Faith and Fitness in the Church of England

Faith and Fitness

Faith and Fitness began in April 2013. The idea was to build a community, within the wider Holy Trinity Brompton network, of those who liked sport and had an interest in learning, growing and sharing their faith in a sports-based small group.

Our group started with nine members and we quickly saw significant growth with our fortnightly events attracting 20 to 25 people. As well as offering four different sport streams: Table Tennis, Badminton, Squash and Running, we also organised special events including Christmas socials, sports days and weekends away – these enabled us to deepen our relationships and attract more people to the group.

All sessions start with a prayer and in our Run Stream for example, we started with a prayer and cycle session in the spin studio. Whilst on the run, we would stop at 1-mile points for ‘prayer intervals’, where we could reflect on the scripture or topic we were studying.

Over the past two years we have studied the books of Titus, James, Acts, Ephesians, and Galatians. We have also completed studies on The Fruits of the Spirit, The Armour of God, and the Alpha Course (Sports Version).

We always finished with a ‘survivor’s photo’ and a closing prayer which give us the opportunity to pray for each other and share our thanks.

As the group has grown, consolidated and developed we have become a small family where we pray, gather and meet regularly to play sports, pray and encourage each other as a group and one-on-one.

Jason’s Story – regular member for two years.

“Faith and Fitness has changed my life: not only have I become physically fitter but I spiritually fit – the Holy Spirit flows through me more than before, and I have learnt more about faith and about the word of GOD. My faith, fellowship and friendships have all grown and without Faith and Fitness I wouldn’t be as strong in my faith as I am today. God bless you and thanks for everything that you do.”

Nigel’s Story – attending from the beginning.

“Faith and Fitness has been a great outlet for me during my time in London. I have been able to deepen existing friendships, make new friendships and exercise in a positive environment, whilst growing with other Christians. ‘Growing in Ministry’ has stretched my faith and being asked to lead one of the sessions has been wonderfully developing for me.”

Faith and Fitness has now been going for two and a half years and all sessions use the new Free and Fit format. We run sessions in two different locations in the Diocese of London: A weekly Friday lunchtime session at St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe from 1:00 until 1:45pm; and a monthly Monday session in Hammersmith Sports and Squash Centre from 7 until 9:30pm.

We will be shortly making the Free and Fit resources available to download from the Faith and Fitness website.

Personally for me Faith and Fitness has been a real blessing. It has enabled me to welcome people from all over the world including Europe, the Philippines, India, Nigeria, America, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. I have made deep friendships and we remain in community, encourage one another in our faith, and live out Hebrews 24-25:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching”.

Our plan for 2016 is to publish a collection of stories written by our members sharing how they have found freedom whilst completing the course. We really hope that this will inspire churches and individuals and provide an opportunity to share the gospel message. So if this inspires you or you are interested in developing you own sports ministry, I would love to meet you – please do get in-touch or join us to get physically and spiritually active.

Faith and fitness can be found online, through its facebook pages, or its twitter feed, or email its founder Tim Cheux.

Tim Cheux, Founder of Faith and Fitness, is a former Physical Education teacher and is now the School Chaplain at Archbishop Tenison School. This is a new partnership with St Marks Church Kennington, in Southwark, where Tim is also a part-time Youth Worker.