being salt and light in their environment.

If that's you, I would ask you to run from what's causing you to stumble.

Not forever, not permanently, but step out of what's conforming you, because that's not going to get easier the longer that you stay in that.

Take time to focus on your intimacy with Christ.

Build your faith, and that's a topic all in itself.

How do I build my faith?

How do I focus in deeper in prayer?

Grow my intimacy with my father?

How do I meditate on his word in a deeper level?

That's a whole different topic, and we can go into that as well if you want to.

But I would say, step out so that you can step back in.

It's not a story, I give up football, I need to do this.

I need to, Simon's telling me to run away.

I'm saying, take a break, focus on the kingdom, focus on the relationship you have with your father.

Strengthen, be strengthened so that you can step back in.

If you're in it, and you're struggling a little bit, but you're doing okay, I would say, stand strong, stand out.

That would be my two terms.

Stand strong.

Sorry if I'm, I just want to get the words right on this.

If I get my mindset right, this is about the kingdom.

These people around me are lost.

Here's the reality, they're going to a lost eternity.

If I see that, if I have the love of God in my heart, I'm going to make an impact on their life.

I'm going to be bold enough to step outside of my comfort zone, speak to them, pray with them, be, before you get to all that, you have to get to know them.

Maybe in my younger life, that's what I was less good at.

I was pretty good at talking, saying, but was I being relational?

Did I care about what was going on in that guy's home life?

Did I care that him and his girlfriend had broken up the week before and now he was difficult?

Don't know how much of that I did.

So stand strong.

Stand out.

Where I would go with that is be excellent.

Be excellent.

And I don't know if we fully grasp that.

It's something that we're big on in Coaching for Christ.

You're gonna be a football coach?

You'd be a good one.

You'd be the best.

Why?

Do everything you do as if you're doing it for Jesus.

You're gonna play football?

Go and do it to the best.

Train with all you've got.

You'd be the best trainer.

Doesn't mean you're gonna be the best player.

Excellence isn't perfection, but you're giving your best.

I'm giving my best.

So I'm challenged by that day in, day out.

Stand strong.

Stand out.

There is so much in that.

I definitely think that there are individuals who are listening or watching to this that need to know that you actually need to take a step out.

Step out to then step back in.

And I think you're getting that stirred up in your own heart that you have been impacted by your environment as opposed to being an impact, and you've been conformed as opposed to being informed, and you actually need to take a step out, to take a step in.

And there are those of us who are in there, and we need to stand strong, and we need to stand out.

And that is so good.

Could you maybe give some helpful, practical tools as to how we be salt and light, and how we actually do step out?

Like I'm talking like into the nitty gritty.

I'm going to a training session tonight.

How would I do it?

I'm going to a matching Saturday.

I'm going to a running club.

I'm going to hockey, rugby.

Right, here's an example.

Easy one.

Teammates write out all their names, start praying for them.

Three players a night.

That's before you get the training.

You pray for someone for six weeks.

See by the end of it, you can't help but love them.

And that love will pour out onto the pitch.

That means you go and start taking an interest in people, build relationship with them.

And here's the thing.

I remember going to do my EFAB license about four years ago, and I did that, prayed for the people around me.

Inside the fourth day of the course, I was able to pray with multiple guys, weren't believers, who had stuff going on in their life.

But where does that come from?

I think that comes back to the mindset.

Write their names out, pray for them.

Be, there's a word, be intentional with people.

See whenever your teammate comes, you cook United next week, teammate comes, he tells you something, don't forget it.

Remember it, hold it, bring it to God, because he's not gonna do it.

He doesn't know Jesus.

You bring it to God for him.

And then come back, and see how the prayers have been answered.

And secondly, I think outside of that, as I said, be intentional, be bold.

I'm saying Stan Strong, be bold and go and share your faith with others.

Can I just say on that, I don't mean to take away from the question you've asked.

Sometimes to be bold has a cost attached to it.

I joined a club on their 17 level, good side, really enjoyed playing for them.

But because of my boldness, I probably didn't create a lot of friends in that environment.

And for that season, that was difficult, because I think everybody wants to play football with their friends.

But what I had was a group of teammates, but I did have a friendly connection with them.

And that was perhaps because I was being bold.

And I'm not in the negative sense.

I was very sure that I wasn't going to be conformed on a negative sense.

And let's face it, some of them didn't like that.

And maybe you're in a situation where you've tried to be bold and it hasn't worked out for you.

That's okay.

God has better things.

That is like impact.

Number one, I'm gonna be doing that.

Right.

That's so good.

Writing the names down.

Simple.

I'm praying for them, but that is powerful and that is effective.

But for me, I just feel like super convicted right now.

And I think for too long, not just in this context, but in a lot of context, I've been trying, I've been meeting people and trying to make friends, as opposed to meeting people and trying to make disciples.

And there's like huge difference to that.

And I almost view the, well, in order to get them to be a disciple, they need to be my friend first.

It's like, it's just doesn't work that way.

And I just feel challenged, right?

Cause I've been going in being like, to my teammates being like, I wanna be friends with them.

No, no, no, teammate is the context.

Turn your teammates into disciples.

That's your mission.

Well, that's so good.

How do we as athletes or sports people discern what we should and shouldn't get involved with, right?

I can think of scenarios in matches where there's a scrap going on, right?

Do I get in there and defend my teammate?

Even if I wanted to, I think I'd be useless, but you know, am I getting in there or not?

This is a good, this is a great question.

And it probably takes some nuance, because when you say that, everyone has a scenario of what they did, right?

What was their thing that they perhaps struggled with?

So we automatically go to, I'm gonna lose my temper here in a brawl.

That wasn't my problem.

I was quite, I'm gonna help everybody, and that's fine.

I'm gonna be salt and light in that situation.

But you know what I struggled with?

Was I was arrogant, particularly when I was younger, and I let people know in the pits that I was arrogant.

So I wasn't angry, but I was arrogant.

And I say that because I think there's that, you can get that quick presumption that it's boys want to fight and do this and that, or cheat.

And I think if that's the question, I don't wanna cheat.

I wanna play fair.

One of the things I was chatting to my under-17s about last week is I always prayed when I played, and I don't know if that's a common occurrence.

I asked my team, and there's many Christians within the team, and none of them said they prayed when they played.

Maybe that's why I wasn't that good.

I was closing my eyes the whole time.

And look, I made a point of always honoring God in the moment, win, lose or draw.

My goodness, I didn't always get it right, but I suppose I recognize that need.

See, when I'm playing football, firstly, as a gift, God has blessed me with the time, the ability, the skill to go and do that.

So I need to honor Him in that, no matter how well that I do.

Man, that's so good.

And I love the wisdom there.

This is nuanced, and I knew that this isn't to get a hook and sink line answer.

It doesn't work that way, because that's not how life works.

It's very nuanced.

So thinking in terms of that nuance, if I'm speaking from a football context, or post-match, post-tournament, post whatever it might be, do I go out with the lads?

Do I go to the clubhouse?

Do I go out for a drink?

What about discernment in that area?

What advice would you give?

Stand strong, take your stand.

That's very simple what I'm gonna say on that.

Everyone has their different view.

I know you did a podcast recently, actually on Christianity and alcohol.

Everyone has their own views.

For me, stand strong.

That part of the environment is not one that I'm going to be associated with.

Partly because of the culture that I'm in.

And also for me, I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I have other things to be doing.

Stand strong in those moments.

So what other advice would you give to people who are serving Jesus in the context of sport?

Umbrella.

Umbrella statements.

So this is an umbrella.

I'm actually gonna take it slightly further.

The older I get, the more I recognize that I am totally and utterly useless without Jesus.

He is everything.

And I am poor and I am broke without intimacy with him.

If I could tell you another quick Simon story.

In 2013, I traveled to Haiti on my first mission trip.

I was invited to a prayer meeting, and there I stood with, I had a nice shirt on, and nice shoes, a wallet in my right pocket and my phone in my left pocket, and a nice watch on.

Prayer meeting started at 6 a.m.

and finished at 12 noon.

And there was 300 people there.

Many children, many people who were very sick.

Most of them didn't have shoes.

We weren't in a building.

We were underneath a mango tree.

So much broke in this.

But I was the poorest person there.

The poorest person there.

In one of the poorest countries in the world.

Why?

Because they were spiritually rich.

See, the fruit of the spirit, the fruit that comes from knowing Jesus, pouring out of them.

I was bankrupt.

Because I was living a comfortable life.

The reality is, I still live a relatively comfortable life.

I say God's good because he is.

But something in there, those people had intimacy with Jesus.

I met a lady who had lost her husband, three children, and had been diagnosed with a different type of cancer for a number of years at this point in time.

I met her, and she smiled.

She was full of joy.

Why?

She was intimate with God.

She was intimate with Jesus.

See, if you want to make an impact in sport, you want to make an impact in your family or work, get close to Jesus.

It's the only answer.

That, and I'm sorry if that is cliché, or that doesn't come across as very deep, but I am telling you, it is the only way.

It is the only way.

You want to reach your work, you want to reach the guys on the football pitch, your personal life, your walk with Jesus has to be like this.

Father and son, father and daughter, tight.

And if you're struggling, step aside, get close to Jesus.

Worship them.

Don't read his word, meditate on his word.

The blessed man, meditate on God's word, get stuck in.

Fast, deny yourself, because he's so worth it.

If I want to be impactful in my world, I have to bring the creator of all things into that world, the sporting context.

I've been teaching the kids this week about Colossians 1.

This is just amazing.

All things made by Jesus, through Jesus and for Jesus.

All things.

That means by Jesus, that's his identity as our creator.

Through Jesus, that's his power.

To be able to speak the stars into existence and for Jesus, that's purpose.

I was made for Jesus.

That's why I must have a kingdom mindset.

That's why if I'm going to go into the football or any sporting context, any context you want to pick, I have to be set apart for him.

I have to stand strong, and I have to stand on him.

And I need to be close to him.

And can I just say, I am still working on that.

This is not me saying, I have this nailed.

This is me as a broken person, saying, I need him more and more.

You want to be more impactful?

Get close to the Saviour.

Because really, where does the power come from?

Where does the transformation come from?

Where does the discipleship come from?

It comes from Jesus.

For me, that's what it's all about.

And I can't get away from that.

The last thing that I would ask for you is that you come up with just one thing.

I have in my head one thing that stood out to me.

But one thing that you want the listeners of this to take away out of everything that we've talked about, one thing.

And while you're thinking about that, I'll just summarize everything that we've talked about.

So whenever it comes to a sports context, it's about placing the sports context with every single other context.

And looking at those contexts with the exact same lens and perspective, a kingdom mindset, a kingdom lens, a kingdom perspective, seek first his kingdom, and all of these things will be added on to you.

And I think that there may be a challenge for a lot of us to actually take a step out of the environment that we're in that's impacting us so that we might eventually come back and take a step in to impact that environment.

And stand strong and stand out for Jesus.

It comes down to that.

And if you want to see people saved in your environment, which we all should, start praying for them, writing their names down, start being intentional about them.

This isn't complicated.

No one's got a special algorithm.

It's just be there, be present, have a kingdom mindset, pray for them, stand out, stand strong.

And also, it all comes down to your intimacy with Jesus.

Are you exuding Christ, your saviour?

And are you showcasing the fruits of the spirit?

If you're doing that, your environment can't do anything but change.

So, Simon, one last thing for them.

Don't try and build this kingdom without spending time with the king.

It's ultimately what I would say.

Any context, sport, football pitch, the hockey pitch, work, home, raising a child.

Get your mindset right.

Yes, we're building God's kingdom, but don't miss out on spending time with the king.

He wants to sit with us.

He wants to know us.

Intimacy is the key to unlock.

Intimacy is the key.

And we're all on this journey together.

There's no...

And please, I really, really want to get that across for anyone listening.

If you're not intimate, you can be intimate.

And it's small steps.

It's not this sanctification.

Yes, at times there can be huge changes in our life when the Holy Spirit turns our world upside down, but for the most part, it's just wee steps.

Let's all, me included, let's take wee steps together to impact the sporting world around us.

And while we do that, while we do things for the kingdom, let's spend time with the King.

Simon, thank you.

And we'll see everybody for the next podcast.