by JOSEPH SMITH

The FIFA World Cup will be watched live by four million football fans in Germany from June 9 to July 9 with another four million visitors expected to be in the country as part of World Cup festivities. The final will be watched on television by over one billion viewers around the world.

Throughout history, Christians have aimed to preach the gospel wherever there was a crowd. Christians in Germany are using the World Cup as an opportunity to spread the good news of Jesus to the eight million football fans on their stadium-shaped doorstep.

KICKOFF 2006

When the 2006 FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 9 the interest of the world and the media will be centred on Germany. To capitalise on this for the sake of the gospel, the German Evangelical Alliance has launched an initiative called "Kickoff 2006', with the theme "kick-start your faith'.

Under the leadership of SRS Pro Sportler " an evangelistic ministry to athletes in Germany " leaders of youth ministries, churches, fellowships and agencies in Germany will be working together to organise evangelistic outreaches during this football event.

"The world will be our guest here in Germany " a huge challenge for Christians from different churches and fellowships," says Kickoff 2006 co-ordinator, Danita Beetge.

"To address this new challenge, a network of co-workers from churches and fellowships and Christian organisations, as well as from national and international Christian sports ministries, has been created."

As well as promoting tolerance and unity between cultures, the outreach events being organised around the World Cup are also promoting unity and cooperation between churches.

The sports ministries of the Lutheran and Catholic churches are joining forces as part of Kickoff 2006 events. A Protestant church in the German town of Geithain is also planning a mini-World Cup football tournament to bring together 32 churches.

"In some of these working groups, the Free Evangelical churches, Protestant churches and Catholic churches are all working together," Mrs Beetge says.

"We have [around] 4000 international Christians that will assist and support the outreach during their visit to Germany."

BEAMING THE MESSAGE VIA SATELLITE

Two weeks out from the June 9 World Cup opener, a total of 888 churches within Germany had registered for a public viewing point in their church or church grounds for showing the World Cup matches on a big screen.  These churches will also be broadcasting "Kickoff 2006 TV Studio' via satellite station Bible TV. The live show will be broadcast before every World Cup match featuring the German national team and before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches (a total of 12 matches). The 30-minute program will include segments with profiles on famous footballers and opinions and comments from two Christian presenters and former players: Tim Niedernolte (RTL Munich) and Jorghino (Brazil's World Cup 1994 winning squad).

"The broadcasts will be used for the big screen outreaches in various local churches and by people with their friends in their living rooms in Germany as a small appetizer for the evening of football," Mrs Beetge says. "This will help Christians have personal conversations with people in a relaxed way in a neutral environment."

PRAYER STRATEGY

The Kickoff 2006 organisers have planned many creative outreach activities and are actively mobilising prayer support to carry them out. They have planned 24-hour prayer rooms in the 12 host cities. In other non-host cities where evangelistic events will take place, there will be local prayer times planned for specific days.

"In every city we want to have prayer coordinators who will be leading the prayer centres. Local churches and prayer groups in Germany can also be connected with the prayer centre via the internet," Danita Beetge says.

International prayer networks, churches and ministries all over the world will be praying for Germany during the event.

"While watching the matches on their TV screens people can pray for the national spiritual transformation of Germany, for the security of the event and for the international evangelistic outreach," she says.

CHURCHES PROTEST PROSTITUTION

A darker side to the sporting celebration will be the massive influx of sex workers into Germany in the lead-up to the World Cup. As many as 40,000 additional women are expected to be added to the approximately 400,000 prostitutes in Germany's sex industry.

Churches are joining forces with other faith communities, women's groups and human rights activists to protest the fact that women, many of them trafficked in from poor Central European countries, will be sold for sex at the World Cup.

Co-chair of the Commission on the Security and Cooperation in Europe, Chris Smith, says many of the women are coerced into this type of work.

The German government is preparing for an increase in sex-traffic and the resulting tax revenues by aiding the construction of huge brothels. The main football venue in Berlin now has a 3000-metre fenced-in area filled with "performance boxes', equipped with condoms and showers to accommodate 650 clients.

"The sad and disturbing news is that the German government is facilitating prostitution and the significant influx of trafficked women who will be exploited," Mr Smith told Lifesitenews.com.

The National Board of Catholic Women in England and Wales has urged authorities, players and fans to protest this development by writing to FIFA, the German government and embassies " asking them to explain what is being done to check that all the women are working of their own free will, without pressure or fear.

CHRISTIANS SCORE AGAINST SOCCER RACISM

Racism, along with sex trade is also being fought against. The Anglican Chaplain in Berlin, the Rev Christopher Jage-Bowler organised a highly-publicised inter-faith football match in Germany in May to combat racism in football. The game was a friendly between Anglican clergy and Muslim imams. The Anglican clergy won 12-1.

Mr Jage-Bowler says one reason for organising the game was that he was struck by how few points of spontaneous contact there were between the Muslim and Christian communities in Berlin. He sees the World Cup in Germany as a cultural melting pot and an opportunity to break down barriers between the Christian and Muslim communities.