LONDON, UK (ANS) -- Future major sports events, like the World Cup and the Olympics, will benefit from the many lessons churches have learned during the 2012 London Olympic Games.

According to More Than Gold (www.morethangold.org.uk ) , in London this week is a delegation of more than forty church leaders from twelve of the nations where major sports events take place over the next few years. This includes a dozen from Brazil who are getting ready for the World Cup in two years’ time and the Olympics two years later.

More Than Gold, the agency set up by all the denominations to help churches make the most of the 2012 Games played host to the delegation.

More Than Gold UK Director Jon Burns said: “We don’t want the valuable lessons learned here over the past three years to go to waste.”

The week-long in-depth briefing includes representatives of churches, mission and Christian sports organizations from Brazil, Scotland, Canada, USA, Korea and Russia.

More Than Gold said the representatives will be visiting churches in action and being briefed on areas ranging from running community festivals, sports outreach, mission teams, social action and prayer to finance, operations and communications.

More Than Gold explained the Brazilians have already been in the UK for some months receiving hands-on experience in running community festivals.

This is thanks to Fusion Youth and Community who have been at the heart of the festival program run by churches during the Games that has seen over half a million people attend.

Carla Mendes, one of the More Than Gold Brazil team, said: “We breathe sport in Brazil. It’s in our DNA. So we are already starting to train people how to use sport to engage with their community and are encouraging more than 10,000 churches to work together for 2014.”

While in the UK, Carla said she has been struck by the way mission volunteers have come from around the world to work among local churches to support festivals, kids holiday clubs, creative arts programs and sports clinics.

Carla said: “We have seen the impact when people come with skills and ideas from other nations. So we will really be encouraging our churches back home to be ready to receive them.”

Closer to home, a group from Scotland are getting ready for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in two years’ time.

Lorimer Gray, Chair of More Than Gold 2014 in Scotland, said: “Being here has given us the assurance that we are on the right track. We are also struck by the spread of denominational involvement and the unity of the More Than Gold 2012 team.”

The briefing will help other nations take up some of the initiatives by churches new to the 2012 Games. This includes More Than Gold’s Games Pastors program and the many Youth Cafes that have attracted young people.

** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International To support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism,' please contact Michael for more information. Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter