August 23, 2019
By: Bill Conger
Churches in DeKalb County will need to dust off their bats and gloves for the return of Church Co-ed League Softball this September.
“The whole purpose of this league is ministry and evangelism,” says Jordan Atnip, league facilitator and Youth and Worship Minister at Smithville First Baptist Church. “There’s going to be a competitive nature there, and that’s fine, but we’re holding the coaches responsible for making sure that their teams exhibit sportsmanlike and Christ-like behavior at all times.”
For the last several years, DeKalb County has been without church league softball even though surrounding counties still continued their programs. Kids have been going up to bat at the Bill Page field during the summer months, but the bases have been empty in the fall. Organizers wanted something to fill the gap.
“At first the conversation was more about a church league tournament,” explains Atnip. “Then, we got to talking to some of the coaches in the league, and they said we like church league in general. There are a lot of people who really love it and miss it.”
In the past some churches recruited talented athletes to their rosters that never entered the church doors. This time league organizers are encouraging churches to stack their teams but with an evangelical angle.
“The gimmick of it is they have to attend if they’re going to play,” Atnip says. “By all means, teams recruit the best players you can find, but they have to attend your church or begin to attend your church in order to play. Essentially, we reach out to unchurched athletes, and that’s the ministry side of it.”
“We’re not going to be showing up at your churches on Sunday mornings to make sure if these players are showing up, but we’re going to trust that you’re going to be honest. The ministry and evangelical side of it does not work unless you get people to attend church services. Maybe at first they are just attending because they want to play. That’s between them and the Lord, but they’re at least going to have to be present for the gospel being spoken.”
Churches have until August 29 to sign up their churches via email at dekalbchurchleague@gmail.com. The cost is $250 per church, which covers the cost of field maintenance and to have someone to keep the books.
Logan Cornelius from New Life Pentecostal Church, Darrell Gill from Smithville Church of the Nazarene, and Daniel Leslie from Elizabeth Chapel Baptist Church will serve as league commissioners. A coaches meeting will be scheduled within a few days of the sign-up deadline.
The first ball of the church league season will be thrown out the second week of September.
“We’re keeping Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays open and potentially 3 games a night at 6, 7, and 8 o’clock,” Atnip says. “We don’t know how many teams we’re going to have right now. It may end up being two games a night instead of three, but we wanted to have a lot of variety and a lot of options. If you’ve got three nights a week and three times slots that means up to 18 teams can play one game in a week. “
“This gives coaches the opportunity to tell us what we’re going to call blackout times. For example, say that one church has several people that work out of town, and they don’t get in until about 6:30. They would black them out on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays in the 6 o’clock time slot.”
Atnip says churches will have no cap on the number of players on the roster, but they need to make sure 9 or 10 people are available to play when a game is scheduled. Games will run through October.
“We’re talking about doing a big tournament event to wrap the season up, and we’re going to have all the churches involved set up little booths and kind of make it like Community Day,” Atnip says. “We’re going to encourage the churches to bring food. We’re not going to open the concession stand that day. The idea is that the churches will be serving food to people as another opportunity to evangelize.”
Again the deadline for churches to sign up is August 29. Shoot an email to dekalbchurchleague@gmail.com.