The Millennial Difference: 2 Young Men Using Their Love of Sports to Make Jesus Known

Cross the Line founders Ollie Baines and Liam Flint spoke with The Stream about pursing their passion while following God's lead.

In honor of Millennials around the country currently enjoying spring break, The Stream is launching an exclusive new series entitled “The Millennial Difference,” featuring Millennials who are using their passion to make a difference in the world. This is the second installment.

Ollie Baines and Liam Flint are two friends in England who share a love of sports and Jesus. After meeting in college, the two — who are “basically the same person,” Flint says — joked about starting a Christian sports magazine or website.

But they thought it was just that — a joke, and the two continued on their paths toward becoming P.E. teachers.

 After graduating and finding that teaching “wasn’t quite for me,” Baines began working in sports journalism. He remembered their college idea. 

“I believe that we could have the avenue and the utilities to pursue this now,” Baines told Flint. And so they did.

Now the friends, both in their early 20s, run Cross the Line — a website featuring interviews with professional athletes from around the world who share faith in Jesus Christ. 

“We’ve been a bit of a force as a team,” Flint told The Stream.

Getting It Started

It began with a lot of prayer as the two gave their project over to God. “We’re the stewards of Cross the Line, we don’t own it,” Baines said.

Before launching in December of 2014, Baines and Flint researched to see whether anyone was already targeting their potential market. They found that no one was intentionally talking to Christian athletes at the elite level — good news for their endeavor.

“We just took a chance,” Baines said. “Because it’s not a crowded market, there’s not a lot of competition. It was all kind of uncharted territory.” 

Cross the Line “can apply to both sports fans and Christians together and separately,” Baines continued. “We’re getting a really wide demographic of people.”

“We’re the stewards of Cross the Line, we don’t own it.” 

The initiative began with an exclusive focus on soccer players, but has since spread to athletes in all sports.

How do Baines and Flint land interviews with big names like NBA guard Seth Curry and Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin? “Rather cheekily for the first year,” Flint said — the pair took to social media to tweet at and message major sports stars. It bred some success. “Twitter’s amazing,” Flint said.

Now they email back and forth with sports clubs and agents, sometimes taking months to book an interview with a sought-after star.

“We’re trusting God to open doors,” Flint said. And he has. Now that Cross the Line is becoming more widely known, some athletes have approached Baines and Flint asking to share their own story.

“That’s massive for us,” Baines said.

It’s also encouraging, Flint said. Though it’s easy for the two sports fans to be “blown away” when talking to big-name athletes, they’ve come to realize, “these are just normal people and brothers and sisters in Christ,” Baines said.

“They face exactly the same issues,” Flint added, remembering some special moments in which they’ve been able to pray with athletes at the end of interviews. “It’s just massive encouraging to know that you’re all on a level playing field, and we all believe in the same God, and he’s bringing us together.” 

And that’s what matters for the Cross the Line founders — using their love of sports to reach people with God’s message. Last year, that message began to spread even further with the publication of the duo’s first book.

God Keeps His Promises

Baines holds Cross the Line

Baines remembers sitting in his parents’ garden years ago during some quiet time when he heard God say, “Ollie, you’re going to write a book.” Baines said he’s not much of a reader, let alone a writer — so he laughed. Nevertheless, the idea stuck with him.

Fast-forward to 2015, and Baines telling Flint he felt that something big was about to happen. Within two weeks, they received an email from SPCK, the largest Christian publishing company in the United Kingdom. SPCK had seen Cross the Line’s interviews, and asked if Baines and Flint had ever considered a book.

Nine months later, Cross the Line: Christian footballers talk faith, God and the beautiful game was finished and released in July of 2016.

“He keeps his promises,” Baines said.

Comprised of 20 interviews with Christian soccer stars from around the world, the book brings a new dynamic to their outreach, Flint said.

Baines recalled a woman who once approached them to thank them for Cross the Line. Her young son had been getting “swept away from church” through playing soccer — experiences Baines and Flint, having previously played sports in Sunday leagues, could identify with. The book allowed her son to read about role models who were living out their faith. “You brought church to my kid,” she said.

Baines and Flint to Millennials: Keep God at the Center

“Millennials get a lot of bad press at the moment,” Flint said, adding that he thought former generations were often better equipped for life. But “just because you’re part of this herd doesn’t mean you have to be tainted with this brush.”

“We know so many people on a mission to change that perception” of Millennials, he said, and “a lot of people have their head screwed on and are doing brilliant things.”

“You can be a lot freer with your choices knowing that God’s always in control.” 

From the looks of things, Baines and Flint fit that category themselves. But they said it took them 20 years to figure out that what they’d both always wanted to do — teach P.E. — wasn’t God’s plan. 

So to other Millennials still figuring out out their future, “Don’t worry,” Baines said. “God’s given you that gift or talent for a reason, and you can do amazing stuff with that” — even if you’re not currently sure how. “Don’t worry if it’s not all fixed and happened and happy-go-lucky right now.” And keep God at the center, he said.

When God’s at the center, you don’t have to stress out about your life choices, Flint added. 

“You think you’ve got a certain life plan [and if] you miss that … then you’ve failed,” he said. “You can be a lot freer with your choices knowing that God’s always in control.”

Learn more about Cross the Line by visiting the website or following Cross the Line on Twitter and Facebook. Find out how to purchase Cross the Line: Christian footballers talk faith, God and the beautiful game here.