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Wearing their faith on their sleeve
by Hoover Gazette Staff 

September 6, 2006

With 10 happy years of marriage under their belts, Joseph and Lori Lundy decided to forge a new partnership.

Devout Christians who also shared a passion for sports – especially college football – the couple had been exploring ideas for starting a business that combined elements of both. Their answer: to design and produce T-shirts featuring popular Bible verses against a backdrop of Alabama or Auburn colors.

The shirts are not licensed by either university, nor do they display any official insignia. Instead, the connection to War Eagle or Roll Tide is achieved through color choices, generic artwork of the mascot animals, and plays on words that bridge the gap between sports and scripture.

For example, the front of one of the Alabama shirts reads, “Then I said to them, what is this HIGH PLACE you go to?” followed up on the back of the shirt by, “It is called BAMAh to this day. Ezekiel 20:29”

The Lundys launched Bible Sports LLC from their kitchen table April 1, and they’ve sold about 800 shirts thus far, at a retail price of $17.99 to $19.99 each. And despite limited availability, the apparel has caught on like wildfire, resonating with the many fans of both teams who also share a love of scripture.

“They always say you should open a business that’s your passion,” Joseph says. “Our faith and our family are the most important things to us, and those are things people in this state are passionate about, too. And of course college football,” he chuckles.

The shirts are carried by several local retailers, including the ‘Bama Fever Tiger Pride stores at Patton Creek and in the Riverchase Galleria; the Lifeway Christian Stores in Alabama; certain Family Christian Stores locations, and The Amen Corner in Pelham. The merchandise is also available on the company’s Web site, www.biblesports.net. Alabaster commercial printing company Xpressions produces the shirts based on the Lundys’ designs.

“We actually researched the market, and what we found is that there are lots of sports T-shirts and shirts with religious themes, but nothing that combined the two,” Joseph says. “So we prayed about it and thought about it for six to eight months, and we talked it over with some friends. We never imagined the response we’ve gotten so far.”

After just five months in business, the shirts are now sold in nearly 25 retail shops across the state.

“God has truly opened up a lot of opportunities for us,” Joseph says. “We’ve really been blessed.”

Mock-up for Hoover Bucs
Currently there are two design choices of Roll Tide shirts and one option for Auburn fans. But the couple recently created a design for Hoover High School’s Buccaneers, who are in hot pursuit of their fifth consecutive 6A state championship and riding a wave of publicity stemming from their recent No. 1 national preseason ranking and being lavished with attention by Sports Illustrated and MTV.

The mock-up was to be presented this week to Head Coach Rush Propst for consideration. If approved, “That could be our next thing,” Joseph says. “If the school and the coach are interested, we’ll do it.”

The Auburn and Alabama shirts were a quick hit at the ‘Bama Fever store in the Riverchase Galleria.

“Within the first two months, our shirts had become the best selling of the specialty shirts,” Lori says, adding that she expects the popularity will only increase with football season now under way. “This will be our first football season.”

The shirts seem to fit with a growing trend toward fusing sports and religion. A number of ballparks around the country now have “faith nights.” Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz recently gave testimony before one such faith night game, the Lundys say. And Christian music groups play before Birmingham Steeldogs games on the three faith nights the team hosts each season.

A family of faith
Joseph and Lori were high school sweethearts while growing up in Houston, Texas. They married in 1996; Joseph says he was saved on the night he flew back home to Houston to ask Lori’s parents for permission to propose marriage to their daughter.

“Lori’s parents witnessed to me that night,” Joseph says, pointing to perhaps the most pivotal point in his life.

Neither of them devote their full-time attention to the business, and that isn’t likely to change in the near future. Joseph is a sales representative for The Stewart Organization, a local office equipment dealer. Lori was a pharmaceutical sales rep for Johnson & Johnson for six years but now spends her days raising the couple’s two children – Joshua, age 4, and Jacob, 18 months – running the household, and maintaining the company Web site, which she designed and built. They’ve been members of Hunter Street Baptist Church for about eight years.

Although the Lundys are happy with the pace at which their shirts are selling, they don’t measure the success of their company in dollars. If one of their shirts helps just one person find faith, they consider that a success.

“We don’t care if it’s the elephants and eagles or the scripture verses that catch peoples’ attention,” Joseph says. “We’re just glad that they’re helping open up conversations about faith.”

al.com
Everything Alabama
Alabama company mixing Bible and college sports

7/20/2006, 5:03 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
JASPER, Ala. (AP) — Joseph Lundy is selling T-shirts with a message: Praise God, and Roll Tide!
Lundy and his wife are the founders of BibleSports.net, an Internet-based company that is mixing one great Alabama passion college football — with another one — Christianity.  The result is shirts like the ones on sale at Berean Christian Resource Center in Jasper. A crimson-colored shirt for Alabama fans bears the words of a verse from the book of Ezekiel: “Then I said to them, what is this HIGH PLACE you go to?” On the other side, it says, “It is called BAMAh to this day.”

Store manager Jim Odom said the shirts look great.  “This is the first time I’ve seen a witness wear T-shirt geared more for college sports,” he told the Daily Mountain Eagle of Jasper in a story Thursday. “They’re just cool. I’d like to see more of that sort of thing.” One Alabama shirt has a drawing of an elephant with words from Job: “If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again.”

For Auburn fans, there’s an orange shirt with a drawing of an eagle and words from Proverbs: “The way of an EAGLE in the sky.”
Mixing a violent sport with Christianity might be offensive to some, but Lundy said his whole goal is to promote his faith.
“Our hope and our prayer is that someone will see these shirts,” he said. “It may not be the scripture. It may be the sports avenue that attracts their attention. If it is, that’s OK. But our prayer is that God will use these shirts in the sense that someone may see these verses and think, ‘I didn’t realize that was in the Bible. Where is that?’ and open the word up.”

Lundy, 32, is a Mobile native who has been an active member of a Baptist church in Hoover for eight years. He has a full-time job selling office equipment and started the shirt company as a sideline.  Since April 1, Lundy estimates he has sold more than 700 shirts, most of which retail across for $19.95, and has also set up an online store at BibleSports.net. Online sales have also done well, particularly with Father’s Day approaching.  “It’s better than we could have ever hoped for,” he said.  Lundy said he might do shirts for Georgia and Texas football fans, plus NASCAR. And other shirts are in the works for his home state.

“We’re probably looking at one more shirt for Tuscaloosa and one more for Auburn. There is a verse for the Tuscaloosa shirt, Job 9:9, that references, ‘He is the Maker of the Bear,’ and people already tell us they would love to see that on a shirt,” said Lundy.
Information from: Daily Mountain Eagle, http://www.mountaineagle.com
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Hoover News
The Birmingham News
Just a Chat

4/26/2006
'.. We've combined two things we love, which is obviously sports and faith.'

Joseph Lundy, 32, lives in Hoover and is a sales representative for an office equipment company. He and his wife, Lori, recently started a company, BibleSports.net, which sells team T-shirts featuring Auburn and Alabama, along with scripture verses. They have two sons, 3-year-old Joshua and 1-year-old Jacob.  How did you get the Idea for your business?  My wife and I have always wanted to own our own business, and whenever you make a decision on starting a business, it needs to be something you love and believe in and have a passion for and you enjoy doing. After many months of prayer and consideration, the result was BibleSports.net.

What we’ve done is combined two things we love, which is obviously sports and faith. What do you sell? Right now, it’s T-shirts and right now, for obvious reasons, we focused on Tuscaloosa and Auburn sports towns, but we are in the process of branching out to various other southern schools and other sports towns. We’re looking into NASCAR as well.  What sports do you play? The only thing I play at age 32 is church league softball. We’ve been members of Hunter Street Baptist for about seven years, and my two boys keep me active in various other things. Did you play any sports when you were younger? Growing up, I played baseball and
football. I had an injury in football in high school, so that kind of ended that. Just intramural sports growing up.

How did you end up In Hoover?  We lived in Helena for three years and we moved to Hoover about five years ago to be a little closer to our church family and most of our friends.  Do you have a favorite shirt? Since they’re all scripture-based, they’re all wonderful to us. It’s definitely a ministry tool for us.  So here’s the big question, do you favor the Alabama or Auburn shirts?  I always tell my friends that by the grace of God, I was raised an Alabama fan. But they both need Jesus, so that’s the right answer.
Dawn Kent