Ministry of sport

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Christians in the UK are facing a huge crisis of faith, the numbers of people who say they are churchgoers is falling and the church is worried. Shari Vahl meets the Anglicans harnessing the power of sport to try and reconnect people with a faith many had chosen to forget. Churches in Norwich, a city in the east of England are challenging people’s ideas of what ‘a church’ is, setting up the Sports Factory to use football to bring people, particularly young men, to God. Shari meets 24 year old Ian at the regular Monday night football, men his age are the most likely to turn their back on conventional Sunday services. He says it was the sport that brought him together with other Christians who enjoy sport, and that allowed him to feel his version of faith, rather than having it imposed by the church. The Church of England is spending spend nearly two million pounds training special sports ministers, they admit it’s a gamble, but with many churches closing across the country, it’s a gamble that needs to work. Image: A football during an English Premier League match (Credit: Richard Calver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)