Frinton Free Church Sports: Football: The Team

The Church Football Team formed on the back of our annual Boxing Day football match.
Fathers and sons would play against each other on cold winter Boxing Day mornings and from that we entered a Church league based in Colchester in 1993. As you can see from the above picture the father-son game has had to change—Dads have been retiring from footie far too early!
We have participated in the league ever since and been quite successful.
As Manager I believe football, and indeed sport, to be one of the best ways to show a glimpse of what Christianity is all about—we don’t go on the pitch and read a Bible passage to the opposition or start praying for each other while we are playing! We don’t shy away from a hard tackle and don’t mind if we lose. But we do try and play fair and treat each other with the respect that is not apparent in many secular leagues. This is what makes it different. One member of the team who had been playing in a local league said that the Church league is such a good place to feel welcome and not feel threatened.
There are 10 teams in the league we play in, all Church-based, with half of each team required to be regular church-attenders. We play each other in a league system before going through to a Cup Competition based on our league placing.

National Christian Football Festival
Each year we compete in a National Christian Football Festival where unaffiliated and affiliated teams from across the country compete in a weekend-long tournament. It is an opportunity for fellowship as a team with other church teams, and for people who have no real contact with a church to hear and see the gospel in action.