A recent Lifeway survey found that 40 percent of evangelical pastors believe it’s never okay to miss church for sports. Only 25 percent of churchgoers agreed. Meanwhile, a study in Review of Religious Research found that among churches experiencing declining attendance, the most commonly cited reason was children’s sports on Sundays.
Sport is a wonderful joy. As Jeremy Treat puts it, “Sport is more than a game, less than a god, and when transformed by the gospel, can be received as a gift to be enjoyed forever.” So, what do we do about sports on Sunday mornings?
Each of us has a knee-jerk response to that question. It might be informed by your upbringing, your tradition, your community, or your past or present decisions. But all of life is to be arranged under Christ — including our sports. How can those of us who love sports — whether we’re pastors, parents, or athletes — consider carefully how to make faithful, godly, and wise decisions about sports on Sunday mornings?
We Need the Gathering
Christian athletes will rightly see their sport as an act of whole-life worship (Romans 12:1). But the question of whether we miss corporate worship in order to play can be harder to navigate.
The temptation to miss church is not a new one. Two thousand years ago, people were finding reasons to miss the gathering of God’s local community. Yet Hebrews 10:24–25 speaks with clarity and urgency:
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
One of the most important habits in the Christian life is the regular gathering of God’s people to sing, pray, sit under God’s word, and receive the Lord’s Supper. It is vital for our spiritual health. And God has designed this weekly gathering not only to sustain our faith but also to make us a means of encouragement to others.
Last year I ran a marathon. Though the race was long, the presence of others made all the difference. The cheers from the crowd, the shared pace, the grunts of encouragement from fellow runners — all of it helped me to press on. That’s what the weekly gathering is: an essential encouragement for weary saints, a mutual “Keep going!”
The gathering is also a guardrail. Elsewhere in Hebrews, the author issues a sobering warning: Isolation leaves us vulnerable to sin’s deceit (Hebrews 3:13). The local church is one of God’s primary means of preserving us week by week, keeping us anchored to the gospel as we await the coming Day. It’s like the marshals during the marathon: pointing the way, keeping me on course, reminding me how far I’ve come and how far I’ve yet to go.
The Sabbath law may be fulfilled in Christ, but the command to meet regularly as God’s people under God’s word still stands. This isn’t legalism. It’s a lifeline. Weekly worship is fuel for the journey and joy for the soul.
We Need All of the Body
Most Christian athletes I know agree that the Christian life isn’t meant to be lived alone. So, they find ways to engage with Christian community at other points in the week — through youth groups, perhaps, or a midweek huddle with fellow sportspeople. Christ, though, came so that all his people can be “one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
When our regular rhythms only include Christians who share our age, background, or calling, we miss out on something essential. The apostle Paul reminds us, “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. . . . As it is, there are many parts, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:18, 20). The church is not a social club of like-minded peers. It’s a spiritual body — diverse, interdependent, and designed by God for our good. As we gather, we encourage one another by being part of a body made up of different parts. Young and old. Rich and poor. Black and white. The fit and the less so.
We lose out on many blessings when we don’t meet week by week with those different from us. First, we do not learn how to love those different from us, as Paul urges us to (Colossians 3:11–14). Second, we miss an opportunity to display the unifying and reconciling power of the gospel to the watching world, as they see believers loving one another across divides of background and life situation. Caring for those we have little in common with shows God’s love most plainly (Matthew 5:43–48). Third, we miss the wisdom and perspective that come from others’ varied experiences. This includes the blessing of being with people who don’t treat you differently because you are an athlete.
One former Premier League football player I spoke to reflected on this with joy: “When my family joined a new church for the first time, we met people who didn’t care about me because of football. They cared about my wife, my children, and me. For the first time in ten years, we felt like we belonged somewhere.”
To run the race well, we need the whole body. That requires deliberate rhythms, making time to gather, worship, and grow alongside brothers and sisters of every kind, not just the sporty ones.
Consider the Issue Carefully
We can see why Hebrews 10:25 calls us not to “neglect” meeting together. But what does neglect look like? For some, chronic illness or unavoidable work schedules mean scattered attendance is not neglect but necessity. For others, especially in the sporting world, absence may be a choice — and choices reveal priorities. There’s no minimum attendance number in the verse, but there is a clear warning. The line between unavoidable absence and spiritual drift can be subtle, but with Scripture’s wisdom and the Spirit’s leading, that line is not indiscernible.
So, consider how church leaders, professional athletes, and laypeople might examine sports on Sundays with care.
1. Church Leaders
First, pastors can speak personally with members of their churches where sport appears to be in direct competition with attending gatherings. Understanding their situations, desires, and decision-making can help you best know how to counsel and exhort them to be present whenever possible as the whole church gathers.
Second, pastors can preach and teach in such a way that gathering with God’s people, for both adults and children, becomes a natural priority. Through the pulpit and other teaching settings, they can help the church see that meeting together is not a peripheral habit but a central means of grace vital for perseverance and joy in the Christian life.
Third, some pastors may be able to adjust service times for both discipleship and missional reasons. Just as it might be unwise for churches in university cities to meet early in the morning, so in places where youth sport dominates Sunday mornings, other service times may serve the flock better.
I live and pastor in England, where over six million children play an organized sport each week — most on Sunday mornings. Much amateur adult sport happens then too. So, when we planted our church, we chose to meet in the afternoon, in part to make it easier for us to invite those who were more likely to be on the sports field on a Sunday than in church. We also wanted to make it as simple as possible for Christian parents to train their children that gathering with God’s people is not optional; it’s essential. In centuries past, churches adapted worship times to suit workers. We may need the same creativity today — not only to disciple Christian athletes but also to reach the sporting world with the gospel.
2. Professional Athletes
I’ve also served with a ministry discipling elite athletes, many of whom must compete on Sunday mornings if they hope to compete at all. For them, Sunday is often a workday — just like it is for some servers, nurses, or first responders. Their occupation brings real tension with church rhythms.
Even so, the demands of competition are no excuse for neglect. It simply means they must be more intentional. Being rooted in a church where they are known — and know others — is indispensable. Doing this in person is also clearly the ideal. While on the road, listening to sermons from their own congregation, joining small groups online, and keeping regular pastoral contact can all help guard against neglect. When not traveling, finding ways to physically be present with others from their church — even if their work occasionally prevents them from attending the whole church gathering — is something to discuss with their church leaders.
3. Amateur Athletes and Parents
For most families, the challenge is practical rather than professional. Some guard against neglect by finding leagues that play on Saturdays or by attending later services. Others agree on a maximum number of Sundays they will miss each season, discussing that commitment with their pastor and then the coach. For some families, however, the best step may be to make significant changes, even scaling back their involvement in sport if it is proving detrimental to their life with a church family. Finding the best approach is not always easy, but it is possible — and sharing what works can encourage others with the same struggle.
So, what should you do? Begin by asking, “What does faithfulness to God look like in our situation?” Then work out what changes might be required. Pray. Involve your pastor. Talk honestly with your kids. Invite brothers and sisters you trust to listen to you, challenge you, and disagree with you. Seek the wisdom God promises to give generously to those who ask (James 1:5).
Neglect is measured not only in Sundays missed but in hearts drifting from Christ and his people. That’s why this question matters. In a culture obsessed with sport, what a witness it would be to love sport deeply — but to love Christ and his church more.
Desiring God