"Ultimate" Outreach

For the past ten years, the South Chapter at UNC—Chapel Hill has been organizing an Ultimate Frisbee game every Friday at 3 P.M. We meet at one of the intramural fields and the game is open to anyone. The crowd has become pretty regular over the years though, and many who have since graduated still come back to play each week.

It’s been an amazing opportunity to develop friendships with folks who otherwise wouldn’t be caught dead in one of our small- or large-group meetings. Each week we are joined by at least a half-dozen people who don’t know Jesus yet. It’s both neutral territory and a consistent time to connect with these friends.

Laura is one student who is very conscientious about the opportunity to reach out to people on the Ultimate field. She began gathering some of the members of the chapter before each game to pray for chances to love people in the name of Christ. We’re seeing her prayers answered.

At the end of the year, the core group of a dozen men and women who play each week got together for the first annual Ultimate cookout. About half were non-InterVarsity friends, and we had a great time hanging out and talking. Toward the end of our time together, we prayed for the graduating seniors. We asked God to bless them as they ventured out to new cities and careers and to make himself known to them in this new stage of life. I wasn’t sure how the prayer would go over, but it was natural and the seniors really were appreciative and felt honored.

We then presented the seniors with some chapter T-shirts to commemorate their involvement with Ultimate. They gladly threw on the T-shirts for a group picture before going their separate ways. It was also a great reminder that our “fellowship” extends far beyond a large-group meeting or even small-group events each week. God is not at all limited to our programs, but is alive and active in the everyday events of life.

My hope is that we continue to see beyond the boundaries we are so used to. I sense that God is building a deeper community among our Ultimate players, and I can’t wait to see what he will do this coming year!

—Brian Wilcox is starting his fourth year on I-V staff at UNC-Chapel Hill. He lives in North Carolina with his wife Wesley, his beautiful baby daughter, Mya, and their dog Katie. His hobbies include running and playing Ultimate Frisbee, of course.