Chapter 4: What is the purpose of sports?

As Christians, we have been wrestling with the purpose of sport for many years. In his book A Brief Theology of Sport, Lincoln Harvey explores this topic in far greater depth than we will here, so if you’re intrigued, I highly recommend his work.

Like many issues in the Christian life, the challenges we face regarding sport are not entirely new. While the context may have shifted, the core tensions remain the same.

As we’ve discussed before, sport can generally fall into two distinct categories: the pursuit of excellence and recreation. Both have their place in the Christian life, but it’s important to understand the differences between them. If you haven’t read the previous chapters, I encourage you to do so before continuing. Here’s a brief summary to help set the stage and as we continue, the rest of this article will be written from the perspective of someone pursuing excellence in both sport and faith.

Pursuit of Excellence

• Requires a large time commitment (2+ hours per day or 8+ hours per week)

• Involves a focused mindset on becoming the best you can be

• Demands sacrifice—of time, money, and other resources

• Characterized by discipline, dedication, and hard work

Recreation

• Involves activities with minimal sacrifice or hardship

• Primarily brings enjoyment and rest to life

• May include competition, but improvement is not a major focus

• Easily rescheduled and doesn’t dominate one’s schedule

• Mostly considered play

There’s a common misconception that sport and Christianity are at odds—but that couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when the desire to win is rightly ordered (a topic we’ll explore in the next chapter). Recently, I was listening to a podcast where Bishop Robert Barron said something that struck me:

“Whatever is, is good. Whatever is, is true and beautiful. Whatever is, reflects whose name is to be.”

This idea is both profound and deeply logical—especially for Christians. Everything God created is good by nature. Even the devil was originally created good; it was through his own free will that he became evil. The same principle applies to sport. In its essence, sport is good. It has a unique power to unite people from all walks of life—sometimes even more effectively than the Church itself. But, as with all things, how we engage with sport will determine whether it remains righteous or not.

Sport, when rightly understood, should never lead us deeper into individualism or pride. It should not become a platform for harming others in pursuit of personal achievement, nor should it push God to the margins of our lives—as if we earned our abilities apart from Him. God is the source of every good gift, including our talents, and sport should continually remind us of that truth.

Instead, sport ought to shape our character. It should teach us to put others before ourselves, to be coachable—not only on the field but in every area of life—and to understand that meaningful success always requires sacrifice. Sport has a unique way of confronting us with our limitations, revealing how little we truly control, and pointing us toward a deeper trust in God’s providence. In this way, sport becomes more than a game; it becomes a classroom where we learn habits of excellence that carry into every part of life and faith.

As we seek to define the purpose of sport, let me be clear: while I believe it can be a tremendous good in the life of a Christian, I do not believe it is necessary. God uses many platforms to shape us into who He desires us to be—it just so happens that the classroom of sport is one of the biggest in the world.

So here it is—our purpose of sport at B3rd Athletics. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Sport in the life of the Christian is an opportunity to pursue excellence while glorifying God. It should not be reduced to a mechanism for fun alone but must be understood as a path that includes suffering—both physical and emotional. Sport trains us to push beyond discomfort in a safe environment, where the cost of failure is relatively low in the grand perspective of life. Sport teaches us the value of others—those who coach us and those who labor alongside us as teammates toward a goal we could not achieve alone. It gives us a powerful understanding of what it means to be process-oriented rather than outcome-driven. We learn to control what we can and entrust the rest to God.

Sport always trains—but it never fulfills. Only God can do that.