The Christian Athlete Report: Data, Trends, and Opportunities in 2026

Identifying relevant shifts shaping the sports world and highlighting how each creates new spaces for meaningful, thoughtful ministry.

Download Full Report

The Christian Athlete Report: Data, Trends, and Opportunities in 2026 identifies ten major cultural, structural, and formative shifts shaping the world of sport today. Each trend highlights not only what is changing in athletics, but why it matters for athletes, coaches, and the ministries that walk alongside them.

This report exists to help sports ministers make sense of a rapidly evolving landscape. It brings together research, data, and lived experience to clarify what is happening in sport, how it is forming people, and where faithful presence, discipleship, and care are most needed in the year ahead.

Our hope is that this report becomes a shared space for learning, conversation, and imagination across the sports ministry ecosystem. We do not offer formulas or step-by-step solutions. Instead, we name the realities we are seeing—on teams, in locker rooms, in athletic departments, and in research—and surface the opportunities they create for thoughtful, Christ-centered ministry.

This is not a position paper, but an invitation to discernment. While the contributors to this report are currently serving in ministry, this report draws from years of ministry experience, coaching, and theological reflection, alongside academic research and cultural analysis.

The trends outlined below are not isolated issues. They overlap, reinforce one another, and shape how athletes understand identity, worth, pressure, belonging, and faith. Taken together, they offer a snapshot of the formation environment athletes are living in—and a map of where sports ministries can engage with wisdom, humility, and hope.

2026 Trends

Identity

Holistic Athlete Formation

Burnout (coaches, support staff, and ministry leaders)

Belonging

Youth Sports and Parents

The Church and Sport Relationship

The Rise of Sports Gambling

Mental Health

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) & the Transfer Portal

Resources, Social Media, and Technology

  • This report is designed to be both informative and formative. It is not meant to be read once and set aside, but revisited, discussed, and applied over time as the sports landscape continues to shift.

    Use it to understand the moment.
    Each trend helps name what many are already sensing but may not have language for. Whether you are a coach, chaplain, ministry leader, or volunteer, this report provides shared vocabulary to understand the pressures, opportunities, and formation forces shaping today’s athletes.

    Use it to guide discernment, not dictate strategy.
    Rather than offering programs or prescriptions, the report surfaces questions and opportunities that invite prayerful reflection. Leaders can use these insights to discern how their context, people, and resources intersect with each trend.

    Use it to spark conversation.
    The report is well suited for staff meetings, leadership teams, board discussions, and ministry planning retreats. The questions and forward-looking sections are designed to foster honest dialogue, shared learning, and collaborative imagination.

    Use it to care for people, not just plan initiatives.
    Many of the trends point to hidden pressures faced by athletes, coaches, and staff. Use the report as a lens for pastoral care—helping leaders listen more attentively, respond more compassionately, and support people as whole persons.

    Use it alongside lived experience.
    The report is strongest when held together with what you are seeing on your teams, campuses, and communities. Let the data and research interact with stories, relationships, and real-world ministry realities.

    Use it as a yearly reference point.
    As an annual resource, the report is meant to help ministries track shifts over time, reflect on growth and challenges, and remain attentive to where God may be opening new doors for faithful presence.

    Above all, this report is an invitation—to slow down, pay attention, and engage sport as a space where formation is always happening, and where the gospel continues to offer clarity, hope, and life.

IDENTITY

There is a significant shift happening in the culture of sports when it comes to the topic of identity. While placing one’s sense of self primarily in what they do is not new, awareness of identity cementation and the negative effect it has on our life (and sport) is increasing. Because the world of sport often reinforces narrow, performance based identity categories like achievement, affirmation, and opportunities, many athletes are trained to “cement” their sense of self in their results, their role, or their reputation. Athletes who root their identity primarily in their sport are most likely to operate out of a fear-of-failure mindset. This has a negative impact on emotional health and athletic performance. 

Modern research affirms that an overly singular identity contributes to fear of failure, performance anxiety, and emotional instability. Secular identity scholarship recommends “identity diversification”—having multiple ways of understanding oneself. Christian theology agrees, partially. Alongside healthy diversification, we need a central, grounding identity that is stable, unconditional, and not dependent on performance. And we find this in a relationship with Jesus. 

This Biblical idea of a secured identity in Christ deeply resonates with athletes right now as it delivers on what it promises—and on what the athletes most desire. What’s emerging is a powerful convergence: athletes are increasingly drawn to language that points beyond sport (“More than an athlete,” “Made for more,” “Identity in Christ”) because they intuitively know that their current identity structures cannot bear the weight of their hopes, fears, or failures. And for sport ministry leaders, this topic of identity formation is one of the most strategic areas for discipleship and Gospel transformation. 

    • A recent study with the Swiss Olympic Federation evaluated the motivation of 155 athletes and found that the athletes with a motivation fixated on external markers (achievement, affirmation from others, reward and accolades) were more likely to adopt a fear of failure mindset. 

    • A 2025 study with 250 athletes showed how fear of failure in small doses can enhance performance, but the higher the volume is turned up, the more likely performance is to decline. The study also points toward mindfulness training as a proven method to help turn the volume down on our fear of failure. 

    • A 2024 research article provides valuable insight into messages like “identity in Christ” resonates with athletes. Among the study’s highlights:

      • Secure attachment to God correlates with better mental well-being because it creates a stable, non-performance-based sense of worth.

      • Athletes in high-performance environments find the idea of unconditional love and availability from God especially meaningful.

      • Anxious or avoidant attachment to God increases the likelihood that athletes derive worth from others’ approval.

    Summary based on the recent data in three important points: 

    1. Athletes who find their primary identity in their sport are those most likely to compete with a fear of failure mindset because competition becomes a threat to your entire sense of self. 

    2. Those who compete out of a fear of failure mindset suffer a drop in athletic performance.

    3. The reason athletes are drawn to phrases like “More than an athlete” “Made for more” and “Identity in Christ” reflects a growing understanding that they need more than just a diversified portfolio of identity (modern research points to this as the answer), they need a grounded and consistent identity able to withstand the circumstances of sport—and life. 

  • Fear of failure has identity level consequences. When identity rests on performance, the pressure to perform elevates. Losing is not just losing—it’s “I am a failure.” This directly undermines performance and emotional health. They need to learn how to break free from performance-based identity. And that’s exactly what the gospel helps them do.

    Athletes crave an anchored identity. This is one of those unique spaces when there is a convergence of what athletes want and what they need. The popularity of phrases like “More than an athlete” reflects not just cultural messaging but a deep longing for stability.

    The Gospel becomes an athletic performance enhancer.  Why? Because athletes with a secure sense of God’s love experience more consistent emotional stability and less performance-contingent self-worth. On the other end of the spectrum, those who view God as unreliable may try to “perform for God” the same way they perform for coaches.

    Identity slogans are not enough. Athletes resonate with identity-based encouragement, but without formation, habits, and community, these remain slogans rather than sources of transformation. Athletes need a growing understanding of how the gospel not only redeems them relationally back to God, but it also places them within the family of God. This gives them a new identity as an adopted member of a new community. 

    External motivation is increasingly fragile. Achievements, applause, social media affirmation, and rewards are powerful drivers—but they collapse quickly under pressure. Athletes are discovering they need something deeper.

    1. Help athletes understand the performance benefits of a secure identity in Christ.Having an anchored identity isn’t just the “right” biblical way to live—research shows it leads to more freedom, joy, and resilience in competition too. Ministry leaders would be wise to help athletes understand that God’s way frees us up to be our best, for His glory.

    2. Teach athletes practices that reinforce identity, not just phrases. Mindfulness/reflection rhythms, prayer practices, Scripture-based identity work, breath prayers, silence, community, and gratitude practices help athletes live their identity under pressure.

    3. Use identity confusion as an open door to discipleship. More athletes are asking questions like “Who am I apart from sport?”—creating natural entry points to the gospel. The “identity angle” is one of the least awkward ways to explore your way into a spiritual conversation with athletes. 

    4. Address distorted images of God. Athletes with an anxious attachment to God experience Him as “just like any other person” they must impress. This is a prime opportunity to clarify the gospel: God’s approval rests on Christ’s performance, not theirs.

    5. Disciple with clarity—don’t let language outpace theology. Athletes already say “I’m more than my sport” and “Identity in Christ,” but they may mean self-affirmation, not biblical identity. As we move forward, we have to make sure that even though we are saying the same thing, that we mean the same thing. This means that we still focus on the end result (I am loved, I am worthy, I am accepted) but we put a renewed emphasis on how we arrive at that particular confidence in what Christ says is true about us.

    6. Create identity formation pathways for coaches. Coaches are often just as identity-fractured as athletes. And providing resources (like giving practical ways to practice the sabbath) and discipleship around identity in their lives has potential to profoundly shape team culture.

    1. How is identity foreclosure showing up in the athletes and coaches you serve?

    2. Where are you hearing “identity” language that lacks theological depth, maybe even in your own ministry?

    3. How can you help athletes see the connection between identity in Christ and competitive freedom?

    4. What false views of God do you think are most prevalent among the athletes and coaches that you serve? How do those false views promote insecurity or fear of failure?

    5. Do your ministry environments help athletes diversify their sense of self or unintentionally reinforce narrow identity categories?

    6. What formation practices could you implement monthly, weekly, or daily that would reinforce grounded identity?

    • Identity language will become even more common in sports. Athletes will increasingly adopt “identity in Christ” language even without Christian foundations—making clarity more important than ever.

    • Fear of failure will continue to rise in high-performance environments. As stakes increase and external pressures grow, identity-based fear responses will intensify unless addressed holistically.

    • Athletes’ growing desire to be seen as more than an athlete will lead them to seek mentors and communities who offer them a stable identity formation. Sports ministries positioned to deliver on this expectation will continue to build trust and influence.

    • There will be a growing need for discipleship around spiritual attachment styles. Misunderstandings of God’s character will be one of the biggest obstacles to grounded identity in Christ.

    • The most impactful sports ministries will become identity formation centers. Not merely programming spaces, but places where athletes repeatedly encounter the truth of who they are in Christ—and learn to live from that identity in competition.

    • Coaches will increasingly seek help with identity and motivation structures. As performance pressure on coaches intensifies, their own identity stability will become critical for team culture, opening doors for chaplaincy and mentorship.

HOLISTIC ATHLETE FORMATION

While sport culture continues to disciple athletes toward achievement, visibility, and outcome-based worth. The result? Many athletes are experiencing emotional fatigue, fear of failure, and identity fragmentation. Athletes are growing increasingly aware that sports alone cannot sustain joy, identity, or long-term flourishing. The question is no longer about whether athletes need more holistic formation—it’s the importance of a faith framework within that formation. If this is true (that athletes desire a more holistically formative approach to their development) Christian sports ministries might consider a strategic shift in their discipleship offerings that includes a move away from transactional discipleship (“do this for God”) toward transformational discipleship (“live with God”).

  • The Gospel remains deeply relevant. Sport culture disciples athletes to fall prey to the arrival fallacy—the belief that once you achieve what you’re striving towards, it will bring you happiness. If you fall, it’s crushing. But even when you reach the goal, the temporal happiness is dampened by the growing reality that you have to keep winning to maintain this level of happiness. The Gospel is the good news that athletes are desperate to hear. And God uses sports, win or lose, to position athletes to hear the best possible content: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that lasting joy, love, worth, and identity is attainable for us, for free, because of God’s performance. That message will always resonate.

    The Bible is still relevant and exactly what athletes need. Athletes want to know what the Bible actually says about their lives—not just inspirational verses. They are increasingly biblically illiterate, but this generation really wants to know what the bible says. This is an audience that really does want to know that God cares about their life as an athlete (which is more than just competition, but certainly not less) and they want to know how to apply it on their own.

    Athletes want more than inspiration—they want formation too. All of the marketing surrounding sports is geared towards inspiring and motivating the athletes to do something, to wear something, to say something. But athletes also need a growing biblical perspective that helps inform how they handle the everyday nuances of life as an athlete. This means holistic development instead of just “How to play for God.”

    Missional language can feel like added pressure. When ministries emphasize platforms or influence, athletes may experience it as one more performance expectation rather than a source of freedom. This doesn’t mean we neglect the biblical call to help disciples think and live missionally, it just means that we need to present it as an opportunity—not a pressured expectation.

    1. Emphasize being before doing. Ministries that teach about identity, attachment to God, emotional health, and spiritual formation—before missional output—will be the ones that stand out and build trust with athletes in 2026 and beyond. 

    2. Redefine our discipleship metrics. What we measure should move beyond attendance, conversions, or other missionally driven stats. That doesn’t mean those are not important! They are. But leaning into the holistic formation of athletes requires that our metrics extend beyond winning people to Christ and sending them into the mission field. What if we measured the emotional resiliency of the athletes we serve or their identity clarity? What if we had metrics for relational health and freedom over fear in competition, as well as spiritual formation stats?

    3. Teach athletes about faith integration outside of competition. Ministries who prioritize holistic formation must remember that competition represents a small percentage of an athlete’s life. Yet that’s what can eat up the majority of time in discipleship. We must teach athletes how to integrate faith into their life outside competition, not just game moments. 

    4. Advocate for formation environments where freedom, trust, and growth matter more than image or visibility. The postgame Jesus shout out is great. But there are other things worth celebrating in the life of an athlete who is learning how to integrate their faith into their sport. Ministries must continue to make space for formation in the shadows, away from social media and talk of using platforms. 

    5. Partner with experts in the formation field. Most leaders working in sports ministry are trained well in faith + sport integration. But holistic formation includes more than just the spiritual component of an athlete. It means care for—and developing—the physical, mental, and social component as well. Ministries who learn from and partner with holistic formation experts will provide the care that athletes need and want in 2026 and beyond. 

    1. Are we forming athletes—or primarily mobilizing them? Can we do both?

    2. What kind of disciples are our environments producing five years from now?

    3. How do athletes in our ministry handle failure, loss, and transition?

    4. Does our language about God increase freedom—or anxiety?

    5. Are we equipping athletes to discern truth from spiritualized nonsense?

    • Holistic formation will become the cultural credibility marker. Ministries whose content reflects holistic care for athletes (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social) will gain trust and influence.

    • Athletes will increasingly seek spaces—organizationally and relationally—that offer emotional safety, identity clarity, and spiritual grounding.

    • Ministries that find unique and creative ways to integrate character building into the natural rhythms of sport will gain trust with their athletic audience.

    • Preventive discipleship (identity, attachment, resilience) will prove more impactful than reactive care.

    • Coaches and parents will look for ministries that support the whole person, not just the athlete.

BURNOUT (COACHES, SUPPORT STAFF, MINISTRY LEADERS)

The increasingly competitive nature of sports culture breeds an environment full of stressors for coaches, staff, and leaders. The pressure to perform and produce results is not only felt by the athletes on the field or court. The demand for a winning program lies squarely on the shoulders of those leading and serving the athletes. Coaches manage a growing list of responsibilities that include roster retention, interpersonal dynamics, stewardship of limited resources, player management, leadership, and of course the actual tactics of the game. All while the coaching carousel looms and threatens job security. Additionally, the time commitment and expectation for athletic trainers, support staff, and coaches make work-life balance feel like a sport in itself. Given this, it is not uncommon for leaders in sport to experience burnout that can be described as mental exhaustion, feelings of being overwhelmed, lack of motivation, poor engagement, and even anxiety symptoms. The result of burnout directly affects athletes and the potential for flourishing in sport. Therefore, it would be beneficial to the sports world at large for ministries to consider how to better care for coaches and support staff.

    • The NCAA published a study on ‘coach well-being’ in 2023 in which 6,000 head and assistant coaches (D-I, D-II, & D-III) were surveyed. One third of coaches reported experiencing mental exhaustion, feelings of being overwhelmed, and sleep disruptions on a near-constant basis. 

    • Younger coaches (millennials and gen-z) reported higher levels of burnout than older coaches with 46% of millennials and 44% of gen-z coaches reporting near constant mental exhaustion.

    • In a recent study focused on burnout among athletic trainers, 72% of survey participants reported moderate burnout with women reporting a higher rate of overall and personal burnout. 

    • Sportico, a sports business journal, reported an average turnover rate in college athletic departments of 48% over two years in D-I. D-II athletic departments were found to have a higher turnover rate of 58%. These stats are double the average for corporate and higher education industries. 

    • Studies in elite level sports report coaches with high levels of job insecurity are more likely to experience low levels of mental well being and high levels of exhaustion and cynicism. 

    • Many studies identify similar burnout factors or stressors for elite level coaches in performance pressure, roster management, job security, managing interpersonal relationships, and work-life balance. 

    • Studies on well being cite social support, resources, and healthy work-life balance as restorative interventions for burnout.

  • Healthy coaches have the powerful opportunity to form healthy athletes. The role of a coach is perhaps one of the most influential jobs. Athletes are formed by relational experiences with coaches and leaders. Player-coach relationships can become strained when coaches are experiencing symptoms of burnout; therefore, the health of a coach is critical for the positive character shaping benefits of sports to take place. 

    Winning at all costs happens at the expense of character development. For the coach, administrator, and support staff, their livelihood is often dependent on performance results. This can distract from a bigger purpose of developing character in athletes that will go on to impact people well beyond their short athletic careers. 

    Who’s coaching the coach? Much attention is given to providing support and care for athletes; however, fewer resources are available to coaches in regards to their own holistic health. This presents a need for coaches and support staff to have access to resources meant to support their overall well being. 

    Performance based identity is a temptation for all. Much has been written about the struggles of athletes to find self worth beyond sport and freedom from fear of failure. This issue is not exclusive to athletes. Leaders at all levels of sport wrestle with the same identity rooted problems which often manifests in workaholism leading to burnout symptoms. 

    Learn to cope. The pressure to produce results related to performance is likely not going anywhere. These stressors cannot be removed; however, coaches and staff need strategies to cope with mounting responsibilities and the demanding lifestyle. 

    1. Strong social support from a pastor, chaplain, or sports minister can become a restorative practice for coaches battling feelings of burnout. While the minister will not have power to change systematic issues that lead to burnout, they can offer a compassionate presence and listening ear. 

    2. Sports leaders can benefit from bringing awareness to performance based identity struggles. As mentioned earlier, issues concerning self worth and fear of failure are not limited to athletes. Similar interventions, discipleship resources, and spiritual practices can be implemented by those who have roles in coaching, athletic training, and administration. A purpose-based identity offers a vital perspective, acting as a safeguard against the "winning at all costs" mindset and preventing distraction from the greater objective of character formation. 

    3. Rest and relational support are key restorative practices for work life balance (a common contributor to burnout.) Prioritizing spiritual practices like the Sabbath amongst a busy schedule can provide nourishing soul rest for coaches and leaders. Additionally, quality time with family and friends provide relational support needed to cope with the demands of sports culture. 

    4. “I have too many tabs open in my brain right now.” This phrase is often mentioned in regards to the mounting responsibilities of a coach or administrator. For the Christian leader looking to implement faith and sport principles, it can feel like yet another open tab. Sports ministers can partner with coaches providing practical character formation tools like team talks, workshops, team building exercises, and character coaching. Thus, a sports minister can become a resource for character development.

    5. Coaches and support staff need discipleship resources and faithful presence. Ministers can step in this gap and offer thoughtfully curated discipleship tools along with faithful presence that can guide leaders to think more deeply about their own spiritual formation and overall well being.

    1. How often are you intentionally asking coaches and support staff about their well-being?

    2. Where might you be vulnerable to the same burnout patterns as the coaches you serve? How are you modeling rest and healthy boundaries to those you serve in sport?

    3. How often do we address performance-based identity with coaches, not just athletes?

    4. What existing resources are actually accessible to coaches and staff in your context? Are there any opportunities for you to provide resources or services? 

    5. How can we normalize conversations about burnout before leaders reach crisis points?

    • Coaching turnover will likely remain high and structurally embedded in competitive cultures that reward quick results – especially in professional and highly visible sports

    • NIL, transfer portal, and high expectations will cause administrators and coaches to continue under sustained intense pressure to perform in college athletics

    • Mental health and burnout rates could potentially increase for coaches and support staff under intensifying demands for success

    • There will be a growing need for retreats and faith based conferences like Coaches on Mission (MAI) and International Coaches Academy (AIA) who look to provide support, community, and restorative experiences to coaches. 

BELONGING

Belonging is not a bonus of participation—it is a fundamental human need. Research consistently shows that a sense of belonging is closely tied to mental well-being, resilience, identity formation, and long-term engagement. For many athletes, sport is assumed to be a natural place where belonging should flourish: shared goals, common struggles, team identity, and time spent together. And yet, emerging research and lived experience reveal a growing tension. Increasingly, athletes—especially in competitive environments—report feeling unknown, unseen, and relationally isolated despite being part of a team. 

How is this possible? Performance pressure, self-oriented perfectionism, narrow definitions of success, and authoritarian leadership can slowly shift teams from communities of mutual care into collections of individuals chasing parallel goals. In these environments, athletes often learn—implicitly or explicitly—that belonging is earned through contribution. And when performance falters, injury occurs, or visibility fades, connection soon follows.

This unfortunate reality challenges a long-standing assumption in sports ministry: that proximity equals connection. The data increasingly suggests that shared practices, locker rooms, and competition do not guarantee relational depth. Belonging does not emerge simply because athletes occupy the same space and wear the same jereseys—it must be intentionally cultivated through trust, presence, and care.

Research now confirms what many athletes already know experientially: when meaningful interpersonal connection or social support is lacking, athletes are more likely to experience loneliness, burnout, and psychological distress. 

This is where Christian sports ministries have a unique and timely opportunity. In a sport culture where worth is often tied to output, the gospel offers a radically different foundation for belonging—one rooted not in performance, availability, or contribution, but in inherent dignity and unconditional love. In an age of rising loneliness and relational fragmentation in sport, communities that embody true belonging may be one of the most compelling expressions of the gospel athletes encounter.

    • Competitive settings can amplify loneliness. Research shows that when athletes don’t feel genuinely connected to teammates or supported by coaches, they’re more likely to feel detached, lonely, burned out, and emotionally drained. That lack of connection doesn’t just affect individual well-being—it also hurts team chemistry. For female athletes in particular, studies show a clear link: less social support often means higher levels of burnout.

    • Studies show that perfectionism can quietly chip away at belonging. Athletes who put intense pressure on themselves to perform perfectly often struggle with loneliness. When relationships revolve around results instead of real care, training becomes more about proving yourself than pursuing something together.

    • Research shows high-performance environments where winning matters more than relationships, athletes can start to feel invisible—especially if they’re injured, stuck on the bench, or going through a slump. When worth feels tied to output, belonging starts to feel fragile.

    • Studies confirm that fear-based coaching weakens connection. Coaching styles built on control, fear, or “just do what you’re told” tend to shut down trust and openness. When athletes don’t feel safe to speak up or be themselves, real connection between coaches and players never fully forms.

    • Belonging isn’t automatic in college sports. Many student-athletes wrestle with feeling caught between worlds—fully accepted in neither the classroom nor the locker room. Instead of feeling like part of a shared community, they can end up feeling more like performers than people.

  • Being on a team does not ensure being known. While being a part of a team includes many of the necessary ingredients to feel a sense of belonging, it’s not as straightforward as we may think. There is a shared responsibility on the part of athletes to both make themselves known to those around them, as well as show interest in others beyond what they bring to practice or competition. It also means (unfortunately) that athletes can’t always rely on the coach to create a culture of belonging on their teams. 

    Performance can become the gateway to belonging. When worth is implicitly tied to contribution, athletes who are injured, struggling, or benched often experience social distance. We’re familiar with the phrase, “the best ability is availability.” This applies in the belonging space as well. It shouldn’t be a surprise that athletes who struggle with onfield performance (or even getting on the field), also struggle with their place of belonging on the team. 

    High performance doesn’t cure loneliness. Some athletes struggle with belonging because of injuries—others struggle with it because of success. Even highly visible or successful athletes may feel deeply isolated if relationships are conditional. And that’s often what happens in a sport culture that only values athletes for what they produce. If belonging always depends on performance, athletes will continually struggle to locate a stable sense of self.

    Marginalized athletes face compounding challenges. Athletes who differ culturally, racially, socially, or emotionally from team norms may experience belonging as especially elusive. Again, this is not a groundbreaking revelation, but another reminder that people wearing the same jersey and having shared team goals does always equate to belonging. 

    1. Reclaim belonging as a core discipleship outcome. In the gospel, we have an answer to the problem of belonging in sport. It’s the truth that belonging precedes performance. The counter-narrative of the gospel unites us to God—and to others. Take heart, the gospel is not becoming irrelevant or going out of style any time soon. Whatever the most pressing need is within a new generation of athletes, the deepest answer to that need will always be found in the gospel.

    2. Build on racial reconciliation by expanding toward a holistic vision of belonging. Racial reconciliation remains a vital and ongoing priority for many ministries in sport. At the same time, leaders may find it fruitful to ask how that commitment can be extended into a broader theology and practice of belonging—one that honors racial reconciliation while also attending to the lived experiences of others who may feel unseen or disconnected in sport due to factors like gender, class, injury, or isolation.

    3. Preach a Gospel big enough to include belonging. The gospel we proclaim must be big enough to address the realities of belonging, not just on athletic teams, but also in the world. This generation of athletes need more than just a gospel that guarantees a ticket into the afterlife. They need a gospel that invites and adopts them into a family. Normalizing conversations around isolation and belonging helps athletes realize they are not alone in feeling alone—and even becomes a conversational bridge to a gospel that’s big enough to meet their felt needs.

    4. Create spaces where athletes are known beyond their role. Small groups, weekly meetings, discipleship groups, and consistent presence allow athletes to be seen as whole people. Providing spaces and opportunities where athletes (and even coaches) experiencing a deep sense of belonging should become a metric worth measuring in our ministries.

    5. Model non-transactional relationships. Ministry leaders can embody care that is not contingent on playing time, success, or influence—or even platform. Athletes who do not have opportunities to "leverage their platform” because of injury or playing time may feel out of place in some ministry settings that place a high value on ministry through the athlete. 

    6. Support athletes on the margins. Injured, benched, redshirted, or struggling athletes are often most open—and most overlooked. Again, let’s talk about what we measure within our ministries. What if we began measuring how many injured athletes we initiated relational care conversations with over the last month? Would that not be reflective of the ministry of Jesus?

    7. Partner with coaches to shape culture. Helping coaches understand the relational cost of authoritarian or performance-only leadership can transform team environments. Do you have topical coaches bible studies that address how to shape a gospel-centered culture instead of one that merely reflects the values and norms of modern day sports?

    1. Where might athletes in our context feel unseen or unheard?

    2. How is belonging communicated—explicitly or implicitly—within the teams we serve?

    3. Do our ministry spaces prioritize performance or presence?

    4. Who is most likely to be marginalized in our athletic environments—and why?

    5. How do we ensure injured or struggling athletes remain meaningfully connected?

    6. Are we assuming belonging exists—or intentionally cultivating it?

    • Belonging will become a mental health priority. As loneliness and burnout rise, relational connection will be recognized as central to athlete well-being.

    • Athletes will seek communities, not just programs. Ministries offering genuine relational depth will stand out in transactional sport cultures. 

    • Camps will become increasingly popular. Ministries that scale that camp offerings to account for more athletes attending will reap the fruit of their labor.

    • Coaches will face increased pressure to address culture. Team environments that fail to foster belonging may struggle with retention, morale, and trust.

    • Marginalized voices will shape the conversation. Athletes from underrepresented groups will increasingly name belonging gaps, demanding change. Will we listen and change?

    • Faith-based ministries will be evaluated by relational credibility. Not by size or visibility—but by whether athletes feel known, valued, and safe.

YOUTH SPORTS AND PARENTS

In the last 50 years, youth sports have shifted from being primarily play-based, developmental spaces into high-pressure, adult-driven spaces that orbit around performance, exposure, and future opportunity. What was once an entry point for joy, teamwork, and character development has increasingly become professionalized as young athletes compete with year-round competition, specialization, ranking, and evaluation.

This shift has massive implications. Youth sports are no longer just an outlet to explore, be creative, and have fun. They’ve become powerful formation environments that shape how young athletes understand success, failure, identity, authority, and self-worth. And parents, coaches, and systems—often unintentionally—communicate that performance equals value, progress equals worth, and mistakes threaten belonging.

We’ve collectively created a system that leaves young athletes emotionally and spiritually unprepared for the weight placed on them. The result is rising anxiety, burnout, fear of failure, strained family dynamics, and early identity foreclosure—all before athletes even reach their physical peak.

For sports ministries, youth sports represent one of the earliest, most influential mission fields for faithful presence, discipleship, and preventive care—for kids, and their parents, too

  • Pressure arrives before maturity. Because we (the adults) have professionalized youth sports, young athletes are being asked to carry emotional, physical, and psychological loads they are not developmentally equipped to handle.

    Identity formation begins earlier—and more narrowly. Many kids learn at a young age that they are “the soccer player” or “the star,” setting the stage for identity foreclosure long before adolescence. Each game has identity-level consequences.

    Fear replaces joy. Instead of exploration, creativity, and growth, sport becomes a place where mistakes feel dangerous and approval from parents and coaches feels conditional. Young athletes are made to believe that each game has the potential to determine the next 3-5 years of their life, instead of approaching sport with the joy they had when the process started. 

    Athletes internalize adult anxiety. Children often mirror the stress, fear, and ambition of the adults around them, even when those adults believe they are being supportive. 

    Faith and sport become disconnected. Young athletes rarely receive guidance on how faith informs competition, pressure, losing, or joy, leaving faith compartmentalized or irrelevant. By refusing to teach them how to integrate the two, we subtly teach them that there is a sacred vs secular divide—and that sports is entirely secular. 

    1. Shift the focus from outcome to formation. Youth sports ministries can reframe sport as a tool for spiritual, emotional, and relational growth—not just athletic achievement. The opportunity is ripe for ministries to provide good, biblical resources to parents, coaches, and leagues that assist them in the formation journey of the young athletes.

    2. Minister to parents as primary disciplers. Parents (even those who are well-intentioned) are often the biggest drivers of pressure and the most overlooked discipleship opportunity. Ministries must see sports parents as contextualized group who need help understanding formation, identity, and healthy perspective.

    3. Prioritize ministry to coaches. Youth sport coaches wield tremendous influence. In the ongoing conversation about leveraging sport for virtue formation in kids, coaches are front line missionaries who need “formation” equipping. Training them to lead with emotional awareness, big picture perspective, and character driven goals can reshape families, teams, and communities.

    4. Introduce identity formation early and often. Teaching young athletes that they are loved, valued, and secure apart from performance lays groundwork that protects them later.

    1. What messages are young athletes receiving—explicitly or implicitly—about what makes them valuable?

    2. How might our ministries unintentionally reinforce pressure-driven youth sports culture?

    3. Are we discipling parents with the same intentionality we disciple athletes?

    4. What does “winning” mean in our youth sports environments?

    5. How are we helping kids process failure, disappointment, and mistakes?

    6. What rhythms or practices help restore joy and play to youth sport?

    • Youth sports pressure will continue to increase and earlier specialization and year-round competition will become even more normalized.

    • Mental health challenges will surface younger as anxiety, burnout, and fear of failure will increasingly show up in middle school athletes.

    • Parents will seek alternatives—but lack clarity. We’ll see an increasing amount of families who sense that something is “off” but unsure how to push back against the system.

    • Faith-based organizations, including the local church, will be uniquely positioned to lead reform on a local level. Ministries that prioritize character formation, joy, and play will stand out.

    • Early identity discipleship will become essential. With the amount of athletes wrestling with fear of failure, pressure, and identity foreclosure, early adapters in discipleship spaces will prove more impactful than crisis response later.

    • Youth sports will be recognized as a mission field—not just a feeder system. Ministries that train local volunteers, parents, and churches in doing sports ministry engage will shape healthier athletes, families, and communities.

    • If you’re curious what Project Play concluded for their future trends, you can access those HERE.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHURCH AND SPORT

When was the last time your pastor preached a message about sports? For most evangelical churchgoers the answer is close to “never.” Churches use sports stories and athletic metaphors, but rarely offer a theology of sport or play (a Biblical perspective of play, competition, embodied formation, and the cultural power of athletics). In the meantime, the culture of sport continues to shape the use of time, identity, relationships, parenting choices, and moral formation for millions of people in our congregations. This presents both a concern and an opportunity. The concern is that there is deep cultural influence from sport with minimal theological attention from the Church. The opportunity begs for pastoral attention on what it looks like to think Christianly about sports.

Moving forward, without Church intervention, sports will remain an unexamined cultural influence. Churches will occasionally deploy sports outreach but won’t integrate theological formation. Families will continue to experience conflicted loyalties and we’ll continue to see isolated Christian parents who feel ill-equipped for sideline discipleship. 

With Church intervention, the church body will take the lead in reframing sport as a priority for spiritual formation. Athletic discipleship will become a routine part of youth ministry and pastoral care, local coaches will be equipped by the church with a gospel framework for coaching, and the church will begin producing resources (or at the very least, utilize existing resources), and partner with sports ministries. Equipped with a growing theology of sport, congregations will visibly influence local youth-sport culture toward healthier, gospel-shaped practices.

  • Formation is happening—whether the church shapes it or not. Sports teach habits, language, emotional responses, and moral priorities (winning at all costs, relentless self-optimization, public comparison). If the church doesn’t intentionally teach how to think Christianly about sport, secular sport culture will do the shaping.

    Athletes are spiritual people too—and often influence others. Because athletes (and sports figures) are culturally influential, how they live, speak, and lead matters for their teammates, families, and fans. Athletes lacking theological formation risk embodying and broadcasting values that conflict with the gospel.

    Sports can be a place of both flourishing and harm. Properly ordered, sport can teach self-discipline, community, embodied worship, joyful play, and sacrificial service. Unchecked, it can produce idolatry, unhealthy identity dependency, distorted masculinity/femininity, anxiety, and relational fracture.

    Families feel pressure. Parents invest time and money in youth sports. The intensity of competition and scheduling often pushes families to prioritize sport over communal worship, rest, or family rhythms. The church’s pastoral role needs to address those trade-offs with grace and gospel-shaped clarity.

  • 1. Teach a short sermon series or pulpit primer on a theology of sport. This normalizes the topic and equips families. Most pastors probably feel under equipped in this space so this is a great opportunity for those working in sports ministry to create some “sermon notes” on a theology of sport for pastors to build upon. Something like this: Week 1 - “Play & Creation” (theology of the body and play). Week 2 - “Idolatry of sport” (how sport can displace worship). Week 3 - “Play Redeemed” (practical rhythms for families and coaches).

    2. Equip parents & coaches with brief sport/faith training. 60–90 minute workshop for parents and coaches, covering topics like identity, practicing the presence of God in sport, how to watch for character and not just results, and when sports become an idol. Provide printable “sideline scripts” for parents. Give away existing resources that speak to faith and sport integration. 

    3. Launch or partner with a church-centered youth sports program. Partner with Athletes in Action, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or Upward Sports—or run church teams that intentionally integrate brief devotionals, servant-leader coaching values, and volunteer training. This creates an alternative formation environment aligned with gospel priorities. It serves your people, but also models to them what it could and should look like to integrate Christian principles into sport.

    4. Develop athlete discipleship pathways. A short-term possibility is a monthly athlete small group where you gather them together and provide a little content. A long-term possibility is one-on-one mentoring and chaplaincy for high school/college athletes. Train former athletes and coaches in your church in discipleship and match them up with young athletes who are looking for a mentor.

    5. Public witness and hospitality at sport sites. Train volunteers to be “presence people” on Saturdays who show consistent, humble Christian love in bleachers and concession stands (no agenda except being the hands and feet of Jesus). You could even offer simple resources, like cards with Church contact info or invites to worship. 

    1. When was the last time we preached about sports, competition, identity, or play? What would a short sermon series look like in our context?

    2. Where are sports pulling people away from gospel rhythms (worship, rest, family), and how can we pastorally respond without shaming?

    3. Which local sports organizations (youth leagues, travel teams, local rec leagues) could we practically partner with to offer gospel-shaped coaching or volunteer presence?

    4. Who on staff or among our volunteers is gifted to lead athlete discipleship or chaplaincy, and what training/resources do they need?

    5. How can our church welcome non-Christian families encountered through sport without reducing ministry to a “bait and switch” marketing tactic?

    6. How many children, youth, and adults in our church are currently involved in organized sports or regular fandom? (Run a 1–2 question survey like the one below to find out.) 

    • “Do you or a household member regularly participate in or follow organized sports?” (Yes — player; Yes — parent/guardian; Yes — fan; No.) Follow-up: “Would you be interested in a short workshop on forming faith in sport?”

    • Spurred on by youth sport chaos, church leaders will have no other choice than to begin addressing sports from the pulpit in a way that trains their people to think well about the role of sports.

    • Churches will begin to train volunteers as “sports presence” ambassadors—and hire staff members to serve as local chaplains for area sports teams and leagues. 

    • As youth sports continue to grow (and potentially deform character), leagues and teams will look to the church to provide coaches who have expertise in the sport and a high priority to teach character. 

    • Churches will realize that finding ways to engage and equip their sport-obsessed congregation is not “selling out,” but rather, a strategic way to serve and launch missional disciples who are already deeply connected in their communities. 

    • Sport ministries, who have spent decades ministering to athletes and through athletes, will begin to shift their strategy to assisting the local church. These sport ministries (like AIA, FCA, and Upwards) will find new ways to reach athletes by ministering to and through the Church.

THE RISE OF SPORTS GAMBLING 

Sports gambling has moved from the margins to the mainstream of athletic culture. What was once illegal, hidden, or socially taboo is now normalized through mobile apps, broadcast integration, fantasy platforms, and constant advertising. Odds, parlays, and “live bets” are woven seamlessly into the way fans watch games, talk about sports, and engage athletes. 

For athletes, coaches, and families, this shift has created a new and often unseen pressure environment. Athletes are no longer only competing for wins and championships—they are unknowingly influencing financial outcomes for thousands of bettors. Coaches and referees are scrutinized not only for performances decisions but for how those decisions affect betting lines. Fans increasingly consume sport not as communal play, but as financial speculation. 

For sports ministries (and the church), this presents both a moral concern and a missional opportunity. The concern is normalization of risk-taking, greed, harassment, the commodification of human performance, and taking play out of sport. The opportunity is that gambling has exposed deep questions about control, hope, money, anxiety, and identity. These are all questions that the gospel is uniquely equipped to address.

  • Commodification of Athletes. Performance is no longer just about contribution to a team, it’s tied to financial outcomes for strangers. Missed shots, penalties, or turnovers can trigger waves of online harassment where athletes are often reduced to “assets” rather than people. 

    Pressure and fear intensified. Athletes already live with performance stress. Gambling adds a hidden layer of pressure and fear—fear of letting others down financially, fear of being blamed, and fear of public backlash. 

    Harassment and dehumanization on the rise. Athletes, especially at the collegiate level, report receiving threatening or abusive messages after games tied to betting losses. Many do not know where to turn or how seriously to take these experiences. 

    Moral confusion. Athletes are prohibited from gambling on sports, yet surrounded by peers, roommates, and family members who do. This creates confusing ethical environments and blurred lines around integrity. 

    Team culture can be affected. Joking about betting lines, tracking odds, or placing bets can gradually undermine trust and a sense of relational safety within the locker room. The risk is heightened when money becomes part of team conversations, particularly for athletes who may be more vulnerable to external pressures to manipulate game outcomes—a practice often referred to as “match-fixing” or competition manipulation.

    1. Gambling to become a norm of discipleship - Gambling often reveals longings for certainty, escape, or control, making it a natural entry point for teaching on stewardship, contentment, and idolatry. Rather than just treating gambling as a moral issue, ministries can help situate gambling within a broader discipleship conversation about where hope and security are found. 

    2. Athlete Care - As gambling expands, sports ministries can protect athlete dignity by offering pastoral care, confidential support, and guidance around boundaries, social media, and identity. Faithful presence reminds athletes they are valued as whole people, not performance metrics. 

    3. Education - Many are not aware of how gambling shapes the way sports are watched and discussed. Sports ministries have an opportunity to help translate this trend into accessible teachings that encourage healthy fandom, empathy for athletes, and joy rooted in play rather than profit. 

    4. Formation of ethical leadership among athletes - Sports ministries have the opportunity to help athletes think Christianly about influence, integrity, and public witness—especially in speech, reactions, and online presence. The goal would not be to control, but the formation of leaders marked by character, humility, and love of neighbor. 

    5. Partnership with Institutions - Athletic departments, schools, and clubs are seeking help responding to the unintended consequences of legalized sports betting. Sports ministries can serve as trusted partners to these institutions that are often lacking resources or christian connections in this space. 

    6. Creating countercultural narratives about sports and worth - sports gambling reinforces the idea that athletic performance exists for consumption and profit. Sports ministries have the opportunity to help articulate a better story—one that frames sport as a gift, communal, and as play. This quieter work of imagination reshapes how athletes and fans understand worth, success, and faithfulness. 

    1. Are you addressing money, risk, and control in your discipleship or are we avoiding them? 

    2. Where might you need to be more proactive, rather than reactive, in addressing gambling pressures?

    3. Do athletes feel safe talking about harassment, fear, and/or pressure tied to gambling?

    4. Are you equipped to help athletes think biblically about integrity in morally complex environments? How can you help your athletes in this space? 

    5. What partnerships (athletics, chaplaincy, mental health staff, professors) could strengthen care around this area?

    6. Has your ministry thought about, and engaged, the topic of gambling in sports? Why or why not? 

    7. Do your parents and fans (and coaches) know how gambling affects athletes emotionally and spiritually? 

    • Increased integration of gambling content into broadcasts and fan culture with more aggressive targeting of young adults by gambling companies 

    • Continued rise in harassment and threats toward athletes, especially in high-revenue sports.

    • More athletes and coaches being dismissed because of gambling. 

    • Potential NCAA or federal regulations attempting to curb harm, though with uncertain effectiveness.

    • Greater need for pastoral and emotional support as athletes feel watched, monetized, and commodified in new ways.

    • Sports ministries that ignore this trend will struggle to speak meaningfully into the sports world while sports ministries that engage wisely will gain trust and pastoral access. 

    • Ministries that combine compassion, clarity, and Christ-centered wisdom will offer something desperately needed: a humanizing, hope-filled presence in a commodified sports culture. 

MENTAL HEALTH

It should hardly come as a surprise that mental health has become one of the most urgent and visible issues in athletics today. Athletes at every level (from elite to youth) report rising levels of anxiety, depression, and identity instability. Even coaches are experiencing similar patterns, often under immense pressure with little relational or institutional support. 

As the conversation increases, it’s also growing in complexity. The awareness of mental health has helped normalize the issue and given athletes autonomy over their self care. But it has also led to overidentifying with mental health labels and a growing tendency to interpret normal stress, disappointment, or adversity as symptoms of deeper concern—or even ones worthy of a diagnostic label.

For Christian sports ministers, this trend represents both a challenge and a strategic discipleship opportunity. Why? Because mental health is becoming one of the primary entry points for meaningful engagement, pastoral-type care, and the Gospel’s healing presence in athletics.

  • Across all levels, athletes commonly link mental health challenges to performance pressure, identity confusion, chronic stress, and instability in relationships/support systems.

  • Athletes are increasingly self-diagnosing. With mental health language everywhere—social media, teammates, campus resources—athletes often interpret emotional distress through diagnostic categories. This makes them more open to talking about mental health, but also more likely to define themselves by it. As sports psychologist Steve Magness points out, "Awareness is great, but when we’re inundated with constant streams of information telling us to focus on a problem, our brain gets the message, turning up the volume to validate that label or identity.” 

    Identity fragility is rising. Many athletes do not distinguish between “I feel anxious” and “I am an anxious person.” The sport-performance identity remains powerful, and mental health labels can become another form of identity captivity (or identity cementing).

    Pressure is now both internal and external. Beyond performance-based stress, athletes face the pressure to “manage their mental health correctly,” “stay well,” and “perform emotionally.” This creates a second layer of anxiety on top of athletic expectations. 

    A coaches’ mental health directly affects team culture. Burnout, depression, and unhealthy coping among coaches create emotionally volatile, unpredictable, or disconnected environments—further shaping athlete well-being.

    1. Become credible voices on mental health—not outsourced chaplains. Schools, coaches, and athletic departments are seeking help. Ministries that demonstrate competency (not necessarily clinical expertise) will earn trust, influence, and access.

    2. Reclaim identity formation as central discipleship. Helping athletes locate identity in Christ rather than in performance—or in mental health labels—may be one of the most important spiritual interventions of the decade.

    3. Create safe spaces where athletes can process honestly. Teams often lack emotionally safe, judgment-free environments. Ministry leaders can model vulnerability, groundedness, and a non-anxious presence.

    4. Equip coaches as shepherds. Coaches are desperate for support. Offering training or resources that help them understand emotional health, burnout, relational leadership, and boundaries can transform entire programs.

    5. Build referral partnerships with trusted professionals. This adds credibility, helps athletes get the care they need, and positions ministry leaders as connectors instead of replacements for clinical help.

    6. Develop tools and resources that bridge faith and mental health.

    • Small-group studies on stress, anxiety, identity, and resilience

    • Athlete devotionals addressing emotional health through Scripture

    • Workshops for teams on habits, rhythms, and spiritual-emotional integration

    • Transferable discipleship resources 

    1. Do our current discipleship practices address the emotional world of athletes—or only their spiritual knowledge?

    2. Are we equipped to differentiate between normal emotional struggle and signs of deeper crisis in athletes or coaches?

    3. How can we help athletes hold mental health labels with nuance—not as identity, but as information?

    4. Do we have a plan for caring for coaches as whole people, not just influencers of athletes?

    5. Does your ministry have a list of trusted professionals for referral?

    • Mental health literacy will become a baseline expectation for anyone working in athletics.Sports ministers (and even coaches) who lack basic competency in this conversation may not necessarily find doors closing, but those who prioritize this space will find more access than ever before.

    • Athletes’ confusion around identity may intensify as categories expand and diagnostic language becomes more normalized. Athletes may begin to experience more difficulty understanding who they are apart from labels assigned to them or even those assigned through self diagnosing.

    • Coaches’ mental health will emerge as an equally urgent issue and ministry to coaches may become as strategic as ministry to athletes.

    • Coaches may become more resistant to engaging in the mental health conversation as studies continue to show that the more the conversations increase, the more self-diagnosing takes place.  

    • Resources will shift from “crisis response” to “preventive formation.” There will be greater emphasis on resilience, habits, identity, emotional regulation, and spiritual formation as proactive tools.

    • Athletes will desire communities of belonging. Ministries that create relational, emotionally stable cultures will stand out in the athletic culture that prioritizes a social hierarchy based on performance.

NAME, IMAGE, AND LIKENESS (NIL) AND THE TRANSFER PORTAL

The rise of NIL and the Transfer Portal could be treated as two trends but in practice they are increasingly connected and reinforce each other. NIL reshapes the economic realities of college sports while the Transfer Portal reshapes mobility and opportunities. Together they form a powerful system that accelerates movement, professionalizes decision-making, and places unprecedented pressure on athletes to evaluate their worth, future, and faith through the lenses of money, exposure, and leverage. 

NIL opportunities often influence transfer decisions as athletes seek markets, collectives, or programs with greater earning potential. Likewise, the ease of transferring amplifies NIL by allowing athletes to reposition themselves for better branding, visibility, or financial outcomes. What emerges is not simply a new rules environment, but a new formation environment. One that subtly teaches athletes that growth, success, and security are found by optimizing opportunity rather than cultivating rootedness, character, and discernment. 

For sports ministries, this convergence presents both serious concerns and significant missional opportunities. The concern is that identity becomes transactional, relationships become provisional, and faith becomes secondary to leverage. The opportunity is to offer clarity, care, and a Christ-centered vision of worth and faithfulness in a system increasingly shaped by mobility and monetization. 

  • Commodification of athletes. Athletes may increasingly feel valued for social media metrics, sponsorship appeal, and leverage rather than character, effort, or contribution to team culture. Over time, worth can become measured by visibility, deal size, and market value, leaving athletes feeling treated as assets whose value fluctuates with performance and platform rather than as whole people formed for growth, relationship, and faithfulness.

    Financial and ethical complexity. Contracts, taxes, endorsement, and legal agreements can create confusion. Athletes may feel unprepared to make wise financial decisions or navigate moral gray areas in sponsorships 

    The pressure to create a personal brand. Athletes feel pressure to craft a public identity through messaging, visuals, and online presence in order to stand out. This can distract from performance, relationships, and spiritual health, and may blur the line between authentic faith and faith being shaped or performed for visibility and marketability.

    Continuing education around personal branding and finances. Universities and athletic departments are increasingly developing educational programs for athletes around contracts, taxes, financial literacy, and personal branding.

    Unique pressures on female athletes. Female athletes face additional pressures in the NIL era around body image, sexualization, and societal expectations. Opportunities can come with heightened scrutiny over appearance, social media presence, and marketability, requiring careful navigation of dignity, self-respect, and professional boundaries.

    Inequality and team culture tension. Disparities in NIL deals can create jealousy, division, or resentment within teams or sports. Athletes must navigate relational dynamics and financial opportunity with wisdom and tact. Some athletes are choosing to transfer for better payment at a different school.    

    Constant evaluation and weakened rootedness. With open transfer windows and evolving NIL opportunities, athletes live in a near-permanent state of evaluating “what’s next,” marked by comparison and second-guessing. As a result, relationships with teammates, coaches, mentors, and campus communities can become provisional rather than rooted, weakening trust, stability, and long-term formation.

    1. Understanding NIL’s connection to transferring - Ministries that understand how NIL incentives are often tied to transferring can help athletes discern decisions through the lens of calling, community, and long-term formation. By reinforcing that an athlete’s worth is not determined by the size of an NIL deal or the visibility of a platform, ministries can provide a stabilizing presence amid pressure to chase opportunity at the expense of growth, relationships, and faithfulness.

    2. Resources and education around NIL pieces - NIL is a complex entity that requires nuanced and partitioned content. Are we helping (and creating resources) dealing with navigating public attention, personal branding, and financial responsibility while also engaging with the topics of money, fame, or marketability? Do we have resources specifically for female athletes who need support navigating pressures around body image, sexualization, and societal expectations while maintaining dignity and healthy boundaries? Sports ministries have an opportunity to answer questions athletes are asking.

    3. Partnering with institutions - Athletic departments, compliance offices, and families often lack spiritual guidance in NIL & transfer portal matters. Ministries can serve as trusted advisors to integrate faith, character, and values into contractual and public decisions, especially around exposure, messaging, and sponsorship negotiations.

    4. Personal branding workshop - Many universities now require athletes to attend personal branding workshops. These workshops are designed to help them think through their messaging so they can land NIL deals. Sports ministries have the opportunity to reshape what personal branding is and does by giving language to athletes to think Christianly about who they are becoming 

    5. Flip the NIL script - In a culture driven by self-promotion and monetization, ministries can model a Christ-centered alternative that values service, character, and communal flourishing over individual gain. They can help athletes focus on authentic storytelling and long-term and rooted formation rather than fleeting trends or external validation.

    6. Discipleship guidance in the NIL and transfer world - Guiding athletes to practice humility, generosity, and empathy strengthens team cohesion and builds deeper relationships. Ministries can provide language and practices that mitigate tension around unequal opportunities, brand disparities, or social media visibility but also engage these disparities with wisdom and justice, helping athletes see their platform as a tool to use for others’ benefit. At the same time, transfers often involve loss, grief, and relational disruption. Ministries can provide consistent presence and care amid instability.

    7. Get familiar with the NIL lingo - In order to have an educated conversation with people in the NIL culture we need to be aware of the NIL language. Familiarize yourself with these words and phrases: NIL, collective, personal brand, agent, pay-for-play, third-party endorsement, brand alignment, disclosure & compliance, digital footprint, market value, and the professionalization of college athletes. 

    1. How are NIL opportunities influencing transfer decisions among the athletes you serve?

    2. Are athletes equipped to discern between opportunity and calling?

    3. Are we asking athletes to think ethically about endorsements, social media, and sponsorships in ways that reflect biblical integrity?

    4. Do we encourage athletes to view their platform as a tool for collective influence and service, not just personal promotion or profit?

    5. Are female athletes receiving support to navigate pressures around body image, sexualization, and societal expectations in the NIL era?

    6. Does your ministry understand the NIL culture? Do you know the NIL lingo to have an informed conversation about what athletes are really facing? 

    7. How is your ministry addressing money, power, and influence as formation issues?

    8. What partnerships with compliance, families, coaches, or institutional staff could strengthen athlete care and guidance in NIL and transfer matters?

    • There will be a deeper integration of NIL incentives into transfer recruiting and roster construction, further normalizing athlete mobility driven by financial opportunity rather than development or fit. 

    • Greater pressure on athletes to professionalize early, managing brands, agents, contracts, and public messaging alongside academic and athletic demands. This will create an increased reliance on agents and advisors, heightening risks of exploitation or misaligned counsel.

    • Earlier exposure to NIL and transfer pressures at the high school level.

    • Expanded NIL opportunities for women’s sports and non-revenue sports, alongside continued challenges around sexualization, body image, and unequal market valuation.

    • Likely shifts in NCAA or federal regulation attempting to bring clarity, fairness, and guardrails, though enforcement and consistency will remain uncertain.

    • Growing demand for holistic athlete care as athletes navigate identity, money, influence, and faith in a system that increasingly treats them as commodities.

RESOURCES, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND TECHNOLOGY

Athletes today are being formed as much by digital content as by coaches, teammates, and competition. With over 5 billion people on social media—and short-form platforms shaping attention, belief, and identity—athletes are immersed in a constant stream of messages about success, worth, faith, and performance. 

At the same time, there is a growing hunger for resources at the intersection of faith and sport, evidenced by increased academic research, institutional investment, and strong engagement with accessible, plug-and-play biblical resources. Yet the faith + sport content ecosystem remains narrow, often driven by a small number of voices and frequently oriented toward visibility, influence, or consumption rather than formation. Despite sport’s century-long influence on American culture, its relationship with the Christian faith remains surprisingly underexamined.

This creates both opportunity and responsibility for Christian sports ministries. The challenge ahead is not simply to create more content, but to steward content and social media strategies in ways that are gospel-centered, biblically grounded, and formation-focused. 

    • 5.17 billion people use social media (64.4% of the world’s population)—and the average user spends 2 hours and 28 minutes daily on social platforms.

    • Short form content (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok) is dominating the market within this next generation. 

    • People are hungry for sports + faith content and resources. A recent study analyzing publications on sport & religion from 1899 to 2022 showed a notable rise in publications regarding sport and religion in the last decade. 

    • The Christian Athlete Bible Studies continue to be one of the most engaged with resources on our website, showing the desire for plug and play resources.

    • Anecdotally, the majority of faith + sport content still feels like it’s created by a small group of contributors, limiting the perspective on a topic that’s begging for more collective IQ.

  • Everything is content—but should it be? Social media has made athletes more accessible than ever before. Morning lifts? Recorded and posted. Late night workouts? Recorded and posted. Devotional time with God? Recorded and posted. Athletes need constant reminders to put down their phones and just experience being fully present with something or someone. 

    The Gospel and the Bible are still relevant—and exactly what athletes need. We mentioned both of these realities in the section on holistic formation but there is overlap here as well. Our formation needs to be marked by Gospel-centered, bible saturated content. 

    Short-form content shapes their brains and beliefs—even if athletes don’t label it as “discipleship.” This generation continues to consume short form content at an alarming rate. Athletes are being shaped by the digital space—not only theologically and ideologically, but neurologically as well. 

    Athletes need a filter for what’s Biblical and what’s nonsense. Some well-intentioned athletes are so desperate to believe that God cares about their life as an athlete that they will absorb any content that speaks to the issue. This makes them prone to believing prosperity gospel ideology that promises athletic blessings in exchange for religious obedience. 

    1. Teach athletes how to study the Bible. We need to bring our discipleship mindset to the resourcing space (Don’t just give an athlete a fish, teach them to fish). Yes, we should create and give away biblically saturated resources that are contextualized to their life as an athlete. But we also need to teach them how to do it themselves. Sports ministries could develop a systematic—and athletic—approach to studying God’s Word.  

    2. Develop a content strategy that makes formation the goal, not consumption. We get it. Likes, shares, comments are the fuel that pushes social media posts and digital content. Growing engagement through those measurables build credibility for our “brand” as a whole, but also each individual post and piece of content. But this generation of athletes is growing tired of being “used” by organizations who, whether well intentioned or not, make a profit from their name, image, and likeness. 

    3. See the athlete as more than a platformed missionary. The sport ministry playbook is historically quick to find ways to “leverage the athlete platform” as a way to reach the masses. Our social media feeds become populated by athletes talking about God, instead of resourcing athletes to live faithfully with God. In our desire to minister to the athlete and through the athlete, we might consider if the bulk of our resources and social media content prioritize the latter. 

    4. Train institutions to integrate faith in rhythms of sport. Examples like Valor Christian—where ADs and coaches intentionally integrate faith and sport—show how our content gains credibility and effectiveness when it is embodied and practiced, not just packaged and sent out.

    5. Break cornerstone resources into modular formats. Good news: we can still use our bread and butter resources. But we need to squeeze them into more bite-sized pieces. Chapters become posts. Studies become reels. Talks become part of our social media stories for the day. Yes, the concern for losing depth is legitimate. But with this approach, depth is not lost—it’s just distributed.

    6. Develop consistent, relevant content rhythms. Ministries can no longer rely on one flagship resource. Athletes consume content that’s:

    • Short-form content (daily/weekly)

    • Medium-form resources (seasonal)

    • Long-form depth (retreats, camps, studies, discipleship)

    1. Are we asking athletes to just produce spiritual outcomes—or are we content with forming them in holistic ways that may not show up on our metrics?

    2. Does our content lead to just consumption or formation?

    3. How do we measure whether our content is helping to shape their lives? 

    4. What voices or influencers dominate the sport + faith space our athletes are consuming?

    5. How often do athletes see themselves (their ethnicity, gender, sport) reflected in the content we produce?

    6. Do our resources center around integrating faith into competition or does our library reflect care for the other 99% of an athlete’s life? 

    7. Is the mode of our content best suited for the intended audience? In other words, do the athletes we serve need books, PDFs, YouVersion-type devotionals, Social Media reels, articles, or podcasts?

    • Strategic content ecosystems will replace single resources (Again, we don’t need to throw out the flagship resources, they just become part of our offerings, not the only thing). Ministries will develop digital strategies that help move athletes from connecting with content to real world relationships.

    • Short-form content will continue to operate as the front door, not the destination. Social media will function as on-ramps to deeper relationships and discipleship pathways.

    • Camps will give greater margin for relational connections and less time for transferring content. Athletes are longing for meaningful, real life connection. Camps can be a space where we stop barraging them with “our content, and instead, cultivate an environment for them to re-learn how to do real life friendships.

    • The field will diversify—or stagnate. The future of faith + sport content depends on finding, training, and empowering new voices, contexts, and models. 

    • Holistic formation will become the cultural credibility marker. Ministries whose content reflects holistic care for athletes (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social) will gain trust and influence.

Have feedback on The Christian Athlete Report: Data, Trends, and Opportunities in 2026?
We’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to share any thoughts, questions, or ideas using the form below.

Authors

  • A smiling man with a bald head, beard, and wearing a gray T-shirt, standing indoors with a blurred fitness gym background.

    Brian Smith

    Brian is the author of several books including his latest Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports and The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports. He has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2008. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Brian has a master’s degree in Theology and Sports Studies through Baylor University. He lives in Lowell, Michigan, with his wife and three kids.

  • A smiling woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes standing against a light-colored paneled wall.

    Amanda Wiggins

    Amanda has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2015 where she has ministered to soccer athletes at Xavier, UNC, Duke, and NC State. She lives in Cary, North Carolina where she currently serves as a chaplain for the NC Courage. Amanda holds a certificate from Baylor’s Faith & Sports Institute in Sports Culture and Leadership and is working towards her Masters Degree in Theology of Sports Studies through Truett Seminary at Baylor University.

  • A smiling man with glasses, short brown hair, and a light complexion, wearing a blue t-shirt with a circular logo that reads 'Ultimate Training'. He is indoors with a dark background.

    Tyler Turner

    Tyler has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2009. A graduated of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tyler also has a Masters in Theology and Sports Studies at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. He has had many roles in AIA and currently serves on the Ultimate Training Camp Executive Team. Tyler lives in Madison, WI with his wife, Phoebe, and their three boys.