FCA is one of the most committed Bible distributors in the world. We print more than 200,000 Bibles per year and have distributed 2.5 million Bibles around the world in the last 15 years. As a sports ministry, we’ve engaged in Bible ministry since our first Camp in 1956. Our partners at Biblica once said, “When you think about FCA, you think about a sports ministry, but what’s incredible is their commitment to utilizing Scripture.” Here’s a glimpse into how God’s grown our Bible ministry over 65 years.
1956: The Athlete’s Bible
The first FCA Bibles were printed for FCA Camp in 1956 with the FCA logo on the cover. As FCA Camps grew, new Bible covers were designed with each year’s theme, and camp curriculum, along with leadership curriculum featuring 5,000 meeting combinations, was added. The Bible became a key resource for those leading Huddles and one-on-one discipleship meetings. Over time, the Bible developed into a “Serendipity Bible” and then a “Study Bible.” Today, this resource is referred to as our “Athlete’s Bible,” and it continues to be the cornerstone of our Bible ministry. Each year, every camper at FCA Camp receives an Athlete’s Bible, and it is FCA’s most requested Bible resource.
2003: Sports Bible Resources
FCA’s Bible distribution exploded when FCA introduced a Sports New Testament that included testimonies from pro athletes. Today, FCA has printed more than one million of these resources. Staff in Mississippi dreamed up the concept of a Coach’s Bible that included 365 devotions written by and for coaches. The resource was a hit! Due to the Coach’s Bible popularity, the Competitor’s Bible for athletes was released. Today FCA prints, distributes and engages coaches and athletes with 15 Bible resources.
2006: International Bibles
FCA printed its first Spanish New Testament in 2006. Multiple resources have been translated and printed, such as FCA’s Heart of an Athlete devotional in Chinese and Spanish, Japanese Baseball New Testament, Chinese Sports Devotional
Bible, and Russian Coach’s Bible. In 2017, FCA began distributing 50,000 Thai Sports
New Testaments and 10,000 Vietnamese Sports New Testaments. In 2018, we printed FCA Sports Bible Handbooks in Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Urdu. As of today, FCA prints New Testaments, Sports Bibles, Sports Bible Handbooks and more in Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Urdu, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese.
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2013: Going Digital
A partnership with YouVersion formed in 2013 and offered FCA reading plans to engage coaches and athletes in God’s Word. FCA began releasing e-Bible versions of all Camp Bibles in 2015. Today, FCA has more than 50 Bible Plans in numerous languages on YouVersion including Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese (Simplified) and Korean. Users have subscribed to digital Bible reading plans over 1.5 million times in just over five years, with nearly one million completions.
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