In the often frigid landscape of northwest Minnesota, just across the border from Fargo, North Dakota, a heartwarming story of Gospel hope is unfolding. It’s a story many will never hear, yet it’s a story that will reverberate further than any Super Bowl ever could.

God is using the high school football team at Park Christian School, a K-12 Christian school in Moorhead, Minnesota, to spread the Good News of salvation to a lost world through a Bible outreach ministry.

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Following every home game, Falcons players leave a Bible in the locker of each player from the opposing team. The Bibles include a letter from the coaching staff and personalized notes from Park Christian’s players, sharing how they’ve seen the transformative power of God in their lives, and inviting their opponents to join them in their walk with Christ. Players frequently add their cell phone numbers so opponents can reach out if they’d like to talk further about Jesus.

Opposing players are also gifted a meal for the bus ride home.

Bibles and notes distributed by Park Christian School. (Photo courtesy of Matt Baasch)

“A couple years ago,” Park Christian head coach Matt Baasch recently told Sports Spectrum, “we set out to really put in motion the basis of our program and who we are trying to be.”

Baasch, a former college football player, found himself wrestling with how to point others to the light of Christ as a high school football coach. Park Christian seeks to be thoroughly Christ-focused in all it does, but what does that look like for the football team? How do others encounter Christ in their interactions with Park Christian? After being fed a meal following a road game, an idea began to form.

Together with his coaching staff, rooted in the Bible verse 1 Peter 4:10 and led by the Holy Spirit, Baasch instituted the new Bible outreach ministry to get God’s Word into the hands of teams that come to Moorhead. Assistant coach (and local pastor) Ben Killerlain was instrumental in the details of how to give away Bibles without appearing arrogant, and at the start of the 2025 season, the ministry was launched.

“I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever!'” Park Christian senior center and defensive lineman Elijah Bjur told Sports Spectrum. “We get to take the gifts we’ve been given and create our own ministry of giving Bibles to other people.”

Elijah Bjur playing center. (Photo courtesy of Elijah Bjur)

In five home games last season, around 200 Bibles were given to Park Christian’s opponents. And with all different opponents set to travel to Moorhead in 2026, the ministry is continuing to thrive this season.

“[Each player on our team is] a believer witnessing about what they believe,” Killerlain said about game day, from warmups to the Bible outreach. “… We’ve actually gotten quite a good response from players on other teams contacting our players to say thanks or ask for prayers.”

Many opposing coaches have expressed tremendous gratitude to Park Christian for caring about the souls of their players and introducing them to God. Meanwhile, many opposing players have reached out with questions about the Christian faith or prayer requests, and some have even asked for more Bibles to give to friends and family members. The Bible outreach at Park Christian is having a multiplying effect in Moorhead and beyond.

“All the things that [our players] do matter,” Baasch told Sports Spectrum. “I think this is one of those examples to them of, ‘I can do something. God calls me to do these things, and I can do them, and it’s not scary, and it impacts people, and it impacts me, and it impacts my parents.’ … People can look through us to see the light of Jesus.”

Killerlain agreed, saying the Bible outreach — not what happens on the football field — is his true purpose as a coach.

“Coaching football is a discipleship activity,” he told Sports Spectrum, “and we want to make sure that these kids are being discipled towards a right view of Jesus and of ministry, so they get that everywhere they walk, they are a witness for Jesus Christ. … It’s bigger than football. It’s following Jesus.”

Assistant coach Ben Killerlain teaching. (Photo courtesy of Matt Baasch)

Bjur is currently navigating the frenzied waters of college recruitment. But no matter how high he advances in his sport, or where in the world it takes him, he will seek to remember that he is an ambassador for Christ in all he does, on the field and off. And there can be no higher calling than making Jesus known.

“Before [Jesus] left earth, He gave us the Great Commission to go into the world and let people know what He has done,” Bjur told Sports Spectrum. “We’ve been given resources to give people the Word of God so that the teams we play see the work that Christ has done in us on the field, and then give them the thing that changed our lives.”

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