The National Basketball Association has dunking sensation Vince Carter. ` College basketball boasts coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski.
The National Basketball Association has dunking sensation
Vince Carter. ` College basketball boasts coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski.
But the Upward Basketball League lays claim to a far greater
presence on the basketball court – 120,000 girls and boys learning about
Jesus and jump shots.
Through this unique ministry, more than 600 churches this year
will have the opportunity to teach children fundamental basketball skills while
also sharing with them about salvation.
“Upward Basketball is not a traditional basketball league,”
says Shane McKenzie, Upward Unlimited vice president of operations. “Its primary
focus is outreach. It’s not about championships. It’s not about trophies.
What we’re about is changed lives and creating opportunities to share the
Lord.”
The Upward Basketball season consists of eight games and 10
practices. Boys and girls in grades one through six are invited to participate.
There is a fee for a child to join the league, but kids receive a bag full of
basketball goodies. Scholarships are available for kids who need financial assistance.
Upward Unlimited President Caz McCaslin created Upward Basketball
in 1986 at his church in Spartanburg, S.C. In 1994, Upward Basketball consisted
of just one participating church – but enrollment had boomed to more than
700 children.
“A friend told me, ‘You don’t need another gym. You
need a 1,000 more gyms,’” McCaslin recalls.
By 1996, the ministry had grown to 64 churches and more than
13,000 children. Each year since, the number of churches and children participating
has doubled. Today, 610 churches nationwide are involved in Upward Basketball.
Based on information returned to Upward Unlimited, the average
number of people saved per church is 22.
Head coaches give their teams a devotional midway through each
practice. At each Saturday game, a member of the sponsoring church walks to
half-court and gives a five-minute testimony to parents.
“People are encouraged, motivated and excited about telling
their story,” McCaslin explains. “Upward basketball is structured so that a
lot of people can contribute bits and pieces. There are so many different areas
to get involved.”
Church members are encouraged to serve as coaches, assistant coaches, half-time
speakers, referees, commissioners, directors and prayer partners.
The season culminates with a special awards night at which
every child receives an award. Parents, grandparents and friends are invited
to the ceremony, which is held in the church. At every awards night in every
church across the country, the message of salvation is shared.
McCaslin relates one testimony in which a minister shared with
him the amazement of looking out over his church and realizing there were more
lost people in attendance than had ever been in that sanctuary.
One hundred days prior to awards night, every church seeks
to recruit 100 people to pray for their fellowship’s Upward Basketball
ministry, McCaslin points out.
“So you can be in Hong Kong and still be praying for your Upward
Basketball in South Carolina,” he notes. “It begins to involve people in the
church who have never been involved before.”
Upward Basketball also reaches out to people who otherwise
never would be reached. The program is successful in part because the United
States is such a sports-oriented society, McCaslin suggests.
“To reach the lost, you have to think ‘lost,’” says
former pastor Greg Sandivol who now is devoting his ministry to Upward Basketball.
“You have to think, ‘What would they be attracted to?’ The uniforms
are great. The posters are great. It’s marketed very well.”
Sandivol served as a pastor in San Jose, Calif., but recently
moved with his family to Las Vegas to start Upward Basketball leagues. Nevada
currently has no programs.
“My goal is to plant as many leagues in Las Vegas as possible,”
Sandivol says. “That’s where I’m going to start.”
A recreation center is not even necessary for a church to run
an Upward Basketball program, organizers emphasize. For instance, First Baptist
Church of Daytona Beach, Fla., uses multiple courts around the community for
practice and for games.
And while waiting for the completion of its life center facility,
Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., used its chapel as a basketball
court. Portable basketball goals were set up and tape was laid down for out-of-bounds
and free throw lines.
Hunter Street began its league in 1996 with 114 kids. This
year, it has 400 children participating in a now maxed-out facility.
“I had been doing church recreation for 18 years, and this
is the best thing that has come along in sports in all my years of ministry,”
says Bill Palmer, family life minister at Hunter Street. “If it weren’t
for Upward Basketball, so many people would have never stepped into a Baptist
church.”
Just as compelling as the impact on those outside the church
are the testimonies of people within the church community. McCaslin received
an e-mail that he says demonstrates how Upward Basketball has impacted the lives
of people and children within the church.
The man wrote:
“A boy in our church loved to play Upward Basketball. He would
play his heart out because he loved it. A few weeks back he fell into a coma
from bleeding on the brain. He died on Thanksgiving. His father asked anyone
who was going to send flowers to do something else instead. He asked them to
donate the money that they were going to spend on flowers to go towards scholarships
for Upward Basketball. (The boy’s) father said that Upward was one of the
few things he loved to do.”
The boy’s story is just one of many testimonies associated
with Upward Basketball – and the program continues to grow.
“We’re just using a ball to share Christ,” Sandivol says
of the effort.
“And we’re reaching people we’ve never reached before.”
(BP)