Matt Jones is director of new church development for North Alabama Conference for the United Methodist Church.

Prayer services and talk of religious values are common on some teams. Read a Sept. 18, 2005, Washington Post story about a ministry called Baseball Chapel and the practice of players praying before games.

Some baseball teams – including the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves – have held “Faith Days,” in which players share their Christian faith with fans after the final out. It’s optional – fans buy a separate ticket for the “Faith Day” event after the game. But post-game Christian fellowship has become a big money-maker in the minor […]

Christopher H. Evans is professor of history of Christianity and Methodist studies at Boston University School of Theology. He is co-editor of The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture, a collection of essays on religious motifs in baseball.

Robert V. Kemper, an anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, co-authored The World As It Should Be: Faith-Based Community Development in America, on his website.

Jeffrey Howard Mahan is a professor of religion and communication at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is the author of Media, Religion and Culture: An Introduction and Religion and Popular Culture in America.

The Rev. Kenda Creasy Dean is a professor of youth, church and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is also an ordained United Methodist pastor and co-founder of Ministry Incubators, a consulting group that works with pastors and faith communities to launch new ministries. She is the author of several books on youth ministry.

Theodore Walker Jr. is associate professor of ethics and society at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He wrote the book Empower the People: Social Ethics for the African-American Church, about African-American resources for a more inclusive liberation theology.