Sports Chaplain Shares Siya Kolisi’s Story of ‘full surrender to Christ’

November 4, 2023174 views0

Sports Chaplain Shares Siya Kolisi’s Story of ‘full surrender to Christ’

2023-11-04T09:45:11+01:00

By Church News

Bruce Nadin, a sports chaplain who pastors in South Africa at Stellenbosch FC, has been able to track Siya Kolisi’s story of “full surrender to Christ”.Captain and Christian believer Siya Kolisi led the South African men’s rugby team, better known as the Springboks, to clinch the Rugby World Cup for a record-breaking fourth time.In defeating their greatest rivals, the All Blacks, 12-11, they also became only the second team ever to defend the title, which they won in Japan four years ago, at the expense of England.Bruce Nadin said, “His growth as a disciple of Jesus has been amazing. It’s so easy to go out on the field, you know, and say, I give all the glory and honour to God, et cetera, et cetera when you’re winning. But what I’d say about Siya is that he’s authentically trying to live out his faith.“The biggest impact I believe he’s having is not so much with his words, but actually, with his actions as a leader, both on the field, but I think across the nations. He is a real symbol of hope.“He never ceases to highlight the challenges the country faces and how far it still needs to go to become everything God wants it to be. And I think, in that sense, his faith is lived out in a very real way. He’s an incredibly humble guy.”Kolisi was raised by his church-going grandmother after his father left home when he was young. He has spoken publicly at Hillsong events about how his father would abuse his mother and how, aged five, he would find his mother’s teeth on the street.His family could rarely afford food or clothes for school and he would wear his Aunt’s shoes to school. His grandmother and mother both passed away in his school years.In 2015, Kolisi recommitted to following Christ, whom he credits his grandmother modelling to him for the very start of his life, but he admitted he felt he had turned his back on. He has been honest about battles with alcohol and told BBC Sport in a 2021 interview: “I want people to know that I’m a sinner”.Nadin said that Christians need to remember that sportspeople, however much they are celebrated, require the same prayers as all other believers.“We’re just ordinary, everyday pilgrims seeking to work out what it means to follow Jesus, carrying our own baggage, you know, our own defaults towards particular sins.“And often, our athletes attempt to do this in the public spotlight. And sport, particularly contact sports, is emotional. And it doesn’t always bring the best out in us in the moment, as our characters get tested. And I think we actually have to pray for ourselves that we don’t judge too harshly. What do we do when somebody cuts us up on the road? How do we react in our cars or in other situations where things don’t go our way?“So I’d say pray for them. Pray that they wouldn’t find their identity primarily in their performance or in what people say about them, or in their celebrity or in what they possess. But that they would find it secure in the person of Jesus.”ALSO READ: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Announces Major Conference