American Sports Camps in the UK
Breakaway Outreach UK is missionally aligned through the Breakaway Outreach Global Network, serving communities in the UK for the purpose of strategic youth outreach, leadership development, and church growth/planting movements.
We serve the church by running intercultural gospel-centred youth sports camps, and we mobilise highly trained and credentialed American coaches to go and serve on mission at the sports camps in the UK.
The UK:
We are seeing a decline both in overall church numbers but most of all in families and young people.
The problems facing the UK church are:
Vanishing youth from churches
- 75% of churches have no 0-16s,
- 68% have fewer than five young people.
- Attendance of under 16s has declined b7 20% in the last 5 years.
- 51% of churches who have 25 or more 0-16s are still in decline
- 44% of all of 0-16’s are to be found in 6.4% of churches and parishes.
Lack of resources
Studies have shown that declining finances, lack of time and people are having a direct impact on the decline of youth in church and those being reached out to.
Not enough training youth workers
- Number of trained youth workers has fallen by 52% in the last 10 years
- 70% of youth work is run by volunteers
Beyond youth work:
Those who identify as “Christians” are now a minority; 46.2%, down from 59.3% a decade earlier. Showing the decline of the UK Church.
There’s hope:
According to the 2022 Talking Jesus survey:
- people are open to hearing about Jesus
- 1 in 3 people who hear about Jesus want to know more
Our Vision
To extend God’s Kingdom through American Sports Camps, supplement church planting movements, serve the marginalised, and help develop youth ministries and next generation youth leaders.
The Aim:
To help the local church and community leaders turn the tide. Seeing God’s Kingdom grow by engaging their communities with the Gospel, making disciples of Jesus.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19
Solution: Intercultural, or “American Sports Camps”
The Camp creates direct opportunity for intentional engagement with the community and the Gospel that will lead to establishing:
- Community outreach
- Youth development
- Discipleship pathways
We work with the local church, helping create strategy and lasting impact, while shaping the camp around their goal. We help train leaders in the local communities, partnering them with US coaches so they can continue to run camps sustainably and effectively.
We see lasting change beyond the camp
- We provide mobilising impetus for churches to get active in mission through sport
- We demonstrate that this strategy works and can be adopted in a local church context
At a 1st-year American Sports Camp in the UK:
- 72.2% of young people signed up for Youth Alpha
- 92.3% completed the Alpha course
- 76.9% joined the youth group with 100% of those still actively engaged