Course Offerings
Each course is eight weeks in length and delivered online through Canvas Catalog. As a non-credit course, there are no academic prerequisites to enroll. Each week will include specially-designed and selected readings and learning engagement activities. You will receive constructive and meaningful feedback from the instructor and opportunities to interact with your peers.
Sports & Theology
Developed by former athletes who are experts in practical theology, sports ministry, biblical studies, and history, this class will help Christians understand and relate to sports in a deeper way.
Course outcomes include:
- Understand how to see and experience sports through God’s story
- Apply theological concepts to the people and culture of sports
- Explore the ways sports culture shapes motivations, values, and practices
- Practice self-reflection for spiritual growth and leadership
- Examine current issues and trends in sports through a Christian lens
- Develop a contextually relevant theological model for engaging in sports
Sports Leadership
Developed by a team of experts with experience in coaching, theology, virtue ethics, organizational planning, counseling, and philosophy, this class will provide a holistic model for Christian leadership in sports.
Course outcomes include:
- Develop a personal mission statement and leadership philosophy
- Cultivate self-leadership by understanding and applying your values
- Influence others toward character and community formation
- Integrate Christian faith and virtues into competition
- Learn organizational planning and management principles for building your team
- Design and implement your own strategic plan in your sporting context
Bible & Sports
This course, developed by an expert in New Testament Studies and Theology, will look at how we should think about, use, and interpret the Bible for sports contexts thoughtfully and faithfully. We will first examine several unhelpful uses of the Bible applied to sports before looking at how we might understand the Scriptures on its own terms. We end the course returning to the world of sports and the Bible and discovering how they might be brought together in a way that is faithful to the text, useful for the believer, and transformational for our involvement in sports.
Course outcomes include:
- Explore the ways in which Christian athletes can meaningfully connect their activities in sports to the Bible
- Thoughtfully and faithfully apply the Bible in daily life
- Understand and articulate the diverse cultural contexts of the Bible and the role it plays in interpretation
- Understand how to read sporting contexts through the Bible (and not vice versa)
- Appropriately understand and apply the athletic metaphors in the Bible
- Explore creative ways the Bible speaks into sports apart from athletic imagery
Sports & Race
Developed by a historian in consultation with experts in theology, ethics, and sports ministry, this class examines the intersection of race, sports, and Christianity in the United States from a historical and contemporary lens.
Course outcomes include:
- Develop a theological and biblical framework for approaching questions about racial identity and racial justice in sports
- Enhance cultural literacy and understanding of sports by exploring how the past has shaped the present
- Consider and examine the ways that racism has been both promoted and resisted in American sports history
- Learn from the historical examples of Christian athletes and coaches who were involved with debates about racial inclusion and racial justice
- Evaluate current issues related to racism in sports from a Christian perspective
- Apply course concepts to an action plan specific to your sports context
Mental Health in Sports
Developed by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in theology, psychology, and counseling, this course will teach Christians in sports how to think about mental health from a Christian and clinical perspective.
Course outcomes include:
- Recognize mental health care as a Christian concern and essential component of human flourishing
- Explore the mind-body-spirit connection as it applies to both sports performance and overall human wellbeing
- Understand stigmas revolving around mental illness within society and the sports world
- Examine and develop awareness of specific mental illnesses and mental health challenges prevalent in the sports world
- Learn proven practices and resources specific to mental health in your sports context in order to best care for yourself and others
The Christian Athlete
This course is centered on Brian Smith’s book, The Christian Athlete. It will provide students with additional readings, video content, and activities intended to help Christian athletes and those who lead them engage in a deep way with the questions, concerns, and issues addressed in The Christian Athlete.
Course outcomes include:
- Enter into an ongoing conversation about what it means to be a Christian athlete
- Understand and reflect on key questions and concerns facing Christian athletes within their sports contexts
- Align sports participation for self and others with an understanding of who God is and our place in the biblical narrative
- Learn practical steps for spiritual growth and discernment within real-world situations in sports and life
- Participate in and help to cultivate safe spaces for questions, conversation, and dialogue related to sports and Christian faith
This course requires students to purchase Brian Smith's book The Christian Athlete.
Sports & Spiritual Formation
Developed by a team of experts with experience in theology, spiritual direction, virtue ethics, psychology, counseling, and sports ministry, this course introduces students to the ancient and modern practice of spiritual formation in and through the experience of sports.
Course outcomes include:
- Engage with a practical theology of spiritual formation
- Understand the place of spiritual disciplines within the Christian tradition
- Analyze the culture of sports and its impact on spiritual formation and Christian worship
- Examine how others have connected spiritual formation to athletics
- Identify and practice disciplines for spiritual growth within sports
- Reflect on and experience the importance of the Christian community for spiritual formation
Sports Chaplaincy
Developed by a team of experts with experience in theology, history, chaplaincy, counseling, and sports ministry, this course introduces students to the role of a chaplain in sports, the practice of holistic spiritual care, and ways chaplains can engage with the people and culture of sports. This course is intended for those interested in sports chaplaincy and those already serving within the field.
Objectives:
- Examine the history and current landscape of sports chaplaincy
- Articulate a working theology of sports chaplaincy
- Develop an awareness of cultural context, including pluralism and diversity in sports
- Explore the practical skills and competencies of effective sports chaplaincy
- Identify and understand standards of care, ethics, and accountability
- Learn different approaches to sports chaplaincy from experienced practitioners
Youth Sports
Developed by a team of experts with experience in theology, history, youth and family ministry, coaching, and sports ministry, this course examines the culture of youth sports from a Christian perspective. Students will consider the present landscape of youth sports, identify best practices, and develop a strategy for Christians to engage redemptively in their youth sports context.
Learning outcomes:
- Evaluate and reflect on the cultural landscape of youth sports.
- Examine challenges and opportunities for Christian formation through youth sports.
- Consider the relationship between youth sports and the church.
- Identify and explore critical issues in youth sports.
- Identify and explore principles and practices for healthy sports engagement.
- Develop an action plan for youth sports in your context.