HOLTS SUMMIT — Sports Crusaders president Bobby Shows announced his retirement Oct. 12 during the semiannual meeting of the organization’s board and advisory council at its headquarters in Holts Summit.
Shows, 66, said he will transition from his role as leader of the Missouri-based ministry to its “No. 1 ambassador” on Jan. 1.
Shows was a member of the Missouri Baptist Convention staff when he shared a vision for evangelistic sports camps and launched Sports Crusaders in 1994.
“In 1999, God made it clear that it was time to take Sports Crusaders to into a faith ministry,” Shows said. In January 2001, it began “in the basement of my home” and a year later moved to its current facilities at Union Hill Baptist Church.
Shows said God began speaking to him and his wife, Jane, about eight months ago about his decision, noting “it’s a God thing.”
Today, the Sports Crusaders team has five staffers in addition to Shows, all of whom raise their own support.
More than 2,700 children and younger youth attended summer camps during the past summer in Canada, Mexico, Alaska and America’s inner cities. At least 269 made professions of faith.
“Hundreds of lives and ministries join in gratitude for the leadership of Bobby Shows,” said board chair Jim Smith. “His vision for Sports Crusaders has built a ministry of global impact….”
Smith praised Jane Shows and thanked her for her “support, commitment and many contributions.”
