A new soccer league is bringing families to Greenville First Church of the Nazarene while signaling that the church seeks to serve its community.

Andy Barnette, family ministries pastor at Greenville First, moved to the South Carolina church roughly a year ago and began looking for ways to support the community around them.

"Greenville is such a diverse community [and] soccer is a universal language," Barnette said. "When you start talking about soccer, you've got multiple people from numerous cultures whose ears perk up."

Thanks to a grant from the Blessing Our Community initiative of the USA/Canada Region, Greenville could purchase all of the soccer equipment — goals, balls, shinguards, cleats, and uniforms — and partner with multiple refugee resettlement organizations in the Greenville area to provide soccer league scholarships for children.

To bring the league to another level, multiple life groups (small groups) "adopted" a team by cheering them on during weekly games and providing snacks. The adoption concept was so impactful that a mother of a child on the team began texting a member of Greenville First before every match to see if they would be coming to cheer on the team and her child again.

Barnette doesn't want the church’s efforts to be considered a church growth strategy. "It's just us providing a service for the community, saying, 'Hey, there's a need in the community,'" Barnette said. "There are families in our surrounding area that need community, need to interact with other families, and are looking for a place for their kids that will teach great values."

Greenville First isn't the only Church of the Nazarene that has partnered with Upward in the last year. Greenville First received a start-up grant with Upward, which has partnered with the USA/Canada Region's Blessing Our Community initiative. The grant agreement is available to churches in the United States until 31 December 2024.

"Seeing the outreach mechanism of Blessing our Community and then making disciples… that is something we love to be a part of, to stand beside the church, to reach the community, find family, share the gospel, and hopefully, in time, [participants] plug into your church," said Kristen McCraw, marketing and partnerships manager for Upward Sports.

Upward Sports is a faith-based organization that provides support and operations systems for local churches to start sports leagues and sports-based ministries. Upward Sports supports over 1,500 churches nationwide with over 300,000 participating athletes.

"As a region, we are grateful for Upward and the generosity they are giving to our local churches that want to begin utilizing sports ministry to engage with their neighbors," said Kristi Senica, a missionary for the USA/Canada Region.

"Not only is Upward providing financial incentives to churches that might not have a large budget to get started with a new type of outreach ministry, but it is evident that they care about championing the local church to be a blessing in their communities, to build relationships with their community, and ultimately to be able to share the gospel with those that God places in their proximity."

For more information on the partnership between Upward and the USA/Canada Region, click here.