What it means to have a full-time chaplain

"I came off the practice field one day. We were just walking back to the locker room, and a young man called me over and said, 'Hey, I want you to pray for me, 'cause I need a relationship with God, and I need some help in that.' For me, there's nothing more exciting than that! To get to help young men like him take steps in coming to know Christ and grow in a relationship with him.

"I didn't really do anything to initiate that, and yet God was working on his heart, I believe. I shared with Coach Briles about the environment that we've been able to create here in our program by praying for each other after practice and providing pre-game chapels. Seeds are being planted in young men's hearts, and there are some like this one who respond to that.

"We started reading through the Book of John, and I gave him daily readings every week. On Friday nights at the hotel during the season, we had a group of guys after chapel and position meetings that would get together to pray for each other and share. One week, some of them shared a struggle about their time in God's Word; they had noticed me giving the daily readings to the one player and wanted to do it as well.

Since there seemed to be such an interest, I just shared at the end of practice one day that some of us on the team were going to read through the Book of John together, and that I would have more copies of the week's reading in the locker room if anyone else wanted one. Well, I had to run upstairs and get more copies because so many guys came up. We ended up with 60 or more guys every week who would come looking for me to get one. That was encouraging to watch and see.

"You never know what you may encounter on a daily basis. Throughout the season, there were some guys on the team who experienced deaths in their family, and you try to walk with them through that. I had a young man call me about two weeks ago who said, 'I really need to talk to you,' and so I met him there at the stadium. We went outside and he shared a real struggle that he's facing in his life, and not only wanted prayer but help in dealing with that. Those are the kind of opportunities that come up that are so humbling for me to get to be a part of.

"Because of the great demand on the student-athletes' time, we started what we call our 10:17 groups this semester. They're based on Romans 10:17 that says 'faith comes from hearing the message.' For 10 weeks, athletes and coaches are taking 17 minutes a week to read God's Word and pray for each other before or after workouts. We take one Biblical principle a week and focus on it and in that short time together, read scriptures, have a brief discussion and then pray. We also include daily readings on that same truth that they can read throughout the week on their own. We have over 65 football players and coaches getting together at different times each week to read and pray. We have a good number of our track and field athletes doing the same, and our baseball and equestrian teams are getting ready to start. What better thing could we do for each other? It's been exciting to watch!"