Pray B4U Play™

No Pray Before You Play events are currently planned, but we challenge students to pledge to take time to pray before you play.

The History and Meaning of Pray B4U Play

The Pray Before You Play movement began in 2000, when God put a vision in Steve Teel's heart to call students, parents, coaches, and teachers together in an event to launch the school year in prayer. The first Pray B4U Play event was designed to encourage more prayer throughout the school year by challenging the community to pray before games, meets, matches, and other activities.

The idea became clear that our response to a Supreme Court decision striking down school prayer would be for each member of the Christian community to pray more. Instead of group efforts at defiance, as some Christians advocated, we believed the best response was for each individual to go to God in prayer and reliance upon His strength at every opportunity.

Nearly 1,000 people attended the 2000 Pray B4U Play event at North East Football stadium in San Antonio . The event was covered by all local TV news stations, picked up by national news radio, and was a front page story in the San Antonio Express News . We didn't just talk about prayer, but we sought to bless God by spending time in prayer. Students learned the S-P-O-R-T-S prayer and were challenged to take a quiet moment before each competition not just to pray that their team would win or that they would play well, but to pray for:

In 2001, the second Pray B4U Play event was held at the same football stadium which had since been renamed Comalander Stadium. With Caedmon's Call leading praise and worship, over 5,000 packed the stands and prayed together in Jesus' name. During the event but before Olympic Gold Medalist Brandon Slay could share his testimony, God sent wonderful rain to San Antonio . The event itself was cut short, but it served as a symbolic reminder that the prayer was just beginning. Our final call to the crowd was to keep praying.

Throughout the following year, we continued to hear of students that were taking the time to pray before their events. Though it is impossible for us to measure how much prayer increased in South Texas because of the Pray B4U Play challenge, God knows, and that is what matters most.

Support from the local business community

Our next event was held in 2003 in San Antonio . Due to threatening rains, we decided to hold the event inside the Littleton Gym also at North East Blossom Athletic Center . More than 6,000 packed the house and Caedmon's Call again led people into the presence of God. Gold Medalist Wrestler Brandon Slay spoke, even while it thundered outside.

The next week we joined a small but passionate and prayerful group for Pray B4U Play in Houston . CBS college football analyst and former NFL running back Spencer Tillman shared a powerful message (which he was developing for his recently released book Scoring in the Red Zone) and once more Caedmon's Call blessed us with their gift of worship.

God has made it clear that we are to continue encouraging students to take the time to "pray before you play" although we are not called to put on more Pray B4U Play events at this time.

rayer is a powerful gift from God. Click here to read Steve's family testimony to the power of prayer: Prayer Works.