A US-based group of Christian stunt bikers and skateboarders recently joined a festival in North England to show their skills and share the Gospel.
Action Sports Outreach (ASO) was in Festival Manchester with a mission to share their faith as they do artistic twists and jumps with their bicycles. The ministry uses extreme sports and bike tricks to reach people for Jesus. The group is seeing a growing impact on their work especially to young people, reports Evangelical Focus.
Festival Manchester is a biennial music and arts festival in England that attracts thousands of people from all walks of life. In this year’s event, over 3,000 people were inspired to accept Jesus in their lives.
And after the stunts we share Jesus. —John Andrus, evangelist, Action Sports Outreach
“The reason we like to use action sports is because it draws attention,” explained John Andrus, BMX evangelist with ASO. “It’s exciting and everybody wants to see it because it’s dangerous. We have top guys from all over the world that are riding the ramps, doing some of the craziest stunts possible. And after the stunts we share Jesus.”
ASO founder Vic Murphy is a world-renowned pro and pioneer in BMX and other extreme sports. “I was a pro BMX rider for a long time and was in the BMX industry and in that culture and the magazine, videos and TV stuff with BMX. And so we have a story how God can take anybody no matter where they’re at and save them and use them.”
Murphy travels throughout North America and other parts of the world speaking about Jesus. He said, “We’ve been to prisons and villages and cities and anything you can think of and sharing the Gospel that you can have peace with God through Jesus and the response is God but again God is the one to do the work.”
ASO was established in 2006 with a mission of proclaiming God’s word using action sports. The group has ministered in over 40 countries through festivals, school assemblies, church events, and local outreach.
“We really do a variety of pretty much anywhere you can put a bicycle,” Andrus shared in a podcast interview. “So one of the models we really like in the States is when we can do school assemblies, we’ll do a week of school assemblies, and then we can’t do the gospel message in public schools, but we can invite them to to an outreach.” He noted that there’s a huge turnout of people during their outreach program.
Andrus revealed that he relishes talking to people and sharing the Good News. “When you can tell that they’re thinking about the God of the universe and thinking about where they’re standing with him and seeing that they can have a free gift of eternal life and be right with God that day.”
“Jesus commanded believers to GO proclaim the gospel to a lost world,” said the stunt rider. “Action Sports Outreach exists to reach and encourage this world with the good news through the specialized abilities that God has given us to glorify Him.”
