Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the opinions of church sports programs leaders concerning what they believe should be the primary focus of church sports programs, and to compare those opinions with the actual focus in their church sports programs. Subjects were 40 Christian church sports programs leaders in Anderson, Indiana. Church sports programs leaders were mailed questionnaires which were designed for the study. There was a 65% response rate. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The analysis of the questionnaires indicated that there was basic agreement that the primary focus of church sports programs should be on both serving the evangelistic purposes of the church, and serving the discipleship purposes of the church. However, the actual focus of the church sports programs was found to be on church members. The higher percentage of time spent on members of the church (67.8%) also reflected the actual focus of church sports programs on the members. The information gathered indicated that there was a significant difference between what the opinions of the church sports leaders were regarding what they believed should be the primary purpose of church sports programs, and what the sports programs actually had as their primary focus. While church sports programs leaders believed their sports programs should primarily focus on both the church member and non-members as an outreach, the majority of church sports programs spent most of their time on the members of their church.