Sports and friendship, he said, opened the door for him to think about faith. “What I appreciated about it was nobody was kind of putting me in the hot seat,” he said.
Hope started offering pickleball a few years ago, when the church, which started during the COVID-19 pandemic, was meeting in a park district building that had a gym. One day, Young said, a church member approached the pastors with the idea of offering a free pickleball clinic. About 40 folks showed up to that first clinic, so when Hope moved to a new building, leaders decided to offer pickleball a few days a week.
Kay Seamayer, 85, said she was thrilled when First Baptist Church in Dallas decided to start offering pickleball. Seamayer, a lifelong athlete, had been playing for more than a decade and was a longtime advocate for the game.
Anyone can play it, she said. And it’s a great way to make friends.
But playing at church did come with a challenge. The game draws people of all skill levels, she said, and that meant toning her competitive side down a bit. Which took some prayer, she said, and a message from God.
“You just don’t have to be competitive in everything you do,” said Seamayer, who still plays competitive three-on-three basketball. “So, settle down and help those people who want to play and just play for fun.”
First Baptist runs pickleball as part of the church’s overall sports ministry, with leagues in the fall and winter, said Brent McFadden, minister of sports and outreach. They also offer pickleball during open gym times — the church has a pair of courts marked out for pickleball. The sessions start with a short prayer and then a devotional.
Many of the folks who take part in pickleball or other sports aren’t members. But that’s OK, said McFadden. The idea is to offer an easy entry point to the church for folks who might be skeptical of coming to a service.
The Rev. Michael Graham, of Gilford Community Church, a progressive congregation in New Hampshire, hopes to give pickleball a try at some point. Graham got a pickleball racket for his birthday, but knee surgery delayed his debut on the court.
Graham sits on the board of the Gilford Youth Center, a nonprofit that operates out of the gym the church built that offers sport programs to the community. He was skeptical at first when folks from the community asked about playing pickleball at the center.
Now the center offers pickleball three days a week.
“Over probably the last four or five years, pickleball has become so important that now we have three courts,” he said.
