VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Until about 15 years ago, St. John’s Baptist Church in this resort community was surrounded by farms and country roads. Today those farms have been replaced by $500,000 houses filled with people eager to enjoy Virginia Beach’s leisurely lifestyle.
“We’ve gone from farming community to upper middle-class suburb,” said Bob Pipkin, the church’s pastor.
But that posed a problem, said Pipkin. “We had a hard time getting young families to church — they’ve got so much going on with sporting activities at school and other events. We had to figure out how to draw them in.”
A St. John’s soccer clinic at a nearby indoor playing field.
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The answer, St. John’s discovered, was the very thing keeping some of those families away — sports.
“We decided, why not try to work with it instead of work against it,” said the pastor. “For too long we’d seen that sports were competing against us, so we decided to use it to bring people in.”
In many ways it was a natural. The church is about 10 miles from Virginia Beach’s boardwalk, and seven miles from Sandbridge, a popular beach destination. Embracing its resort environment by offering ministries focused on sports, St. John’s has increased its impact in the city.
“We learned that if we could at least get people introduced to the church and the Lord through sports-based events, they were much more willing to try us out,” said Pipkin. “It changed our focus and efforts at reaching out.”
The church’s success was recognized in October at a joint meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board and the Association of Resort and Leisure Ministers, who presented St. John’s its Resort Church of the Year award for 2011.
“It’s exciting to see a church and its leaders realize that God has placed them in an area with special opportunities, understanding that people at play are often in great need of the powerful message of a loving Lord,” said Billy Hutchinson, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s coordinator of resort/ leisure ministries.
Pipkin said St. John’s began its sports ministries about four years ago.
Bob Pipkin (center) with the Resort Church of the Year award, joined by (from left) Jeff Wagner, a North American Mission Board staffer; Emilie Morrison, associate pastor at St. John’s; Beth Pipkin, the church’s after school director; and Billy Hutchinson, resort and leisure ministries coordinator for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and president of the Association of Resort and Leisure Ministers.
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“We got a call from someone asking if we wanted to sponsor a soccer clinic,” he said. “We discussed it and decided it might be worth trying.”
It worked so well, he said, that the church increased the number of clinics it offered and developed a partnership with local soccer leagues.
“We’ve even been able to use an indoor soccer field, which takes this ministry outside the church building,” he added.
In 2012, the ministry will add clinics and include one on the beach for sand soccer, Pipkin said.
Helping with the clinics over the past year were two Brazilians — both soccer players — who are living and working in Virginia Beach. Initially, both lived with Pipkin and his wife, Beth.
One of the men, who was playing professionally in North Carolina, married a woman from Tennessee and they settled in Virginia Beach, said Pipkin. He’s currently coaching at a local high school.
The second Brazilian is helping expand the church’s after school sports program to include academic tutoring. Beth Pipkin, a retired public school teacher, is coordinating the effort, which is “turning the sports and leisure ministry into a year-round program,” he said.
Golf is proving to be another draw, with the opening of a nearby retirement community centered on a golf course.
“We’ve had several people join from there,” said Pipkin. “In the next couple of months we’re starting a small group for couples there in the evening as well as a men’s Bible study. And we’re working with Billy [Hutchinson of the Mission Board] to distribute information about the Christian Golfers’ Association.”
A more intentional focus on the beach itself is in the works for St. John’s. Last summer the congregation developed plans to distribute water bottles at the East Coast Surfing Championships, held every August in Virginia Beach since 1965. But Hurricane Irene put a stop to that initiative.
Next summer, said Pipkin, the church hopes to begin a ministry to lifeguards at nearby Sandbridge, whose location at the extreme northern end of the Outer Banks is popular with visitors looking for a beach vacation more remote than Virginia Beach’s boardwalk.
“We’ll hand out welcome kits, distribute water and offer church services to lifeguards who can’t leave the beach for church on Sundays,” said Pipkin. He added he’s in discussion with other churches in the area to collaborate on ministry in Sandbridge. “We don’t need to compete,” he said.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.