Every Sunday night, Cary First Baptist's gym fills with men eager for pickup basketball and encountering the gospel. In just two and a half years, hundreds have surrendered their lives to Christ through an unexpected ministry.
Every Sunday night, the gym at Cary First Baptist Church echoes with dribbling basketballs and the howls of grown men as another pro basketball player slam-dunks the ball.
The men pour in every week from Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and beyond to play pickup basketball. They’ve come for an open court, community and friendly competition, but few expect to hear the gospel before tip-off. Even fewer imagine their lives will change forever.
Yet that’s exactly what’s happening inside a gym that has become an unlikely mission field.
For the last two and a half years, hundreds of men have surrendered their lives to Christ in a ministry no one saw coming, especially Mark Page, worship pastor and interim youth pastor at Cary First and chaplain for the Raleigh Firebirds basketball team. But baptisms are now the norm as men find freedom from sin, hope for trauma they’ve endured, and discipleship that reaches beyond their spiritual lives.
“They think they’re coming to play ball,” Page shared, “but they’re really coming to meet Jesus.”
An unlikely mission field, a willing missionary
When Page first arrived in Cary after serving as a church-planting resident in Vermont with Send Network, he could not have expected the ministry God would place before him. At first, the move made little sense.
Page was 17 when he was called as an evangelist with a heart for urban ministry and a missionary mindset. The pieces came together when he saw the church’s gym filled with men in need of the gospel.
“Matt Courtney, my partner in the ministry and lay leader at the church, had been opening the gym, and I said, ‘Man, why don’t we leverage this for the Lord?’ And so we started sharing the gospel,” Page said.
The first night he did, 30 men came to Christ. It’s only continued since.
“Immediately, I started weeping because 10 years before, God had given me a vision for an inner-city ministry that multiplies gospel impact to the nations, but stateside,” Page recounted. “And I start seeing it right in front of me in Cary, North Carolina.”
The men are wounded, broken from abuse, and carrying the weight of trauma, addiction and destructive generational cycles.
“I think they’re starving to death for spiritual health and hope,” he said.
Before every game, they gather at center court. Sometimes Page talks about leadership. Other times, he talks about purpose. Every time, he talks about Jesus, often using the 3 Circles evangelism tool.
“We’re gospel explicit,” he said. “We’re preaching the gospel.”
In one two-week period alone, 25 men prayed to receive Christ. This is among the hundreds who have come to faith since Page began, not to mention the 86 Cary High School football team members who came to faith in 2025.
As Page continued to witness God powerfully saving men, he felt led to begin Gospel Hoops Network (GHN), “a global network of Christian athletes, coaches, organizations and churches working together to speak Jesus into the hoops space.”
Viral clips of pro basketball players at the Cary First gym gain views online from other men who then show up the next week to get a chance to compete against these pro ballers.
“I’ve seen God change people’s mindsets and moods within the Gospel Hoops Network,” Tyriq “Riqco” Burrus, one basketball player, said. “Seen it go from a rough day outside of the hoops, and you can come in to the gym with joy in knowing you can receive the Word and good basketball and become a brotherhood!”
Reese McDonald, pro basketball player and GHN representative, recently had the opportunity to baptize his friend, DeShawn Patterson, who is also a pro and plays at the church gym.
McDonald shared, “Gospel Hoops Network is becoming another outlet God is using to win souls for His kingdom, and if I’m one of the vessels to help spearhead that, then to God be the glory.”
Other players like Jarius Taylor described the brotherhood he has gained through the GHN community, saying, “This is family.”
Page also recently began the Come to Jesus Podcast, where players are lining up to share their testimonies of coming to faith in Christ with the world.
“There’s a list of guys I’ll never get through that want to get on there, that came to me,” Page shared, “And they say, ‘I want to tell my story.’”
The gospel changes more than eternity
Through a framework he calls Project Bridge, Page builds bridges from brokenness to purpose for people in broken and forgotten places. He helps them discover who God wants them to become.
“What the gospel does, what the Bible does,” explained Page, “it gives us the tools that we need to be successful in every way.”
Page invests in men to give them a healthy, expansive vision for flourishing manhood. Conversations that begin around basketball often lead to discussions about marriage, fatherhood, finances, business ownership and spiritual growth.
“I’m walking with these guys through this process, and they’re starting businesses. They’re having life change,” Page shared. “Because everybody needs Jesus, and every man needs to become the leader that can lead his family, his community and his church.”
A church that embraces the mission
Cary First has witnessed the powerful work of God in saving hundreds of men.
“Sports are more than games—they are opportunities for God to reveal His love, build meaningful connections and draw people to Christ,” said Cary First Executive Pastor Myron Burris. “Through the influence of sports, lives have been changed, and the gospel is spreading in incredible ways.”
For Dr. Pat Kilby, lead pastor at Cary First, basketball has always been close to his heart and utilized for ministry. Having played himself as a college student at A-B Tech in Asheville, he passed on his love for the game to those under his influence, including during his time in the U.S. Air Force, his more than 30 years of ministry, and to his own four children. His son, Cory, played forward at Mercer University from 2015 to 2019.
“Our purpose at Cary First is to demonstrate the love and share the good news of Jesus—every day, everywhere, with everyone,” Kilby shared. “When we recognized that young men in our community had a huge passion for basketball, we connected our purpose statement to the sport of basketball and began providing opportunities for people in our community to play basketball in our gym.
“Through prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and a team of committed followers of Christ, God has been opening doors to share good news conversations, and we have seen many young people come to faith in Christ.”
The church has also recently served the Raleigh Firebirds, a semi-professional basketball team for which Page serves as chaplain, by providing a hot meal before a game. After everyone ate, Page shared the gospel.
“I challenged them to come to Jesus. The entire men’s basketball team was there. Every man who didn’t have Jesus prayed to receive Jesus right there on the spot,” Page shared.
“When churches connect their purpose with an opportunity to provide ministry in their communities, God will open doors to advance His kingdom through the local church,” Kilby said.
Prayer as the foundation
When asked what he thinks accounts for such a powerful movement of God, Page credits two things: a church that was willing to trust God to leverage its gym for ministry, and prayer.
Page has felt much freedom in the Lord to run with this ministry and attributes that to Kilby’s leadership, whose love for the Lord and for the game has allowed Page to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead to boldly make Jesus known.
Page also credits God’s faithfulness to hear His people pray. Alongside the army of prayer warriors interceding for these urban basketball players is Page’s increased prayer life.
“The one thing I can say about this season of ministry is my prayer for the Lord was, ‘Lord, teach me to pray,’” Page said. “I have spent more hours than ever in my life in the prayer room. I have been with the Lord. And everything I’m seeing has flowed from that.”
“The pump has been primed by the Lord,” Page concluded. “It’s literally not hard. It’s like reaping.”
By Courtney Moore, NAMB
EDITOR’S NOTE — Courtney Moore serves as content strategist for the North American Mission Board. This article was originally published by NAMB. The original, full article can be found here. Republished with permission.
