Jim Coggins

THE coordinated Christian outreach effort at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver "exceeded expectations on a wide variety of fronts," said Karen Reed.

The executive director of More Than Gold (MTG) Vancouver said the initiative brought together 15 denominations and 31 parachurch organizations -- resulting in the "finest example of Christian unity" Reed has seen in over 30 years of ministry.

It wasn't just that Roman Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, Anglicans, Baptists and Pentecostals all worked together, but that they also developed very genuine friendships across denominational barriers. It is that experience of "diversity learning to work together in harmony" that may have the biggest impact on the church in the Greater Vancouver area in the long run, Reed suggested, no matter what projects it may be applied to in future.

The experienced unity will also have an impact beyond the area, as reports of the benefits of cooperation spread within each denominations. Seventh-day Adventists and Roman Catholics are already committed to working together at the next Summer Olympic Games in London, England in 2012.

Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Vancouver-area Roman Catholics commending the joint effort will no doubt influence Roman Catholics elsewhere, Reed told CC.com.

Carrying out ministry on the ground required "great flexibility," Reed noted, as many things did not work out as expected; and, she said, the Games proved to be "a catalyst in helping the church learn how to engage a postmodern culture."

SkyTrain challenge

A key component of the MTG effort was serving drinks to visitors standing in lines at SkyTrain stations, transportation hubs and Olympic venues. MTG took up the challenge at the request of TransLink, the local transit authority.

It was a mammoth undertaking, and one that was full of surprises:

• MTG ended up serving over 600,000 drinks, almost 50 percent more than planned.
• The warm weather meant that hot drinks were not as necessary, so water was popular, and hot chocolate was preferred by a two-to-one margin over coffee -- again opposite to MTG's expectations.
• The expected two-hour waits at transit stations turned out to be no more than a few minutes.

These surprises led volunteers to move out of the stations and reach out to the crowds outside -- something they could easily do, since they were serving from backpacks rather than refreshment tables.

The shorter lineups also meant that "people didn't mind stopping and talking," said Bob Kraemer, MTG director of operations, which was an unexpected plus.

The refreshments were "just an avenue to engage people," Reed affirmed, "and it worked."

The refreshment ministry was "a collective witness by the Christian community," Reed said. Within the first week, MTG was already receiving commendations from city Hall, TransLink and the police for the role the refreshment service was playing in reducing tensions on the street.

The massive security effort -- costing hundreds of millions of dollars -- was visible; but police often found themselves with little to do other than pose for photos with visitors.

Community engagement and hospitality are often an outcome of the Olympic Games, Kraemer noted, but international observers said they had never seen it reach the level it did in Vancouver.

"We witnessed a phenomenon in our nation," Reed said, "and Christians got caught up in what was happening." She noted that the thousands of Christian workers (including 1,000 from 28 other countries) were a smaller group than the 18,000 blue-coated official volunteers mustered by VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee) -- although some of those were also Christians.

Still, the contributions by Christians, and the work of Christian prayer teams, meant that the positive atmosphere of the Games was "also a spiritual outcome," Kraemer said. He credited Reed with bringing MTG's diverse efforts together under the banner of "radical hospitality."

Singing in harmony

There were also surprises in regard to MTG's massive Creative and Performing Arts (CaPA) effort. More than 50 performers and groups performed, in at least 23 venues.

The big 'ticketed' events did not attract large crowds. MTG will have to deal with the financial implications of this later. However, the lesson to be learned is that "we can't out-entertain the Olympics," Kraemer said.

Getting away from the "big event mindset" was part of MTG's flexibility and effort to "exegete culture" -- i.e. figuring out what works in a postmodern world.

Conversely, the impact of the artists in smaller venues -- when they went to where the people were, when they didn't focus on entertaining but just went out following a call to serve -- was "over the top," Reed said. MTG sent artists to Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside every day, and they had "an amazing impact."

The other huge benefit of the arts ministry was the community that developed among the artists themselves, Kraemer said. They got to know each other -- and the older artists mentored the younger ones, teaching them "what ministry in the arts is all about."

It is those kinds of informal networks -- among artists, among athletes, among ministry workers -- that may have the biggest impact in the long term, Reed suggested.

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'Prayer covering'

One of the keys to More Than Gold's success was the extensive "prayer covering" provided by a network of intercessors, Reed suggested, noting the Games connected many diverse prayer movements.

Dave Carson, who headed the MTG prayer group, agreed. "One of the legacies of the Olympics," he asserted, "is greater unity in the Canadian prayer movement."

MTG itself sent out daily email prayer requests that reached thousands of people, along with a prayer guide written for the event by Tom Blackaby. There were also various other prayer efforts: from The Burn, a 27-hour prayer and worship event February 17-18, attended by hundreds of young adults at Cariboo Road Christian Fellowship, to the two-week prayer centre on nearby Keats Island. Unite Canada 2010, a group of 29 partner agencies committed to praying for Canada this year, also made the Olympics a particular focus.

Richard Long of the National House of Prayer, who led the Keats Island effort, noted that, besides those praying on-site, the group's prayer update "went out to 445 prayer leaders -- who then in many cases sent it out further to prayer groups, church lists, nation-wide networks and even international networks of intercessors. Literally thousands of us have been praying together."

In response, the prayer centre received "many wonderful reports of what the Lord has been doing in answer to our prayers. We have heard testimonies of people being led to the Lord by chaplains, hospitality workers, street evangelists and prayer teams in different venues."

Divine appointments

Reed said the Christian outreach at the Olympics demonstrated the power of collaboration -- but also "the power of one," as individual Christians initiated conversations and "stepped into divine appointments."

Believers handed out tens of thousands of scripture booklets, and talked one-on-one. But what struck Reed was the response. Because of the prayer covering, she said, "there was an openness never witnessed here. There was a radical shift. God is up to something. Fallow ground is being broken up."

Reed noted reports from Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which was working in the Downtown Eastside. YWAM, she said, saw "more fruit in the first five days of the Olympics than it had seen in five years."

None of this happened because of MTG's organizational efforts, Kraemer said, but simply "because God showed up."

Cross-pollination

Before the Olympics, much had been made of the divide between Christians who wanted to use the Olympics as an opportunity for evangelism, and Christians who opposed the Olympics. The latter individuals and groups maintain that Olympic events generally lead to social inequality and make housing less available to the poor.

There were a number of Christian demonstrations in Vancouver during the 2010 Games, including: a tent city set up by Streams of Justice; an Ash Wednesday march on the campus of the University of British Columbia; and Share the Gold, an initiative which inspired participants to form a line stretching down Hastings Street from First United Church -- which houses 300 homeless people each night.

However, the divide was not as great as anticipated.

MTG took what Reed called "a positive neutral" stand, trying to be "cheerleaders for Jesus" rather than cheerleaders for the Olympics -- although she admitted it was hard not to get caught up in the fervor of nationalism that was sweeping the nation.

Because of the "cross-pollination" of the various Christian denominations and ministries, the cooperative Olympic initiative took "a broader view of evangelism," Reed said. For one thing, Olympic outreach in Vancouver was not just the concern of "white evangelicals," as has sometimes happened in the past. Groups such as Korean churches were actively involved.

MTG also expressed concern for "sustainability" issues -- social justice, environmental responsibility and human trafficking. The prayer groups prayed for evangelistic success -- but also for protection for athletes and visitors and for changes to make Vancouver and Canada better places for the poor to live.

A number of Christians participated in VANOC's Home for the Games program, hosting international visitors in their homes -- but then turned around and donated the money they received to social housing. It is hoped that up to a million dollars might be raised for social housing in this way.

Reed and Kraemer also noted that the widely predicted police harassment of the homeless largely didn't happen. Instead, many in the Downtown Eastside also got caught up in the excitement of the Games.

Looking ahead

The More Than Gold effort is not over yet. The Olympic Games ended February 28, but the 2010 Paralympic Games will be held March 12-21 in Vancouver and Whistler.

The Paralympics are a much smaller event, but MTG intends to continue doing some of the same things that it did for the Olympics. MTG hopes that local churches will use one of the two Sundays during those Games (March 14 and 21) to highlight disability issues.

Beyond that, MTG leaders hope to build on the collaboration and cross-denominational relationships that developed in the Vancouver area and across the country. Referring to the outburst of patriotism reported in the secular press, Reed stated: "A collective experience has been awakened across the country, but also in the Christian community -- and we want to keep the momentum going."

Reed said she hopes "some form or structure will continue"; it would, however, be under a different name, since 'More Than Gold' is an international name reserved for Olympic outreaches.

What exact form an ongoing initiative would take, Reed does not know. But she is convinced that "the Christian community needs to continue to walk together."

March 04/2010