Marv Plementosh (One Million Tracts) and I, with the help of Nick Rolland, may have just published the ultimate sports gospel tract. The title: VICTORY. This customizable tract can be used at any team sport venue, for any team.
How We Got the Idea
Grace Fellowship Church of Davenport, IA (soon to be the home of the Miano Family and Cross Encounters Ministries), is an evangelistically pro-active church. The church, as a body and as individuals, is regularly engaged in various forms of public evangelism. Those forms include, but are not limited to: abortuary ministry, sports event ministry, open-air preaching, gospel tract distribution, and one-to-one conversations with members of the community.
Not long ago, Elder Nick Rolland contacted me and asked me to review the text of gospel tract he was developing. The purpose of the tract was for use outside of University of Iowa football games. Each Hawkeyes home game can have an attendance of 60-70 thousand people. Sporting events like college football games present Christians with wonderful opportunities to present and communicate the gospel to tens of thousands of people. One fine ministry that focuses its evangelistic efforts on large-scale sporting events is Sports Fan Outreach International.
Elder Nick allowed me to edit the text a bit to make sure it would fit on a business card-size gospel tract. I ran the idea by Marv Plementosh and he designed the front of the tract, which features the black and gold color scheme of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.
Why I Think This Might be the Ultimate Sports Gospel Tract
While this particular gospel tract idea began as a customized tract for a specific church and specific outreach, I thought this gospel tract had the potential for a much wider use and reach.
I sent Marv an email to pitch the idea. I wrote:
I did a little research and this particular tract can be used not only at University of Iowa games, but also:
Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Penguins
New Orleans Saints
University of Central Florida
Wichita State University
Grambling State University
Southern Mississippi University
Appalachian State University
Wake Forest University.If you offer it in the various major sports color schemes, and then in the description of the tract add what schools and professional teams use the color scheme, it should make the tract very attractive to a lot of people.
The tract is worded so that it can be used for any team with the color scheme on the front of the tract. In fact any color scheme can be used anywhere at any time.
Marv loved the idea (we work really well together; kinda like Fred and Barney, Starsky and Hutch, Sherlock and Watson, Sanford and son…..).
A Tract You Can Use with Any Team, Anywhere, Anytime
When you go to the page for the VICTORY gospel tract, you will see that you get to pick the background and lettering colors. Most college and professional team color schemes consist of a primary and a secondary color. You select the colors for your gospel tract to match your local college or professional football, basketball, baseball, or soccer team, or for the teams playing during a game where you and/or your evangelism team will be ministering.
The VICTORY Text
And you don’t have to worry about developing the text for your customized VICTORY gospel tract. Regardless of the color scheme you select, we’ve written a standard text. Here it is:
Victory. Even though you’re not on the field, you feel like you’re part of the team as you cheer your team to victory. Have you experienced victory over sin and death? “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57). When you die you will stand before God to give an account for your life. He will judge you according to His perfect moral standard. If you’ve ever lied, stolen, taken God’s name in vain, or sinned in any other way, God will find you guilty. Your punishment will be eternity in hell. God has provided only one way for you to have victory over sin and death. God sent his Son to earth in the person of Jesus Christ—fully God and fully man, without sin. He voluntarily shed his innocent blood and died on the cross, taking upon Himself the punishment you rightly deserve for your sins against God. Three days later, He victoriously rose from the grave. Repent and believe the gospel. www.yougotourtract.com
While the colors of the VICTORY gospel tract are interchangeable, the gospel is not. It is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The gospel about which no true Christian is ashamed is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16).
Order Your VICTORY Tracts Today!
Oh. One more thing. The VICTORY gospel tract can be used anywhere you find sports fans. You don’t have to be standing outside a stadium to distribute this gospel tract. At school, work, the coffee shop, on the streets, at the grocery store: carry the VICTORY gospel tract and your favorite sports team’s colors in your pocket. Even if the person to whom you give the tract doesn’t share your love for a particular team, it might make a fun transition into what could be an eternally fruitful gospel conversation.
Bill Adams says
Good job Tony. Your link will be shared today. Press on!