As a bi-vocational minister, I have combined being a part-time priest with roles outside the Church. In the 2024-2025 season, I had the great privilege of working with the England Women’s Development Teams at the Football Association. This meant supporting the Junior Lionesses who played across various national teams at different levels before some of them earned their first senior cap. A completely secular role, which focused on welfare and safeguarding, it was inspiring to work with such dedicated colleagues who understood the importance of a holistic approach to player development. It was also exciting to watch players receive their first cap at the age of 13/14 and see how older players had progressed through this elite pathway to become Senior Lionesses.

THE POWER OF THE MESSAGE

Of course, being in the world of women’s football when the England Women’s Senior National Football Team, the (Senior) Lionesses, defended their European title and became back-to-back European Champions was a dream come true for an avid football fan like me! The team inspired children up and down the country to believe in the power of sport. These players inspired a nation.

The message that people saw and heard, and felt, was that football wasn’t just something that happened on the pitch; supporting the Lionesses meant gathering in living rooms, schools and community halls, pubs and restaurants, hotel lobbies and outdoor venues. Here was something that could unite us, regardless of ethnicity, creed, occupation, or hometown. Here was something that deepened our sense of community and belonging.

As a priest and ‘cradle Anglican’, it was easy for me to see that this energy and movement towards common celebration and unity in sport can also be seen in the message of the gospel, the Good News. The Christian faith, like other global religions, encourages people to meet and gather, and share in celebrations that root the faith and recognise its history and purpose.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, both human and divine, the Son of God who walked among us here on earth, and who started this movement we now call Christianity. The message that people can feel, and around which they can come together and build that sense of belonging, is ‘love’; a love that is as deep as it is wide and that is not easily understood by human limitations. Our goal as preachers is to point to that love, because it is a powerful message. How do we do that week in and week out without being repetitive and without boring our congregations and listeners?

PREPARE LIKE A PRO

In elite football, there is no point being there if you are not prepared. That goes for both the staff and the players. Of course, preparation is about ensuring that you can give your best performance against the opposing team and win. It’s also about protecting yourself from injury, giving your team options in terms of strategy and approach, and ensuring that you have learnt from past experiences. So, preparation can be part of developing a sustainable way of delivering on your objectives.

Ultimately, preparation is about building the confidence to give and be at your very best. And as in football, so it is in preaching. In terms of preaching, prayer is the fundamental starting point, whether that is ‘God, help!’ or ‘what is it exactly you want me to say about these difficult texts?’ or indeed ‘show me the way’. Prayer before preaching is like training before a football match: both are essential and are good predictors for things going well. Following this, it’s easy to grab your favourite Bible commentary or a sermon you preached some years ago with the same readings and simply update this document. There is nothing wrong with either of these approaches. In fact, these will give some level of confidence as ‘tried and tested’ methods.

Have you, however, tried a different commentary or internet resource to help you bring the texts alive and highlight their relevance for the people to whom you will be preaching? And how about giving time and headspace to the sermon that you are writing? Given the busy lives we all lead, it’s understandable to try and cram in sermon writing between the twenty things on your to-do list. See preparation as a gift you give yourself, to sit with your thoughts, work and stretch your spiritual muscles, reflect on past sermons, and consider what you already know about the people to whom you will be preaching.

Jesus prepared the Apostles through parables and modelling, through repetition and action, and quiet reflection. To prepare, therefore, is to give room for inspiration and develop good habits that underpin your preaching, and which you can lean into in all seasons.

THE TEAM MATTERS

Every football team has a ‘team behind the team’ comprising medics, psychologists, sport and performance analysts, nutritionists and other professionals. This dedicated multidisciplinary team feeds into the performance spectators see on the pitch, bringing their experience and expertise to bear on the talented players with whom they work. This is a delicate balance that must be player-centred to ensure that the focus on performance and results is not detrimental to player wellbeing and welfare.

It can be easy to think you are alone as you stare at the blank page on your screen waiting for that sermon to self-generate. You’ve prayed, you’ve read the set readings, and you’ve scoured online for a funny joke to start your sermon. Yet, nothing. As preachers, we can learn a thing or two from the collaborative working behind the best football and sports teams.

In addition to holding on to the message of the love of Jesus Christ, it’s important to also recognise that sermons are a collaborative practice, between you and those who listen, between you and the context in which you serve, and between you and the world. So, what is going on in your community that is speaking

to the texts about which you are going to preach? How have local and global events and activities in recent weeks affected you and your community? Where has the love of God been made visible in your context and in the world? And who has recently given you words, images and stories that have stayed with you? All these bring wisdom and insight to your sermon writing and will hopefully weave themselves together as you think of what and how to preach.

Sermons do not have to write themselves in one sitting; they come to us in snippets, phrases and scenes in the weeks, months and days before we are to preach. So, to write the sermon is to gather in one place that collaboration, direct and indirect inspiration from around and in you, shaped and guided by the Holy Spirit, to enable you to preach something of meaning that is neither self-indulgent nor unduly austere. What you write remains subject to further collaboration with those who hear your words, thanks to the dynamism of the Holy Spirit and what happens in the space between you preaching and when it lands in the listener’s ear and heart.

BEING ‘OFF FEET’

Ministry can sometimes oscillate between feeling like a marathon (Advent and Christmas) and a sprint (Holy Week). In football, the phrase ‘off feet’ signifies time for the players to recharge and not be on their feet for too long. That could be simply relaxing with teammates or anything that does not overly work their feet and muscles before a big game. The busyness of being a parish priest or chaplain, or serving in another ministerial context, can often mean that being ‘off feet’ can feel like a bit of a pipedream. Yes, this is also key for us as ministers and preachers. ‘Off feet’ for us could mean inviting someone else to preach, or giving lay leaders, ordinands and those exploring their vocation the opportunity to take the ‘sermon slot’. When we are not preaching, we are in full-listening mode, a great way to learn and feed our own ‘inner life’.

And being ‘off feet’ is about conserving energy and not overworking. So, taking time to recharge, going on retreat before a particularly busy season, engaging in the creative arts, reading, listening to music and watching films are vital for the preacher’s life. These activities may also seem like ‘thieves of time’, especially when you’re working to a deadline, but time away from preaching can feed into richer and more nuanced reflections and sermon writing when you are back at your desk. Elite football players live and breathe football, but it was also important to remind them that their other interests were important, too, and that the whole person could be nurtured and affirmed while still focusing on their specific gifts, skills, and abilities. And so, too, with preachers.