Metro Atlanta

Inreach, Then Outreach

FCA Baseball focuses on both mentoring their own coaches and players as well as ministering to others.  Six years ago, Bob Wiedemann started coaching an FCA Baseball team of middle school boys in North Atlanta.  At the time, two of the 12 team members were Christians. Now, of those same 12 boys, all of them have given their lives to Christ on the baseball field. In Wiedemann's words, it has gone from an "inreach" to an "outreach," as this original team, as well as 15 other FCA travel baseball teams travel throughout metro Atlanta and the rest of Georgia in an effort to not only grow as a team, but also impact others.

"We have prayer prior to, during or after every ballgame with the opposing teams and invite the umpires to join as well," Wiedemann said. "When we travel throughout metro Atlanta, we fly the FCA banner. We've got FCA on our jerseys, hats and our helmets, so everybody knows who we are and what we stand for. They're paying close attention to us."

Wiedemann said it's very rare to play a game and not have an opposing coach, player or parent question someone on his team about their beliefs. This team ministry started in 2007 with one team, but it has expanded to 16 teams throughout the metro Atlanta area and has just recently added the first FCA Baseball team outside of the United States in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. The age groups range from 10U travel ball to high school teams, and the only requirement is that the head coach is a dedicated Christian.

All of the teams take a seasonal approach, so they stay together for a minimum of a full season. The advantage, Wiedemann said, is it takes multiple seasons to establish a true sense of community within the team.

"We can really get some depth into the ministry in that type of situation, which is really the advantage of team ministry," he said. "It takes a full season for it to really sink in. In season two it starts to go into the home, you start seeing some questions and things from parents. Coming into season three, it's pretty unreal what begins to happen."

Each team is required to do community service projects during their season. This involves going to homeless shelters, local food banks –– it really depends on the age of the kids and where they feel led to serve. Every athlete and every coach on every team is resourced with an Athlete's Bible and in addition, FCA teams freely distribute these resources to opposing teams throughout the season.

The benefits of team ministry are numerous; however, one key aspect is the fact that we are reaching athletes, coaches and their families in areas that have not been previously touched.