Luke Sampson from The Bridge, Coventry, writes about how starting a football team has enabled the benefice to connect and share faith with young men in their community.
Our football community group at The Bridge started, as these things often do, with a tiny mustard seed-sized vision of what it could become. Football has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember and shortly after joining St. John's Westwood in 2024, I felt God gently nudge me toward starting a football community outreach group. We began in the summer of that year with no agenda other than meeting for an hour week at the Memorial Park, welcoming whoever chose to turn up. I think there were five of us there that first week, which was about four more than I expected! I had no idea what God had in store for our group and I would have been perfectly satisfied with a small handful of guys finding joy, belonging and connection through the sport they love. God, it turns out, had much bigger plans, involving the formation of a football team, establishing a Connect Group and now an Alpha Course!
Since the summer of 2024, the group has grown exponentially! Over the last 18 months, between 50 and 60 participants have engaged with us. We now have a core group of around 30 people attending regularly - many of whom have had little to no prior exposure to the Christian faith. It quickly became apparent that there was a hunger from the guys involved to play competitive football, so Bridge FC was born! We compete as a team in the Coventry & District Church League providing an amazing opportunity for the guys to engage in organised football in a safe environment where we prioritise supporting each other, encouragement, camaraderie, inclusivity and belonging. We pray together before and after matches, as our faith in Jesus is the cornerstone of who we are and what we represent as a team. Amazingly, our players’ friends and family have come along to support the team so the influence and outreach of the group has extended far beyond the players themselves. While not everyone in the team might have a faith or share our faith, there is a beautiful level of respect shown to those who do and it is very clear everyone has a huge sense of pride and belonging whenever they put on the Bridge FC shirt.
What is truly wonderful and something I will be forever grateful for is that from the sense of belonging and inclusion that people have experienced, a curiosity in the Christian faith has blossomed. This has led to the creation of our “Connect Group”. We meet for an hour every fortnight immediately before our Wednesday night training sessions and it’s an opportunity to connect together off the pitch on a deeper level. Everyone is welcome at Connect Group, regardless of what they do or don’t believe. We talk about the things that are important to us, we talk about the less important things too, we laugh, we read the Bible together, ask each other questions and for some of us, we just listen and take it all in. I remember at the very first Connect Group wondering if I would be the only one who turned up, but there were 15 of us and I’m delighted that number has remained consistent ever since.
So what’s next? Off the pitch, it’s clear to me that God has bigger and better things planned for our group! So much so, we’ve taken a step of faith by organising an Alpha Course for anyone in our group who may be keen to explore more about faith and what it is to be in a relationship with Jesus. We have just started, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated for this to be well-received by the attendees and for Jesus to encounter them all in a wonderful way! On the pitch, we’re still waiting patiently for our first win in the league as a team, but confidence is growing rather than diminishing and the whole of Coventry better be ready when we do get that first win because you better believe we’ll be celebrating loudly!