‘Wear’ Jesus as proudly as jersey, encourages Alabama’s Castille

Whose fan are you? Alabama? Auburn? Jeremiah Castille, who lettered at the University of Alabama (UA) and was named most valuable player in the 1982 Liberty Bowl, is a big, big fan.
   
But his greatest allegiance isn’t for a particular college team. It’s for a person.
   
“I pray you are a Jesus fan,” he told the congregation of Twelfth Street Baptist Church in Gadsden during a recent Sunday morning service. Castille also recently spoke at Crestway Baptist Church in Birmingham.
   
Castille — who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos —  is now chaplain for UA’s football team and UA’s campus director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).
   
Twenty years after leading his team to victory on the football field, Castille began in August 2002 to lead his favorite team — albeit with different players — down spiritual paths.
   
“When the opportunity came to work with the athletes at Alabama, my wife Jean and I spent much time in prayer before accepting this opportunity,” he said.
   
“There are three words that describe this opportunity in my mind. They are impact, mentor and discipleship,” Castille said. “Young people need to see the Christian faith lived out, and the best way they can learn is to see it done in one’s life. I’m willing to be such a person before them on a daily basis.”
   
As chaplain, Castille works not only with the football team, but also with the basketball players and other Alabama athletes.
   
He also spends time counseling and mentoring one-on-one with athletes concerning their spiritual, social, academic, team and individual concerns, as well as conducting team chapel services.
   
In fact, Castille has already been helping students overcome personal crises and issues  through his organization, Jeremiah Ministries. The organization helps to begin Bible studies in inner-city schools — in Birmingham for example — to help students understand they can overcome their situation, regardless of whether Mom is on crack or Dad’s an alcoholic.
   
Castille is also leading Alabama’s FCA program, which at 39 years, is the longest FCA program in the nation.
   
“Jeremiah (Castille) has a compassion for young people,” said Bill Buckner, FCA regional director for the Alabama-Mississippi area. “It is thrilling to see the excitement for him being the campus FCA director at Alabama.
   
And part of being on staff for FCA and Alabama means speaking engagements, such as the Sunday morning service at Gadsden’s Twelfth Street Baptist.
   
Though football anecdotes may have been what some listeners expected to hear from Castille, he discussed a more important topic.
   
He instead told the congregation about the incredible love of Jesus Christ that makes everyone a victor.
   
“How do you not end up a winner when you’ve got that in your life?” Castille pointed out. “Jesus was a winner.”
   
People can be conquerors, he continued, because the love of Jesus is personal.
   
This can be demonstrated by substituting our own names in place of “the world” in John 3:16: For God so loved “Jeremiah” that He gave His only begotten Son.
   
“Can you find anything more important than the love of God?” he asked. “You’re not getting into heaven without it. … God’s love is capable of delivering.”
   
Not only is Jesus’ love personal, but it also has purpose, Castille said, referring to Romans 8:14–17.
   
The purpose is to establish our kinship to the King Himself. “You get the chance to be in God’s family. Can you think of anything greater than being called a child of the King?” he asked. “Folks, that’s powerful.”
   
The love of God doesn’t see colors nor does it promote hatred.
   
And yet, Jesus loves even those who don’t love Him, Castille said. Christ loved His betrayer, Judas Iscariot, to the end.
   
In addition to the love of Jesus being personal and having purpose, Castille pointed out that it is powerful.
   
He asked, “How do we let circumstances defeat us?” People become depressed, defeated or desperate, Castille explained, because they have not made up their minds that God’s love can conquer anything and everything.
   
Reading from Romans 8:35–38, he noted that the apostle Paul exemplifies this determination by saying, “I am persuaded,” and nothing can separate a person from God’s love.
   
Castille encouraged the congregation to “wear” Jesus the way he was told to wear the crimson jersey. The jersey, he explained, stands for something, and as a player, he was to remember all those who had worn it before him.
   
“What have you done with the love of God?” he asked the listeners. “Have you given it to someone else?”
   
Unlike a football jersey, the exciting thing about Christ’s love is that when given away, it returns to the giver exponentially, Castille said.
   
Then, speaking specifically to young people in the congregation — which included three of his six children, one of whom is set to play football at Alabama — Castille said they should not allow themselves to be persuaded that the ways of Christ aren’t cool.
   
He said there were guys in college with him who thought going to a Bible study was corny. Now, he continued, those men have lives and family situations that are miserable.
“In the long run,” he said, “what you really want is to be blessed.”  
(Wayne Atcheson contributed)