The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports
The Christian Athlete is a gospel-centered guide that assists athletes who identify as Christians and are seeking to understand how to practically apply their faith to their sport.
Author Brian Smith shares his story as an athlete and coach, and his experience working with high-level athletes in the last decade to help readers better understand how to integrate faith and sport by:
Assisting those who want a wide-angled understanding of how to live the Christian faith in the context of sports
Walking through the many questions Christian athletes ask about winning, losing, injuries, practice, and everything in between
Moving Christian athletes from simply having clichéd spiritual sayings decorating their bodies or t-shirts to actually living out their faith through all the opportunities their sport offers them
The Christian Athlete will show readers how to live out a biblical perspective on athletics and urge them to engage in the gifts they are given to glorify God whether they are the team MVP or riding the bench.
Audience of One: Who or what do I worship?
If God alone is worthy of our worship, why do we spend so much time worshipping our sport?
We all live our lives in front of an audience. Whether it’s neighbors, roommates, family, on social media, or thousands of fans in the bleachers. People watch and evaluate us every day. But what if we turned our attention to a better audience? Audience of One is aimed at helping athletes experience the freedom that comes from worshipping God rather than a sport. Tethered to the Biblical experience of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:20-40, this book helps athletes:
View sports as an opportunity for worship, instead of just a place for performing.
Turn away from the idol of sport and surrender to God.
Compete with and for God alone.
Are you ready to live and compete with a new perspective — a new audience? Are you ready to compete for an Audience of One?
Inside Game: What is my motivation?
If your motivation is high one day and low the next, your ability to compete at a high level will rise and fall as well.
As athletes, if we want our performance to be consistent, we need our motivation to be unwavering and independent of our circumstances.
In short, athletic performance depends on steadfast motivation.
And this matters to God. He shows us in His word that it does. What drives us in the core of our being is deeply important to a God who cares about our hearts above all else. What drives us is immensely important to God.
Inside Game helps athletes understand that God truly desires us to experience His love and be satisfied in Him. Only when we understand that our identity is in Christ, will we begin to live in freedom and experience joy in sports and life.
Holy Sweat: How do I grow in my faith?
As an athlete, you signed up for the grind.
And you already know how to get better at your sport.
Train. Prepare. Compete. Learn. Repeat.
But what does it look like to train spiritually and grow in your faith? It’s an important question to consider—especially since 1 Timothy 4:8 affirms that physical training (which is good) should always come in second place to training in godliness.
Holy Sweat is aimed at helping you understand that growing in your relationship with God takes concentrated effort, dependence on the Holy Spirit, and intentional reading of God’s Word.
Becoming like Jesus doesn’t happen overnight or by accident—but God provides all the resources we need to make this happen.
Are you ready to take the next step in your faith journey with God on and off the field?
Better > Bitter: How do I deal with pain and suffering?
We can’t choose our trials.
But we can choose our responses to them.
What does it look like to honor God by the way we respond to hardships in sport—and in life? How do we face our hardships head-on and choose to become better instead of bitter?
Better > Bitter is aimed at helping you understand that God has a purpose in your pain. Through journeying through the story of Joseph in Genesis, you will see a biblical example of what it looks like to trust that God is good when the circumstances around you suggest otherwise.
Athlete, God is good. He can be trusted.
Are you ready to see your pain and suffering as an opportunity to glorify God?
Victory Beyond Competition:
How do I live and play for God’s Kingdom?
Life is short.
Your time as an athlete is even shorter. That doesn’t mean sports don’t matter. Quite the opposite. It means you need to be intentional with how you spend your time because you never know when it may end.
What does it look like to live and play for God’s Kingdom instead of your own kingdom?
In Victory Beyond Competition, you will learn that God requires total investment today for eternal return tomorrow. As you focus on Jesus’ parable of the talents, you will learn about stewardship and making choices based on future realities with an unknown timeline.
Investing your sport and life in God’s kingdom not only aligns you with His mission in the world but also positions you to experience the most joy possible as an athlete.
You were made for more than your sport. Are you ready to discover what that is and how to live it out?
The Star in the Stands
Hudson loves playing sports—especially soccer!
But on this particular morning, he has a completely new experience at the game. A star is in the stands watching his every move!
While the parents and fans in the stands offer their usual tips, boos, and cheers, the star just seems happy to watch Hudson.
The Star in the Stands will help children and parents alike understand a vital message - God loves us no matter how we perform in sports or in life!