Reaching more coaches, athletes for Christ
By Shane Williamson
President and CEO, Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Evangelist Billy Graham once said, “A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime.”
Because of the powerful influence of coaches, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) recognizes one of the best ways to reach more athletes for Christ is to first reach the coach.
We know the impact a Christian coach has on an athlete can be life-changing and reaches all areas of the athlete’s life — at school and home and later in the workplace and in marriages.
With that in mind, FCA has focused on the strategy of “To and Through the Coach” — pursuing the FCA vision and mission through ministries that impact coaches’ hearts, marriages and families.
We want to engage, equip and empower coaches to be disciples who make disciples and to be a godly influence on their fellow coaches, teams and athletes.
John Gibbons, our FCA state director in Alabama, says the best way to reach a campus with the gospel is to have a strong outreach to coaches.
“In discipling coaches,” Gibbons says, “you advance the gospel in the hearts and lives of the young men and women they coach daily. We have 103 Coaches Huddles in Alabama with over 3,000 coaches in Bible study with our Alabama FCA staff. The direct impact reaches over 30,000 athletes. And we now have three coach and spouse marriage enrichment weekends to help strengthen coaches’ marriages, so they can ‘win at home.’”
Gibbons adds that a major component in discipling coaches is providing a strong ministry outreach to their athletes.
“Coming alongside coaches to reach their team involves more than having Bible studies for coaches,” he says. “Jesus walked alongside His disciples, doing ministry with them to equip and empower them to be fishers of men. Likewise, FCA provides Team Huddles, Team Camps and other special events like Fields of Faith to help coaches advance the gospel with their athletes.”
We know athletes are indeed impacted later in life by their Christian coaches. Therefore, an unwavering goal at FCA has been to fulfill Jesus’ calling to make disciples by engaging, equipping and empowering coaches and athletes to know and grow in Christ and lead others to do the same.
Making disciples is accomplished even in unconventional ways — through the avenue of sports — so coaches can have eternal impact on athletes, and in turn, help lead others to Christ as well.
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Protecting our stories
“Notre Dame is on fire!” As Alabama Baptists we know a little bit about church fires — some caused by electrical faults or lightning, others by accident and some by arson.
Whatever the cause we see how quickly a much-loved building can be lost.
The story of God’s work in a family of faith, documented in the church’s records, is often lost to fiery flames as well.
The names of past and present members, the record of missions support and service, and other church history all can disappear when the written record of the church is lost.
Unfortunately we lose more church materials to everyday risks like changing record keepers or throwing things away than we do to tragedy.
How do we protect our churches from losing the written record of God’s work in and through their families of faith? By preserving church records through the Records Preservation Ministry of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission.
Churches in our Alabama Baptist family can have their records microfilmed free of charge by calling the Historical Commission at 205-726-2363.
May God find us faithful in stewardship of His story recorded in our church records.
—Lonette Berg
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lonette Berg is the executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission.
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My Jesus Story
In 2011 my life dramatically changed. It was a traumatic near-death experience that disfigured me and changed the way I lived, thought, acted and interacted with people.
Since then I have fought to restore and even save my life.
I began to feel what I imagine David felt when he began to get battle weary: “Lord are You ever going to stop these battles and just answer my prayers?”
I am a huge believer in prayer, especially intercessory prayer. I ask for it and I provide it.
This is where I believe a church community — other people who will stand in the gap when you are too weary to fight anymore — is so important.
In Ephesians 6:18 we are told, “In the same way prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”
Keep praying friends.
Jenni Ingram
Gantt Baptist Church, Gantt, Ala.
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Three of our smaller churches are joining together for VBS this summer in their community. They are doing this for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the Kingdom and for their community.
Craig Carlisle
Associational Mission Strategist, Etowah Baptist Association
The Christian life is “a faith adventure” and we see example after example of that in the Bible and in the world in which we live.
Charlie Howell
Director of Missions, Madison Baptist Association
Corporate worship should be a priority and not just one activity option among many for church members on the weekend.
Thom Rainer
Founder and CEO, Church Answers
God’s Word is literature, but it also is alive and active, revealing our hearts and directing how we live.
Mary Wiley
Factsandtrends.net
Church attendance is an act of faith and in the United States of America no one should worship in fear.
Edward Alexander Jr.
President of the Louisiana Missionary Baptist State Convention of the National Baptist Convention USA
Why Pastors and High School Head Coaches have similar jobs:
- Both coaches and pastors are semi-public figures in the community. They occasionally appear at community events, speak publicly outside of their workplace and are covered by local press (and sometimes beyond).
- Both coaches and pastors tend to be modestly paid, although they must interact as peers with people of all socioeconomic classes, including people who make much more and much less than they do.
- Both coaches and pastors have to build and maintain multiple constituencies, many of whom are volunteers.
- Both coaches and pastors have people attending their main events (games/Sunday gatherings) who believe they are well qualified to evaluate and vocally critique the performance of the leader. Many critics have attended these events over the years and so assume that they could lead one.
- Both coaches and pastors have gigantic impact at some of the most critical times of life for the people that they influence.
- At their best, both coaches and pastors teach lessons that last literally for a lifetime and are often passed on to future generations.
I am so grateful for the pastors and coaches that God placed in my life and in the lives of my children. I support them, pray for them, stay in touch with them, and thank them. These men and women are some of the greatest gifts from God to me and my family.
Pastor Jimmy Scroggins
Family Church, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Christians must not fear the future or any technological development because we know that God is, above all, sovereign over history, and that nothing will ever supplant the image of God in which human beings are created.
“Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles”
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, SBC
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From the Twitterverse
@DustyMcLemore
Jesus willingly died on the cross. It wasn’t assassination, it was Atonement! The cross was intended to take life but Jesus died to give life! #mysavior
@Blackwell_Kevin
One of the greatest gifts that God gives to his children is an awareness of his sovereignty. The sovereignty of God is a pillow on which the soul of a believer can rest.
#HeisFaithful
@fbcabbeville
“All who love Jesus Christ the Lord ought to care deeply about the church, because the church is the object of Jesus’ own love. Church-centeredness is this one way in which Christ-centeredness ought to find expression. — J.I. Packer on Ephesians 5:25–27
@BeesonDivinity
“A steward is a person into whose care and responsibility something precious has been entrusted.” — Dr. Timothy George
@DL_Staples
What he said leading up to the cross. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37–39
@clbolt
This morning I am thankful for my friends. Friends I’ve known online (yes) for over a decade, and talk to every day. Friends from seminary who have become lifelong friends with shared (often niche) interests and mission. Thank God for friendship and friends.
@bellevuepastor
Why shouldn’t the next President of @LifeWay be a competent, godly woman? I see no biblical reason @LifeWay has to be led by a man or a former pastor.
@PatrickDeneen
May this horrible day come instead to be remembered as the date we mark the renewal of Christianity in the heart of Europe.
@LGoligher
It took 135 years to build Notre Dame but the people who built it did not want their names to be remembered because they were building it to the glory of God alone — Soli Deo Gloria
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