Written by: Aubrey Coleman
REACH is a movement made up of sports, recreation, and fitness (SR&F) leaders in local churches. REACH desires to catalyze the movement of God in their becoming more gospel-centered and more reproductive disciple-makers. At the REACHgathering, the intention is to inspire, affirm, equip, and connect SR&F leaders toward this end.
The REACHgathering typically holds two main sessions and a wide variety of track sessions. There is also a forum called “Wrestling at REACH”, where a current issue in sports, rec, and fitness is brought up and wrestled with through panel presenters, tabled discussions, and audience participation. In addition to the planned sessions, there are multiple activities and opportunities to connect leaders with one another.
The 8th REACHgathering took place this year March 28-29 in Houston, TX. CEDE SPORTS was there as a Foundational Partner and Sponsor. To give you a window into how sports, rec, and fitness leaders have been spurred on and encouraged by their time at the REACHgathering, we reached out to a few attendees.
Don Weyrick was one attendee and his involvement with sports, rec, and fitness ministry looks like currently running a Parachurch sports ministry named P4E (Playing4Eternity) on a volunteer basis, working towards full time ministry opportunities, and involvement with REACH teams. After past REACH attendances, Don says he will be at every REACH possible from here on out. He was most encouraged by making more SR&F ministry connections and having conversations with people from different ministries. At this year’s REACHgathering Don made particularly memorable connections with Chris from England, Vitaly from Kazakhstan, Bhim and Ryan doing refugee ministry in Syracuse, as well as reconnecting with Aimable from Brudan, and meeting Trevor from Truitt Seminary who was so eager to talk about God.
One of Don’s takeaways from the REACHgathering was, “do not get in God’s way.” He explains, “I usually try to avoid speaking in big public forums, but after being a part of Wrestling at REACH, I was strongly encouraged by many people afterwards to do more [public speaking] in the future.” Additionally, he took to heart a phrase from Pastor Trammell, “God’s grace will keep pace with everything you face!” For anyone who is interested in attending the REACHgathering next year, Don shares, “REACHgathering is a safe place to come and get exactly what you need–refreshment, knowledge, wisdom, networking, prayer, ideas, and encouragement. The connections you make and the conversations you have will be life changing and go way beyond just one gathering. Being around so many like-minded individuals is amazing and something I need every year.”
Another attendee, Jed Roberts, is a youth sports ministry pastor in Phoenix, AZ. At the REACHgathering, he hoped to grow in his ability to help train and support other leaders and he was encouraged to connect with other sports ministry leaders across the country. One of his greatest helps from the gathering was having conversations in between sessions–hearing about the successes and struggles of others. Jed shares that the REACHgathering is a, “great opportunity to network & connect with people who “live” in your world,” as many times sports ministry can feel isolating. He adds that the REACHgathering provides a space to, “ask questions and gather free resources.”
Lastly, we hear from Neil Muniz, who serves his church in a full-time vocational capacity as an Associate Pastor over all the Sports, Rec & Fitness Ministries (the SportsLife Pastor). His ministry runs youth leagues, has over 25 group fitness classes weekly, has adult softball and has Tae kwon do ministries. After his first REACHgathering in 2021, he was certain he would be a regular attendee. His expectation and hope for this year’s gathering was to build on relationships made and to stay sharp in how to do ministry. One takeaway for him was appreciating the first-class leadership and gospel-centeredness among the CEDE SPORTS and CSRM leadership. He was encouraged to model after that and to go back to his roots of establishing a strong prayer ministry. He was reminded that the enemy does not want this to happen, which is exactly why he needs to keep at it.
Neil also hoped to continue sharing his SR&F ministry passion to those he was able to bring along with him. He was grateful to have his REACHgathering invitation accepted by another local sports minister in his community. They can leave with all that they learned and were reminded about in SR&F ministry with hopes of spurring one another on locally. Neil’s encouragement to anyone who might be interested in attending REACHgathering next year would be: “We do enough on our own. We need to lean on others in the SR&F community who have been where we are and who can encourage us to keep the faith and to press on. REACHgathering provides the space to do that. Just make it happen.”
If you are interested in hearing more about next year’s gathering in Charlotte, NC you can click here.