My World Cup journey started in 1994. That year, my parents bought the first color television in our neighborhood in Ethiopia. Before that, we walked miles to a cafeteria to watch matches, with a big crowd gathered around a small black-and-white screen. I remember walking home late at night, sometimes in the rain, either so happy because my team had won, or heartbroken because it had just been knocked out.

Years later, after moving to the United States, I noticed something at my workplace. The dress code changed on Mondays. Colleagues walked in wearing their team jerseys because their team had played the night before. And the natural thing ensued. Everyone started commenting on last night’s game.

Sport is a shared global experience. Billions of people, speaking different languages, on different continents, live and breathe sports.

And every four years, there is a summit of what the rest of the world calls football and what we in the U.S. call soccer. This summer, the summit—the 2026 World Cup—is landing in our backyard.

The Main Event

This summer, the World Cup comes to North America. Five billion people will watch at least one match. Your neighbor, your co-worker, the driver you meet tomorrow and the friend you have not spoken to in a year will all have something to say about it. And it’s rare to experience such universal enthusiasm.

This digital journey was made with NextSteps, a tool made available by Jesus Film Project. NextSteps is a free platform that helps seekers discover and follow Jesus. It empowers anyone to share the story of Jesus in the most visual, story-driven way possible.

The aroma of Christ, in a summer of soccer

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15, ESV).

A fragrance doesn’t announce itself. It’s simply present in the room.

This summer, the room is the tournament. AI-enabled social media will cover every match inside and out. There will be in-person moments, friends around a TV, a family in a living room, strangers in a bar. There will also be phone moments, people checking the score in a meeting, refreshing a browser at a desk, smiling at an airport gate because their team just scored.

Underneath the scores, life is still life. Relationships are hard. Family life is intense. Finances are tight. Health is fragile. People we love are no longer with us. Even a lost match can bring to the surface that fear and grief already inhabiting the heart.

People are still searching. People are still seeking Jesus, even when they do not have the words for what they are looking for. The tournament does not change that. It simply gathers 5 billion of them in one conversation at the same time.

This is where we come in … not to preach a sermon, but to be the fragrance, the knowledge of Him in the room.

Your phone is a stadium

Every four years, designated stadiums hold 80,000 people for 90 minutes. For a month this summer, your phone can connect with those stadiums and the sports enthusiasts inside.

A group chat lights up. An Instagram reel shows a last-minute goal. A WhatsApp voice note comes in from a friend in Nairobi. A TikTok video captures a national anthem that makes grown men cry. Your feed becomes the stands, and every person on it is sitting in the row beside you.

The gospel has always traveled on the fastest road of the age. Roman roads carried Paul’s letters. The printing press advanced Martin Luther. Radio promoted Billy Graham. In 2026, the road runs through your pocket. I’ve previously written about how technology and evangelism work together. 

Your phone is a stadium. Will you show up in it ready to listen, pray, and engage?

One Uber ride

Recently, I took an Uber from Newark to JFK on my way home to Ethiopia. New York traffic delayed us a full hour. I had my phone out, working on a Jesus Film Project AI bot we were building.

Chris, my driver, was a born-and-raised New Yorker. We started talking, and it did not take long to see that he was searching. He was not satisfied with what the world had to offer.

So I listened.

He began to open up, and I shared my own story. I told him what I do, and that I was learning how to build an AI tool through which people can study the Bible and watch Jesus Film Project content. When I mentioned we have a movie about Jesus in more than 2,260 languages, he was fascinated.

The Holy Spirit was moving. The soil was ready. I played the Knowing Jesus Personally clip for him from the Jesus Film Project media library, which is the invitation to receive Christ. As soon as it finished, Chris said, “That is super clear.” I asked if he wanted to pray and invite Jesus into his life. He said yes without hesitation.

Then he asked for the app.

What I learned later made the moment deeper. Chris’s mother had been praying for him his entire life. That Uber ride was an answer to a mother’s lifetime of prayer.

A 47-year-old film. A New York City Uber driver. A mother’s prayers. A phone. And the Holy Spirit.

Now imagine that same phone, in a summer like this one, with billions of people already talking about the same thing.

Honestly, I almost didn’t say anything

The truth is, I get afraid too. Before the conversation in the Uber car, a familiar set of thoughts runs through my mind. What if he doesn’t want to listen? What if he asks me a question I can’t answer? What if he thinks I’m too pushy? What if he gets offended and the rest of the ride is awkward? What if the app doesn’t load, or the language I pick is wrong, or I say the wrong thing at the wrong time?

I have been doing digital missions for years, and I still feel those fears.

If you have ever felt the same way, you are not alone. Most of us do not readily step into spiritual conversations because something in us makes us hesitate.

Scripture does not pretend fear is not real. It tells us to bring it with us.

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV).

You do not need to be an evangelist. You do not need a seminary degree. You do not need to have all the answers. You need a willingness to listen, a heart that is praying and a phone with a few good tools on it. The Holy Spirit does the work we could never do. Our job is to show up, even when our voice shakes a little.

That is what happened in the Uber. I felt the fear, said something anyway and watched God do the rest. This doesn’t mean every spiritual conversation ends in a transformation. But we are still the seed planters.

Listen, Pray, Engage

I did not have a plan when I got into that Uber car. I had a phone, a story and a willingness to listen. That is how most of us are equipped. Three habits help us use our tools.

Listen. A co-worker says, “My country has never won a World Cup.” That might really mean, “I miss home.” A friend says, “I cannot believe we lost.” That might really mean, “One more loss … I needed a win this week.” The tournament turns shallow talk into deep talk. But before we speak, we listen. Before we share, we understand.

Pray. Pray before every match you watch. Pray for the team you support and the team you do not. Pray for the Uber driver who mentioned his home country. Pray for the neighbor whose jersey just showed up in the window. The Holy Spirit prepares soil we cannot see. Many of the conversations we are about to walk into this summer have been prayed over for years by someone else. Chris’s mother prayed for him for a lifetime! Our job is to show up equipped.

Engage. Engagement is where listening and prayer become action. Not engagement as strategy or performance, but engagement as love made visible. Send the message. Ask the follow-up. Invite the neighbor over for the game. Share a clip in a group chat. Engagement is a posture of leaning in when most people aren’t connecting at all.

Five Ways to Share Jesus During the World Cup

Engaging does not have to be complicated. Here are five scenarios of what any believer can actually do this summer. The first two are unpacked in detail. The others are short prompts you can adapt to your life.

1. A church youth group hosting a post-match live stream

Imagine a church youth group hosting a live-stream on Instagram or TikTok 30 minutes after a high-profile match. Their friends who would never walk into a youth room will gladly tune into a phone screen.

Here is how it could work:

The youth pastor picks one match per week of the tournament. Three or four students agree to host. The night of the match, they go live 20 to 30 minutes after the final whistle. The format is simple. They recap the match, share the moment that moved them most and then ask one real question. For example:

• Why does losing this match feel so much bigger than just a game?
• Why do we cry when our country sings our national anthem?
• What do you think makes a team really come together?

The hosts invite friends to comment with their own answers. They do not preach. They listen and respond.

Toward the end, one of the hosts volunteers a 60-second reflection on where they find hope and shares the football2026.nextstep.is link in the bio. The whole exchange runs 20 to 30 minutes.

That is not a youth event. That is a digital missions outpost run by teenagers, in the language teenagers already speak.

2. A neighborhood watch party with the kit and the phone working together

Imagine opening your home for a match-day watch party, neighbors from down the street mixing with families who just moved in. Food from the countries playing that afternoon. The smell of grilled meat, the sound of cheers and the aroma of Christ, all in the same room.

You do not have to figure this out alone. Cru^® has already written the playbook for you.

Become a key player and order the free host kit. It includes a prayer card to write down five names of people you are praying for, a conversation guide for spiritual discussions, the 152-page Nations Book with prayer points and a recipe for every participating country, a printable bracket and the gospel framework called “The Four.”

Now add the digital layer your phone makes possible.

• Before the match: Send the invitation by text or WhatsApp. Look up your guests’ home countries in the Nations Book. Pray through those nations during the week.
• During the match: Cook one dish from each country playing. Share photos in your group chat. Let the cheering, the groaning and the table do the relational work.
• After the match: Use the conversation-guide questions before guests leave. If the Holy Spirit opens a door, walk through The Four with them. As people head home, send each guest the football2026.nextstep.is link in their language by text. The conversation that started in your living room can keep going on their phone, in their mother tongue, in their own time.

The kit handles the hospitality. Your phone handles the follow-through.

Three more scenarios

Imagine a small group adopting a nation for the tournament. They use the Nations Book prayer points for that country during every match. They learn a few words of its language. They send the JESUS film in that language to one person they know from there.

Imagine a dad watching the match with his teenager, pausing at halftime to ask, “What do you think makes a team really unite?” Imagine that conversation ending in a prayer neither of them expected.

Imagine a friend in your group chat saying, “I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but that anthem made me cry.” Imagine you having something compassionate to say back, and a football2026.nextstep.is link ready to share.

Free 2026 World Cup Evangelism Tools

This summer, three free Jesus Film Project^® resources make these soccer engagements possible.

1. football2026.nextstep.is. This site (powered by NextSteps) was built specifically for the 2026 World Cup. Pick a region of the world, choose your friend’s language and you’ll receive a personalized gospel link to share by text, WhatsApp, Instagram DM (direct message) or email. The interactive preview lets you see exactly what your friend will experience before you send it. This is the easiest single tool to use during a match.

2. GodTools App. Here you’ll find gospel conversation guides like Knowing God Personally and The Four on your phone, in dozens of languages. When a conversation gets real, you can be ready.

3. Jesus Film Project App. Share the JESUS film, Magdalena, The Story of Jesus for Children and hundreds of other films in more than 2,000 languages. Send a direct link to a friend’s WhatsApp in their heart language. National identity is already on the table during the tournament. A film in someone’s mother tongue meets them right there.

Activate your region

The World Cup will come and go. The champion will be crowned. The jerseys will go back in the closet. The headlines will move on. But the conversations we listen to, pray over and step into this summer can last. People will still be carrying those fears and obstacles that burdened them before the tournament began. Those fears are real but so is the Holy Spirit. Either way, those people will still be seeking Jesus.

But all of that is still ahead of us. Before the first whistle, here is one simple step you can take today.

Go to football2026.nextstep.is. Pick the region your friend, neighbor, or co-worker is from. Choose their language. Watch the preview. Then share that link with one real person before the next match starts.

More than 1 million NextSteps journeys have already started around the world, with people across the United States, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Kazakhstan and beyond discovering and following Jesus. football2026.nextstep.is is one doorway into that movement. Visit the site and you will see the live impact, updating in real time, country by country.

Listen first. Pray often. Engage intentionally. Pick up your phone, imagine what God might do through it and send one link, in one language, to one real person.

You are not alone in this. Thousands of other key players are doing the same thing across cities and time zones this summer. Stay connected with the Victory Beyond the Cup community and join the movement.

Your phone is a stadium. The aroma of Christ is already in the room. Our job is to be present while He fills it.

Resources mentioned:

• 2026 World Cup outreach tool, by region and language: football2026.nextstep.is
• Become a key player and order the free host kit: victorybeyondthecup.com/keyplayer
• The JESUS film and hundreds more in more than 2,000 languages: jesusfilm.org/watch
• Gospel conversations in dozens of languages: godtoolsapp.com
• Victory Beyond the Cup community: victorybeyondthecup.com