Worship before the first pitch

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 20th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: where Sunday worship is still part of the game plan.

Now that summer’s drawing to a close, Little League teams are facing off across the country on their way to the World Series. For teams that make it this far, that means travel, and lots of it. And of course, weekends.

MAST: But one league tries to make sure families don’t have to choose between sports and Sunday worship.

ANNOUNCER: Y'all ready to play some baseball? [Cheers]

ELIZABETH SHENK: Around 800 children and their families have converged on Dunn, North Carolina for the Diamond Youth Baseball World Series.

AUDIO: [Kids singing, “Two down one to go. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go”]

The players, all 8 years old or younger, have come from states as far away as Louisiana and Texas. Not even a heat index of 107 can dampen their enthusiasm.

SOUND: [Ball hit and cheers]

Terry Lanning is the league’s state director for North Carolina.

TERRY LANNING: We're focused on local children to learn to play.

Lanning has volunteered with the league for over 40 years. She started when her kids were young enough to play.

LANNING: Yeah. You're going to get me emotional. Um, the love of kids, you know, we want to do something to make it better.

For this league, “making it better” means making time for prayer and church, even at the World Series. The league’s motto is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

LANNING: We definitely believe in God and we do feel like He oversees us.

ANNOUNCER: The team, South Carolina and Louisiana. Get that team together and you can choose to go to the pitching mound to say a quick prayer, and then we'll play another…

A team prays before their game in Dunn, N.C. Photo by Elizabeth Shenk

The league encourages coaches to lead their teams in prayer before every game, even if it means cutting the National Anthem to save time.

LANNING: We announce every ball game, “We have church services.” Not all states do that.

The Sunday service is organized by the Dunn Area Recreation Booster Club. The same club gave Bibles to every coach and player at the tournament.

ANNOUNCER: There will be a non-denominational worship service…

Nearly 4,000 people came to town to play, coach, and cheer for the league’s World Series. But on Sunday morning, only about 60 show up for the service. Many are coaches and their families. Some are local.

Beth Elmore is the principal of Plainview Elementary, just down the road from Dunn. As she welcomes the players and coaches to the Sunday service, she calls it like she sees it:

ELMORE: We could have had this place filled up with 11, 11 states in here, but I understand not everybody plays early and I think the first game's at three, but you chose to come and for that good job, parents and grandparents.

Lanning hopes every family who participates in the league is connected to a church at home. But when they travel, she wants them to have somewhere to worship together. She admits that’s sometimes a challenge.

LANNING: Well, you can tell we don't have as many people here as we would like to have, but we do a worship service at every state we have. We have prayer, we have a worship service. Sometimes we might have 80, we had one we had 250 people at. So it just depends on if we get our message out…

With guitar strapped on and fingers pressing the strings, Solomon Machado pauses to encourage the group who came before leading them in Sunday worship.

MACHADO: It's important for the little ones here and the players to show them by example, what is most important…

All the players here identify with their teams. That’s what’s on their T-shirts, their hats, and their jerseys. But Machado reminded them that’s not where they get their identity.

MACHADO: It's the name of Jesus Christ. And so being here is a wonderful example of what is top priority in life.

Andrew Pope and his boys are sitting near the front row, waiting for the Sunday service to begin. They’re local, so they could have stayed home this morning.

POPE: If we were able to go other places, we definitely, for sure would try to lock in somewhere for a service to make sure that's present for the boys and for our coaches. And just to kind of get our mindset right before we, before we take the field.

MUSIC: [Keep us awake to what’s important, Just like Mary chose the better thing]

Gentry Turner brought her 9 year old son to the service. They came from Amelia, Virginia to compete. Her son’s coaches lead the teams in prayer before every county game, so they feel right at home here.

TURNER:  I know in our area that they're trying to keep God the focus because without him we wouldn't be where we're at.

Even though the Sunday service attendance is lower than she would like, Lanning believes it’s important to encourage kids in their faith. And she’s convinced having the option of church services on the road will help.

LANNING: I think these kids will remember this, really I do.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk in Dunn, North Carolina.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.