Ministry Ideas | From Pickup Games to Pastoring

In Taiwan, basketball isn’t just a game—it’s a gateway.

Most hoopers play three-on-three. If your team loses, you’re benched for 10 to 15 minutes, just vibing with your crew. That downtime? Prime time for connecting. You’d be surprised how fast you can stack up new contacts during those moments. I like to call it the basketball funnel, but really, any laid-back sport works—ultimate frisbee, soccer, volleyball, even American football. It’s not always about the sport itself. It’s about presence and conversation.

American football isn’t super popular in Taiwan, but if you find a niche group playing, it’s an easy in. With basketball, I’d play at one court for a few weeks, then switch it up—new location, different time—just to meet fresh faces. And when it felt right, I’d drop the question:
“Hey, would you ever want to help me start a church?”

Now, real talk—if you’re too intense about winning or take it personally when someone comes at you because you’re a foreigner, this might not be your lane. You’ve got to stay chill. After the games is when the real connection happens. A lot of guys grab food together, and that’s when the deeper conversations begin. That’s how I met Payton. We both ran the funnel and connected with some solid people.

Eventually, when our ministry got going, we didn’t need the sports funnel as much. But we always kept it in our back pocket.

When I first landed in Taiwan, I had just left China and was feeling in limbo—no real direction, no deep connection to the people yet. I’d ride my beat-up moped around, asking God, “What now? Where do I even start?” One day, I passed a university field and saw about 20 guys playing soccer. Something in me just said, “Go.”

So I did.

I jumped into the game—total strangers. I was probably just “that random foreigner” to them. But after the match, I went up to each player one by one and asked—in Mandarin—“Would you ever want to help me start a church?”

No script. No agenda. Just a simple question.

One guy said yes. His name was Payton.

We started meeting regularly for discipleship—building trust, digging into Scripture. Over the next year, we kept using that same method: basketball, volleyball, soccer. We met more people who were open, curious, or just wanted to hang. Slowly, something started to grow.

Eventually, we launched a church—made up mostly of people we met through pickup games. Guys who probably never would’ve stepped into a church otherwise.

Here’s the crazy part: fast forward to now—Payton’s church is thriving. He has deacons, and guess who they are? The same guys from those early games. One from soccer, one from basketball. Real ones, now leading others.

That’s the basketball funnel. Really, it’s the sports funnel. Simple. Organic. Powerful.

It’s not about the sport.
It’s about being present.
Reading the moment.
Throwing out the seed.

God handles the rest.