“It might sound silly to say that God is using pickleball to bring people to Himself,” said Christian author Dee Brestin.
Silly or not, it’s true. Pickleball, a racket-based sport that mimics a mixture of badminton and tennis, has been named by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association as the fastest-growing sport in America. With up to 36 million players across the United States, pickleball is today’s neighborhood sport because of its affordability and accessibility. And with the influx of pickleball enthusiasts looking for a court to play on comes the unique opportunity for Christians to engage the lost in their communities and to initiate gospel conversations.
“We’ve seen tempers tamed, marriages repaired, and souls saved among our pickleball friends,” Brestin explained. “In an increasingly online and isolated world, having a physical place to connect over an interest, with time enough to have meaningful conversations, has been remarkably fruitful.”
Brestin, who is helping facilitate a church plant in Wisconsin, said half of the church’s members are individuals who originally met through pickleball. With persistent outreach and relational investment, conversations began to flow from small talk about work and hobbies to the deep love of Christ – and Brestin’s congregation is not alone.
Filling the gap
Taylor Graffeo’s pickleball journey began like most, but two years later, he transformed his hobby into a Christian-owned business with eternal impact.
After discovering the sport on a makeshift court at his local gym, Graffeo quickly became a pickleball enthusiast. While exploring different parks and courts, he began encountering numerous players with whom he would initiate basic conversations.
“I realized that all this time I’m playing pickleball, I’m not talking about my faith or spirituality or anything like that,” Graffeo told The Stand. “I also realized I was meeting a lot of different people, which I would guess is a common story … great community, a lot of friends, easy to connect with people.”
As he became immersed in the world of pickleball, it wasn’t long before Graffeo’s desire for deeper relationships merged with his past entrepreneurial experience to form Glory Pickleball, a Christian-owned pickleball company based in Columbus, Ohio.
The company’s products, including gear bags, grip tape, apparel, and pickleball paddles, feature a cross or the word glory – simple designs that can initiate crucial conversations.
Graffeo’s hope is that at the end of a game, when players traditionally tap paddles as a sign of sportsmanship, the display of a cross on the handle endcap could spark faith-related questions.
“It’s kind of a subtle conversation starter. The paddle is called the ‘Glory Pickleball Paddle.’ It has the word glory on it, and that could mean a million different things. But if you kind of have your eye on it, your heart receptive to spiritual conversations, it’s an easy question to ask: ‘What is that?’” Graffeo explained.
Operating Glory Pickleball out of his garage and with his wife’s support, Graffeo said he has seen the growth of his business directly correlate with his personal spiritual growth.
“I’m excited that I’m able to have something that fills a gap, fills a need for people in my local community and around the world,” Graffeo added. “I think the growth of the business is going to be slow and steady, which is what I want. I want to get more paddles into people’s hands and give people excuses to talk about God.”
Graffeo is not the only one seeking to initiate gospel conversations on the pickleball court.
Forging connections
Upon leaving her position as assistant dean at Liberty University in 1990, Judy Bowman felt God guiding her toward recreational ministry. Since then, she has led 15 coast-to-coast bicycle evangelism trips, written a book, and taught people of all ages how to play pickleball – all for the greater purpose of making Christ’s name known.
“God has knocked my socks off; I’ll tell you that,” Bowman shared with The Stand. “I really think it’s the heart of the believer [for] God [to use] us to look and see every opportunity we can to get the gospel message out. … That’s the key to any type of ministry.”
Bowman’s ministry, Wheel Power Christian Cyclists, originated through cross-country bicycle evangelism trips. She launched the pickleball arm of her ministry in 2010 by offering free pickleball clinics to senior citizens in church gyms across Lynchburg, Virginia.
“Nobody had heard of pickleball in our town,” Bowman said. “I figured if I could start a bicycle ministry [through which God] has used me to see thousands of people come to know the Lord, then, wow – what will He do through pickleball?”
Following the program’s tremendous success, Bowman sought to forge deeper spiritual connections with her students and began implementing a spiritual object lesson into every skill she taught.
“I thought, ‘If people are so excited about this sport [and willing to] park in the church parking lot and come into the church gym, this has got to be the way that God wants me to start sharing the gospel and not just play pickleball,’” Bowman explained.
Creating a pickleball “halftime,” Bowman gathered students mid-play to hear a devotion – a practice she encourages all churches hosting pickleball tournaments to participate in.
Today, alongside her son, Bowman teaches pickleball clinics at churches across the country, in addition to leading bicycle evangelism trips. She also provides free pickleball-themed gospel tracts to any believer seeking to begin his or her own pickleball ministry.
“People will start opening up once they feel comfortable that you really do care,” Bowman said. “I remember years ago reading this statement that said, ‘People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.’ And I use that when I witness. … I preach out of the love of Who Jesus Christ is.”
Following the call
Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Christians who aim for simple obedience to Jesus’ command in Matthew 9 may take different approaches while still being unified under the purpose of expanding God’s kingdom. Whether believers have been playing pickleball long before it became popular, or they have never picked up a paddle, America’s fastest-growing sport presents a field ready for harvest.
(Digital Editor's Note: This article was published first in the October 2024 print edition of The Stand. Click HERE for a free six-month subscription.)
