[Anglican Communion News Service] Worshipping God and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ is integral to being a Christian, the Archbishop of Canterbury had said. Speaking at an event in Lambeth Palace to promote sports ministry within the C of E, Archbishop Justin Welby said that everything else the church does is “decoration”.

The event brought together representatives from the dioceses in the Church of England’s southern province (Canterbury) to hear about a new sports ministry within the C of E, the Ministry of Sport, which is being run with the Christians in Sport organisation. The Ministry of Sport aims to proclaim Jesus to sports people in the UK.

Christians in Sport were “a group of really remarkable people . . . who are capable of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Welby said. “That is the aim of our whole existence as Christians.

“Evangelism – sharing the Good News of Jesus – is not a survival strategy for the Church. It is not a way of getting our numbers up. It is integral to being a Christian.

“There are two things that every single Christian should do. . . Not out of a sense of duty, but out of the overflow of God’s love. One is to worship, and the other is to witness. And you could say that apart from those two, everything else is decoration.

“If you are not doing those two, you are not authentically the Church of Christ.”

He said that Christians in Sport were “reaching out into an area of life where huge numbers of people across the country are involved” and that this was “critical to expressing what it is to be a Christian.

“It doesn’t mean aggressive bashing people over the head with the Gospel, but loving them into the Kingdom of God.”

During the day, representatives from the 29 dioceses were introduced to a new website – ReadySetGo.ec – which provides resources for Christians who minister in sport.

A similar event will be held for the northern province of the C of E (York) in November.