Youth Sports and Sunday Mornings

One of our Research Fellows here at CPYU, Dr. Jason Engle, wrote one of our CPYU Parent Prompts on youth sports and church participation. Jason tells us that for families with young athletes, the pressure to participate in travel and club teams continues to intensify, with parents having to make difficult decisions about whether or not their child will participate on a Sunday morning. Jason offers this advice regarding how youth sports can become an idol: Jesus teaches that, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. Jesus alone stands as the only worthy object of what our hearts look to as supreme treasure. This should shape the goal of every parent for the heart of their child: to know and treasure Jesus as supreme. We fall into idolatry when we instead set our hearts’ supreme affections on anything other than the One who is worthy of it. Anything that makes high demands of our calendar and our bank account can quickly pull us toward idolatry, including youth sports.