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GYMBAHAN
Transforming Communities Through Sports and the Gospel

 

“Gymbahan” is the vision of evangelism to every town in the Philippines through a language most everybody speaks— sports.  

In a nutshell, Gymbahan applies the concept of a house church in a sports setting. In the Philippines, you never run out of basketball courts. Every single barangay (town) has one! Nestled in the center of each barangay, the gymnasium serves as everything from a place of social gathering, an evacuation zone, a graduation venue, and anything else you can think of. Not every town may have functioning street lights, but every town is sure to have at least one basketball court.  

That being established, the mission of Gymbahan is to plant a church in every gym. Usually through basketball clinics, but also through other sports clinics like volleyball or pickleball. One model of Gymbahan in Infanta, Quezon, took a Sunday school approach. The church leaders gathered the kids in the neighborhood, played games, taught them a Bible story through role-play, and then proceeded to divide them into different groups depending on which sport the kids preferred to learn. After which, the leaders closed with prayer. It was a simple yet fruitful experience as the kids promised to come back next week.  

Gymbahan is a ministry of Philippine Challenge Inc. (PCI). The term was coined by Pastor Judah Cantoria, but was later conceptualized by the missionaries of PCI, Field Director pastor James Cantoria, and Sports Ministry Coordinator Tata Miña, who put together materials from existing discipleship programs to make them into the current Gymbahan ministry. These programs were, namely,  Training for Trainers (T4T), which is one of the key ministries of PCI that empowers ministry workers to plant churches through creative, strategic, and innovative methods, and Ready-Set-Go, a discipleship training method used in sports ministry. With the help of One Challenge (OC) missionaries, Alex Tan and Dan Devries, Tata Miña tailored these materials into the Gymbahan ministry.   

Gymbahan is a relevant ministry in the Philippines because it utilizes avenues that are readily available in every town. It sparks kids' (and eventually even teens’) interest and excitement in the Gospel because of a fun and conducive environment that invites people in rather than keeps people out. Especially in the Philippines, where Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.  

 

The mission and vision of Gymbahan is ultimately to provide the foundations for church-planting and relationship-building in every community of the Philippines. We believe that the season is ripe for deeper connections, long-lasting commitments, and Christ-centered fellowship.

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