In 1986 a South Carolina church began a basketball league with the realization that every child is a winner be promoting salvation, character and self-esteem.This platform would allow the church to reach out to their community and share the love of Jesus Christ with everyone who participated.Upward Basketball quickly became one of the church’s premiere outreach programs.Because of the increasing participation in this unique basketball ministry, waiting lists were soon to be inevitable.Realizing the need to share the love of Jesus with every child, the determined Recreation Minister sought the advice of a mentor who quickly provided the necessary financial resources for the church to expand and renovate just in time to make room for additional players.The next year, this same minister found himself in the identical position as the year before... saying no to children who wanted to play ball.Unwavering in his commitment to see that every child had an opportunity to hear about Christ through basketball, he went back to the resourceful mentor with a plan in place for additional gym space through construction.Instead of resolving the issue with another financial contribution, the mentor, full of wisdom, said, “You don’t need another gym… you need 1,000 gyms”.
The truth revealed to him on that day set Caz McCaslin on a new journey.He quickly realized that this was a vision that God planned long ago in claiming Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to do”.In 1995, this young recreation minister left his church position to take God’s vision for Upward Basketball to other churches.In the first year of the Upward ministry seven churches participated in the southeast area.Now today there are over 2,600 churches worldwide.
Here at First Methodist, Opp Alabama, we started Upward Basketball in 1997.We were one of the first 100 churches nationwide to participate in this ministry.We are also recognized by Upward as a model program.We are very proud of this.In 2000 Upward brought in cheerleading and we were asked to be a pilot church for this program.We have been doing Upward Cheerleading for 9 years and this is our 12th season of basketball.Over 2,100 have participated in Upward here at our church, with 633 decisions for Christ.Hundreds of volunteers who work countless hours to keep this ministry a vital part of our church outreach.Opp community is a better place because of Upward and the folks who have worked in this program can testify to the countless blessings.
Upward Sports Mission Statement- To introduce children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports.
Opp First United Methodist Church 209 East Ida Ave Opp AL 36467 Phone (334) 493-9731
