To play football, for some, is the greatest dream.  The dream for Croydon Football Academy, run by Croydon Vineyard, is to give young people a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God looks like.

Croydon Football Academy, run by Croydon Vineyard, is not only blessing young people in the south of London with free football coaching but inviting them into community and giving them a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God looks like.

Croydon Vineyard run a free, weekly, turn-up-and-play football academy. Their hope is to become a thriving academy that blesses many young people in Croydon – giving them quality football training and a glimpse of something more. We chatted to Andy, who coordinates the Football Academy to tell us some more about it:

“Our dream for Croydon Football Academy is to give young people in our borough a glimpse, in very tangible terms, of what the Kingdom of God looks like. We’d love to be a blessing and to serve them in whatever way we can, and also to ‘widen our front door’ into Croydon Vineyard’s youth work. The Football Academy is a great place to show young people in Croydon what our youth group, ‘Alyve’ looks and feels like and invite them to connect in further with the community at Croydon Vineyard.

We have just completed a ten-week summer pilot of Croydon Football Academy, meeting every Saturday morning at a local park between 10.30am-12pm. It is run by a team of adults and 16-17 year old volunteer leaders from Croydon Vineyard. We begin each session with some skills drills, have a water break with some teaching, and then finish with a match. 

It is early days for our academy, but we have already seen young people who had never been to church before coming along on multiple Sunday mornings, having been invited along while at the academy. It’s also been an incredible place to raise up and release leaders, specifically our 16-17 year olds, who have thrived with the responsibility of serving. 

We are so excited to be relaunching in September, and to partner with what God wants to do in this coming season.”

 

In the Vineyard movement, we are passionate about seeing a generation of young people meet Jesus and fearlessly follow him. It’s in Jesus that we find purpose, hope, freedom and a secure identity rooted in him. 

Dreaming the Impossible, our national youth event, is moving to the summer in 2020! We’d love to invite young people from churches and organisations everywhere to come and join us. To find out more information, watch this interview with Suse and Zeke, or head on over to the DTI website here.