With Pastor Bill from Cornerstone Church during our 2017 annual volleyball tournament. He became a close spiritual father in my life in Boston and we particularly bonded through our shared love for connecting with God through sports, play, and nature.

Throughout my life, I have participated in many different sports, whether in highly competitive settings during my collegiate rowing days or more recreational contexts such as summer days at the local park playing grass volleyball with church or neighborhood friends. In the best ways, sports has helped break down relational barriers where I could connect with so many different types of people. For instance, as an Asian American growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, being part of a sports team allowed me to experience a sense of belonging, camaraderie, and acceptance among peers in contexts where I typically felt alienated or ignored. Additionally, I was always drawn towards team sport environments because of the consistent presence of unity, mentorship, and community that were not always present when I would be left alone at home after my father had moved out and my single mother was usually working.

Thus, the structures and foundations gained from team sports experiences have helped me find and enjoy the presence of family in many different places throughout my life. I resonate strongly with what Pastor Jason preached during his community sermon at Citizens church this past Sunday in that through salvation in Jesus Christ we find ourselves with an entirely new family, with a new father, brothers, and sisters. In the ways that God has filled the gaps in my own family story, He restores my own heart with Christ’s heart for Unity in the Spirit and the passion to help build spiritual families through the avenue of play, recreation, and sports within the church. Through participation and leadership within sports ministry contexts over the past years, I have been gifted many new spiritual family members with relationships forged by experiences of fun, cooperation, challenge, camaraderie, and bonding where discipleship, mentorship, fellowship, unity, and Christ’s love were shared authentically and memorably.

As modeled in Acts 2:42-47, I love how Pastor Jason shared that Christians “cannot grow in relationship with God or become like Jesus apart from community.” Below are a few captured moments in various life seasons where environments of sports and play helped foster very rich, deep, and authentic forms of spiritual community.

CORNERSTONE CHURCH OF BOSTON

2012 - 2019