Athletes ��ñ��

Basketball and Bible Study

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:54:35 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Basketball and Bible Study

Gabby was a college basketball star who went to church “maybe once a year.” She believed in God—mostly because she was afraid of what would happen otherwise.

“I couldn’t understand when people would say Jesus died for me. In my head, he didn’t even know me,” Gabby said. “I used to question God all the time, and I didn’t understand the Bible and its meaning.”

“God, like the real God, spoke to you?”

On a road trip in 2015, Gabby’s best friend and fellow basketball player on another campus talked about Rec Week, an annual ��ñ�� conference. Gabby’s friend shared how at Rec Week she grew in her love for Jesus and engaged in listening prayer.

Gabby was shocked, “God, like the real God, spoke to you? How?” Her curiosity was sparked, so she agreed to study the Bible with her friend over the summer.

The next semester, Gabby transferred with a basketball scholarship to Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) in San Antonio, Texas, her best friend’s school. Excited to join the same life-changing ��ñ�� chapter as her friend, Gabby regularly attended a Bible study led by Patrick Farris, an ��ñ�� staff minister.

Patrick convinced Gabby, along with her teammates, to go to Rec Week, the same conference her friend attended a year earlier. A call to faith was made. Gabby said yes and decided to follow Jesus.

“Jesus does know me! I know that now. I don’t have it all together, and I need him.”

“��ñ�� changed my life.”

The following year, after co-leading a Bible study for basketball players at OLLU, Gabby and her team attended Rec Week for the second time. There, they prayed for campuses with no ��ñ�� presence, including Sul Ross State University—the same campus where Gabby already accepted a role as Graduate Assistant Coach of the women’s basketball team.

“That,” Gabby said, “presented a great opportunity to start a chapter!”

Today, Gabby leads Wednesday night Bible studies for the Sul Ross women’s basketball team when they’re not on the road. Just like Gabby’s team at OLLU, God is transforming the lives of the players at Sul Ross. They’ve become more open and are reaching friends outside of the team. Plus, this May, three years since her best friend told her about the conference, four of the women agreed to attend Rec Week with Gabby—the first time for Sul Ross students.

“��ñ�� changed my life,” Gabby said. “It not only strengthened my relationships with friends I already had, but also brought into my life people whose faith kept my faith growing even more. I thought I was good before, but when I gave my life to God and felt his love for me, I realized I was far from good. I actually lacked everything.”

Will you consider giving to ��ñ��, so more students like Gabby and her team can come to know the God who knows them already? Just like Gabby, ��ñ�� wants to see more future leaders developed on campuses across the nation. For more information and to give, click the button below.

Donate to Develop Future Leaders

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Football Players Love Their Angry Neighbors

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 19:04:08 +0000

News

Jenny Klouse

Football Players Love Their Angry Neighbors

The front page newspaper headline read: “Neighbors Complain About Football Players.” Trash, noise, property damage—all blamed on Mendocino College athletes. The Black football players came from out of state to play ball in this majority White town. And now, just one month into the fall semester, their neighbors were signing a petition to evict them.

Six months earlier my colleague Troy Tisthammer and I had driven an hour-and-a-half to Mendocino College, located in the small Northern California town of Ukiah, to accomplish our goal of visiting every campus in our area. While there, we met the assistant football coach, who had led some Bible studies for the team, but he was moving out of the area.

He connected us to the head football coach, Frank Espy, who welcomed our partnership in spiritually developing his athletes. Now, here we were six months later in the middle of a controversy between the college and the town!

How were we going to engage as Athletes ��ñ��? Our vision is to see athletes and coaches transformed, collegiate athletics renewed, and world-changers developed. We realized that what happened next could influence a whole town.

Answers from the Bible

To guide the football players spiritually through this conflict, we selected an ��ñ�� Bible study series called Awkward, which aims at helping people turn awkward situations into spiritual conversations. Over the next month, we looked at stories of three awkward situations in Scripture.

The first week we studied the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8.

The players could relate. They felt similarly exposed and shamed as everyone was talking about them in the public square. As White ��ñ�� staff, it was painful for me to listen to their personal stories of feeling alienated and unwanted in this small town.

The next week, Troy led a study in Matthew 20, where Jesus addresses power dynamics and servanthood as the disciples argue over who will sit at Jesus’ right and left hand. Jesus says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”

The players tried to place themselves in their neighbors’ shoes and wondered: What would it look like to serve the neighborhood? Jesus reconciled people across differences. It might be awkward, but could they do the same? Coach Espy and Troy proposed the idea of hosting a cook-out for the neighborhood to build relationships and serve the community.

“Let’s do it right now!” the football players said. Fifteen players and Troy went through the neighborhood to engage in conversation, listening and apologizing as needed, and inviting everyone to the cook-out.

In one conversation, the neighbor was initially dismissive and very clearly angry. But after the players created space for her to share her feelings of frustration, they ended up getting to pray with her and her family. They saw the power of Jesus at work as anger was replaced with peace. And they followed Jesus’ example of being a servant to their neighbors through listening and engaging without fighting back.

The cook-out was two weeks later. To prepare, we looked at a third awkward situation in the Bible, this one in Acts 2. After the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples and they began speaking in other languages, some people mocked them and said they were drunk. But Peter engaged boldly and invited the crowd to follow Jesus.

Anticipating that the cook-out would bring opportunities to explain that Jesus was the motivation for their service, the players practiced together in pairs, what they would say to their neighbors. Then we prayed and went out front to cook up some food!

Bridging the Neighborhood Divide

It was amazing to watch players and neighbors gather outside the football players’ house. Once the focus of sensational newspaper headlines, the property was now a hub of conversation and laughter bridging the neighborhood divide.

One player grilled up his family’s secret chicken recipe, while neighbors brought potato salad and homemade bread. The mayor’s wife ran back to her home to get more silverware. After a few hours, the sun began to set as the cook-out ended. (But not before the police stopped by to share that other neighbors complained about the noise.) By following Jesus’ example, the players engaged the conflict and helped to heal the damaged relationships with their neighbors.

But the story continued. Not too long after the cook-out, the landlord evicted the players because rent was overdue. Many churches, local organizations, and the mayor worked together to support the players.

Over the next few months, a soup kitchen provided meals. Churches and individuals housed the players. The local newspaper raised awareness about the challenge of housing for student athletes in the tight and expensive Northern California rental market. ��ñ�� students from area schools attended and cheered on the players at their last home game. A local Christian television show dedicated a whole episode to the football players’ story.

The End of Football at Mendocino

However, after the struggles of fall semester, most of the players did not return for the spring semester. In February, another article came out in the town newspaper: “College to End Football Program.” After lengthy discussions, Mendocino College administrators had decided to conclude the program in light of housing and financial concerns, and student well-being. The coach found out he was losing his job. The remaining football players found out they were now being forced to find new colleges where they could play ball.

While it seems that our Athletes ��ñ�� football ministry at Mendocino College is destined for only one year, our service has not been in vain. My colleague Troy and I walked through the open door God gave us a year ago to witness to and disciple a football team. We didn’t feel all that skilled or confident, but we sought to be faithful in loving these men made in the image of God, hoping they would see God through us.

True to God’s character, he did more than we could ask or imagine. Though eviction could have led to a sense of homelessness, God was at work taking care of his family. As Athletes ��ñ��, we were blessed to be a part of sharing God’s love with this team.

“You truly have been a blessing to me,” Coach Espy told us.“I’m so thankful for you and Troy; I can’t say enough good things about you two and what you have done.”

One of the players, Jimmy, expressed his appreciation too: “I am thankful for you [��ñ��] believing in the Mendocino football team this entire school year. You gave hope to a bunch of broken individuals who needed God. Thank you for your consistency!”

Another player, Frank, decided at the last minute to attend our recent ��ñ�� weekend retreat. During the retreat he came forward to make Jesus the leader of his life. “I have seen and felt Jesus moving inside me,” he told us.

God still uses awkward situations to draw believers to him.

_________

Jenny Klouse is ��ñ��'s Area Director in the North Coast Area of California.

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Hall of Fame Honors for One Staff Member

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 20:18:00 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Hall of Fame Honors for One Staff Member

��ñ�� campus minister Colleen Caskey was inducted into the University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Fame at the school’s Homecoming Celebration on Friday, October 28, 2016. She joined nine other inductees, including Super Bowl XLVII MVP quarterback Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens.

Colleen was a leader on her volleyball team as a four-year starter from 2004 to 2007, and a two-year captain. She established several athletic records that still stand, and was named Conference Player of the Year as well as Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007, among her many awards.

She was also a spiritual leader on her team, leading Bible studies and prayer meetings and sharing her faith. It was seeing spiritual transformation in her own life and in the lives of her teammates that led Colleen to join ��ñ�� staff.

Jeana Beno, ��ñ��’s Area Director for Delaware, said, “When Colleen was on the University of Delaware staff team, she had an expectation that a good team plays hard, treats each other well, and works together to accomplish the goal. Her desire is to do her best and to be a really good player on the team.”

As Colleen worked with athletes at the University of Delaware, continuing the outreach that began under Will Metzger, she nurtured a hope that more campuses would see athletes’ ministry develop. In 2009, at ��ñ��’s triennial Urbana student missions conference, Colleen met with two other ��ñ�� staff members who had collegiate athletic experience—Maghan Perez and Ben Sturgill—and together they prayed that God would use them to start a ministry to athletes within ��ñ��.

“Colleen carried that vision and calling back to the University of Delaware and continued to press into ministering to athletes, challenging them to start witnessing to their teammates, and empowering them to lead Bible studies on their teams,” Maghan said. “Not only did she help to grow this chapter to be one of Athletes ��ñ��’s largest chapters in the country, Colleen also started advocating for other staff to begin seeing the athletic community on their campuses as a ministry opportunity. The Mid-Atlantic region currently has 14 campuses with athlete-specific Bible studies or chapters.”

Today Maghan is the national director of Athletes��ñ��, Ben is the associate director, and Colleen is the regional coordinator in the Mid-Atlantic. Nationally, ��ñ�� staff are now working with more than 2,000 athletes, and there are 60 athletes’ chapters or chapters with intentional outreach to athletes. This fall Athletes ��ñ�� held its first national staff conference on Chesapeake Bay with 30 staff in attendance.

Colleen's direct work with student athletes on the University of Delaware campus has now been handed off to Drew Harrison. "She believes in following God's Word wherever it will take her in life," he said. "And she believes that God's word changes athletes." She set a good example for him to follow as she helped him develop his own ministry.

“It feels like there’s a lot of momentum around athletes’ ministry in the Mid-Atlantic region,” Colleen said. “It’s been an interesting year.” At the same time the ministry is growing, a mid-season coaching change on the University of Delaware Volleyball team led the athletic director to recruit Colleen to rejoin the Blue Hens as a part-time assistant coach.

With highly motivated, highly competitive, and multi-talented team members like Colleen, it’s no wonder that Athletes ��ñ�� is one of the fastest growing areas of ��ñ��’s campus ministry. We expect more ��ñ�� athletes will follow the same path of excellence, leadership, character, and faith, on and off the court.

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University of Delaware

Athletes ��ñ��

Giving All The Glory to God

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 16:32:21 +0000

News

Ben Sturgill, Associate Director, Athletes ��ñ��

Giving All The Glory to God

Top athletes give most of their life to their sport to get the win, the championship, the ring, or, as we recently saw at the Olympics, to stand at the top of the podium. The glory goes to the athlete or team that gives all to the competition and triumphs.

But what about the athletes who give all they have and still aren’t good enough? What nobility is there in defeat? Or what about those who do receive acclamation from excelling but then find that the feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction are fleeting?

This was the experience of the most famous and successful U.S. Olympian, Michael Phelps. During the Olympics we learned that despite his many gold medals and financial rewards, despite the fame and the glory, Phelps contemplated suicide in 2014.

At his rock bottom, Phelps was given the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, which pointed him to a new relationship with God, and gave him a peace he had never before experienced. As we heard his story during the Rio Olympics, we also heard many other athletes including—Allyson Felix, Laurie Hernandez, and Maya DiRado—express that their Christian faith has freed them to compete for God’s glory rather than their own.

As Athletes ��ñ�� reaches out to college athletes of all levels across the country, we find many who are also expecting something from their sport that they will never receive. In my ministry with college athletes in New England, I have met many who—through injury, lack of playing time, or even personal crises—have become eager to hear about the hope, purpose, and fulfillment that is only found in the gospel. Many of these athletes have happily traded the pursuit of their own glory for that of God and have then returned to their teams, friends, and family committed to loving them with the same dedication and consistency that they bring to their sport.

I met one such athlete a few years ago named Kaylee, an international student from Canada who came to the University of New Hampshire to play basketball. A few years into her college athletics career she began to ask hard questions about life and God. She struggled with what it meant to “be a good person” and if that was enough. This led to other hard questions and ultimately what God says about it all through the gospel. Kaylee came to recognize the hope of the gospel and began a relationship with Jesus. Soon after she started a Bible study on her team which continues to this day though Kaylee has since graduated.

She is now a professional athlete in Europe, planning to go to medical school after she retires from professional basketball. But she’s not ready to retire yet. “Now I play because God has gifted me with the talent, and I want to share His light with teammates, opponents, and spectators,” she said. “I want them to see the joy I experience when I play, to be inspired to ask the tough questions, and to start their own relationship with Christ.”

We must, as Athletes ��ñ�� ministers to these campuses, go to this very public part of college life—sports—with the same heart we bring to the rest of the university world. Do we believe that these athletes, though they seemingly have all the world says they need to find happiness are actually just as desperate for the gospel as any other college student. Will we go, as Jesus prayed we would in John 17:18, into this world, though it can feel intimidating, to live as ambassadors for God’s glory among people who seek their own? It’s my hope that we will, and, in doing so, that we will have the opportunity to see lives changed, captives freed, and in the end, God receive all the glory.

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Casting a Wide Net

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:47:41 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Casting a Wide Net

The beginning of this year’s indoor track season brought an expansive opportunity for ministry to Mickey Miela, a Campus Staff Member of the new Athletes ��ñ�� ministry. Working part-time as an assistant track coach at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mickey was able to make contact with athletes at over a dozen other schools, all attending a non-conference track meet at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Mickey and a Christian athlete he knew from Bridgewater State University visited all of the teams that had arrived for the meet and invited members to a 10:00am prayer meeting before the competition started. He didn’t know how many would come but he was astounded by the result. “Fifty athletes showed up,” he said. “I thought it might be a small circle, it ended up as a large circle.” (Mickey tells more of the story on the Athletes ��ñ�� website.)

Mickey has made contact with athletes in almost every sport at Assumption, but he’s already thinking beyond the campus. He’s excited by the opportunities presented through his participation in the track program. “It’s the only sport where 15 or more schools can be represented at one meet,” he said. “You have the opportunity to open a lot of doors all at once. You can cast your net wide.”

Dimensions of Athlete Ministry

Mickey attended Stonehill College, another school in the same conference as Assumption, and was a member of the track and football teams. Traveling to New England from his home in southern California, he experienced the isolation common among athletes far from home, and many times stuck on campus when the rest of their fellow students are on vacation. Shared experiences are a bond that helps energize much of his ministry today.

“Athletes appreciate support tremendously,” he said. “Just sitting in the stands can go farther than actually having a conversation with an athlete. They see that you are the real deal by just coming and supporting them.”

Athletes’ schedules are ruled by practice and performance times and are often out of synch with other students. That means finding time to meet with the athletes on their own schedules, often late at night.

He’s gotten strong support from the coaching staff at Assumption. “Good coaches love their athletes and they want the best for their athletes; so they want to be able to offer this ministry for their athletes,” Mickey said. Sports ministry can also counter the party culture, which can detract from college athletics.

There’s Got to Be More to Life

God spoke to Mickey Miela in high school as he sat in his car in the high school parking lot. With parking at a premium, he got to school early, and as he waited for classes to start he read Rick Warren’s best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.

Mickey drove by Rick Warren’s church every day on his way to school, but he picked up the book because of some personal disappointments. He had broken up with his girlfriend and his performance on the football team had fallen far short of his expectations. “There’s got to be more to life than this,” he had thought.

“I’d read a chapter a day before school, and pretty much thought about it all day,” he said. “At the end of the book, I realized I didn’t know a lot about Jesus, but I knew I wanted to give my whole life to Him.” He began to pursue Jesus with the same discipline he had developed through athletics.

Becoming a Leader on Campus

When Mickey arrived at Stonehill he was pleased that his football coach invited him to attend church, but it was different than what he was used to. In California he worshipped with about 18,000 other people on a Sunday morning. In Massachusetts the church had about 75 attendees, including children. But the smaller congregation cared for him in a way that he had not experienced before. “I started to see what the church body was all about,” he said.

Mickey ran the 400 meter dash and 400 meter hurdles in track, and played safety on the football team. He was also leading Bible studies with both teams. After his first two years he decided to drop track and concentrate on football, and he was pleased to see another player pick up leadership of the track team Bible study. “The two sports were taking up all of my time and my energy and God was getting the leftovers,” he said. “I wanted to be able to invest more into what God was doing on campus.”

At about the same time, Athletes ��ñ�� ministry was starting to blossom and Mickey connected with Maghan Perez, the ministry director. She became a mentor and encouraged him to consider joining ��ñ�� staff. When he attended ��ñ��’s Urbana Student Missions Conference in December 2012, during his senior year, the decision was weighing on his mind.

Deciding After Urbana

Mickey had the opportunity to give his testimony to other student athletes at Urbana and was surprised at the response. “Students kept coming up to me asking me questions and telling me how my experience encouraged them to start something on their teams,” he said. “I started to get a glimpse into what being on staff was all about. I got a taste of it.”

Back home in California after Urbana and before the resumption of classes, Mickey decided to join ��ñ�� staff. It was not only the experience he had had at Urbana that motivated him, but also the possibility of eventually bringing Athletes ��ñ��, now centered in the Northeastern U.S., to Southern California that helped him resolve his uncertainty. “I know the terrain,” he said. “I feel like that could be why God has brought me on staff.”

For many years ��ñ�� was mistaken for a sports ministry. Now that Athletes ��ñ�� has begun, it’s one of the most explosive growth areas of our expanding ministry. Mickey is excited about the wide open opportunities. “God has tilled the soil, and I think we’re on the verge of harvesting everything,” he said.

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��ñ�� Launches Two New Ministries

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 17:05:50 +0000

News

��ñ�� Launches Two New Ministries

(St. Louis, MO) – Focused ministries to athletes and artists were launched in a special ceremony that was held during ��ñ��’s National Staff Conference in St. Louis, January 7-11, 2014. Both ministries have been growing steadily from small beginnings and have spread to campuses across the country in the three years since ��ñ��’s last staff conference.

Athletes ��ñ�� is directed by Maghan Perez, who came on staff with ��ñ�� after her career as a Division I Ice Hockey and Lacrosse athlete at the University of New Hampshire. Athletes ��ñ�� desires to see the whole athletic community reached: teams, coaches, athletes, trainers, and support staff.

“My heart for this ministry was born out of numerous painful experiences within athletics,” said Maghan. “The desire to be a part of helping launch this movement came from the realization that our teammates and other athletes need to hear and experience God’s love.” More than 1,600 athletes are already involved in the ministry on almost 40 campuses.

��ñ��’s Arts Ministry is directed by Dick Ryan, a long-time ��ñ�� staff member based in Chicago, and is designed to create welcoming communities of artists (musicians, architects, painters, media/film producers, dancers, writers, architects, etc.) in colleges and conservatories across the country.

“Ten percent of the student body is typically engaged in the arts,” said Dick. “Our goal is to equip artists to take Jesus with them wherever they go because artists create cultural statements through their work that influence many.”

Those involved in athletics and to some degree the arts are focused on performance. But the performance dynamic changes when the athlete and the artist offer their talents to God, rather than solely competing against others.

��ñ�� is a campus ministry which has worked with students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses for more than 72 years. ��ñ�� has more than 900 chapters active on almost 600 campuses, from Ivy League universities to community colleges. ��ñ�� is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

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Athletes ��ñ��

Arts Ministry

The Power of Community

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:04:54 +0000

News

Kathryn Brill

The Power of Community

Going it alone as a Christian is difficult.

Without the support of a community to help you grow closer to God and live the Christian life, it can be a discouraging time, especially on a college campus. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of I) students Tim Nagel and Justin Sebastian know the power of Christian community to invigorate evangelism, as well as their individual relationships with Jesus. Together, they’ve helped each other reach their spheres of influence and given each other encouragement as brothers in Christ.

Tim and Justin were both Christians when they arrived at U of I, but neither one was especially missional—their Christianity was more about attending activities than living out God’s call. “My faith basically revolved around Friday nights for youth group and Sundays for church,” said Justin. Tim, who was also raised in a Christian family, had a similar experience: “I went along with all the Christian activities without giving my entire heart to Christ. It was easy to participate half-heartedly, because I was always surrounded by a Christian community.”

Looking for Fellowship

That all changed once they arrived at U of I. Justin met ��ñ�� members at a display table near his dorm at the beginning of his freshman year. He started attending a small group and large group, where he “found a home.”

The most significant moment of his freshman year came at his chapter’s New Student Retreat, where he answered God’s invitation to share the good news of Jesus with others. “I researched which Christian groups were on campus before I got there, with the intention of making Christian friends,” Justin said. But he had no idea that a year later, he would be longing not just for Christian friends, but also for the opportunity to introduce his non-Christian friends to Christ.

When Tim got to U of I, one year later, he was also looking to get involved in a Christian community. “I understood that I couldn’t live half-heartedly loving God for the rest of my life,” he said. But there was one problem: as a member of the wheelchair basketball team, Tim’s schedule was so busy that he didn’t have time to join any campus organizations.

God used Justin to help Tim find the Christian community he was looking for. “Justin volunteered, through a campus disability resource, to help the disabled athletes lift weights,” said Tim. “We became friends, and after a few months I realized that he was a Christian.” Tim started attending Justin’s Bible study, and eventually began attending other ��ñ�� events as well.

This year, Tim and Justin are roommates and co-leaders of a Bible study that reaches out to their dorm. “Having a strong Christian roommate such as Justin is God directly telling me that he is the provider of community and fellowship,” said Tim.

Reaching Out Together

While both Tim and Justin knew that Christian community could be friendly and welcoming, they’ve discovered that it can also be a strong support and a springboard for outreach. Tim’s and Justin’s Bible study has been a place that has brought positive change and development, both in their own lives and in the lives of those in the dorm. “This year, God has called me to share my heart and be more vulnerable in our small group,” said Tim, whose own openness has encouraged others in the group to be more honest about their struggles. Justin has also found “huge growth” in his faith as a result of leading the Bible study. “Being a small group leader has really grown my dependence on God,” he said.

Tim’s and Justin’s Bible study has several non-Christians who attend regularly. “It is such a blessing to see God sparking their interest in him,” Tim said. Justin, as a leader for outreach and discipleship in his dorm and others nearby, has also seen new interest in God among the students in the dorms. Recently, the ��ñ�� community in Tim’s and Justin’s dorm threw a “spiritual birthday party” for a student who came to faith. Justin sees the dorm community as growing to resemble the early Christian community described in Acts 2—one of fellowship and transformed lives.

Commitment to Christ

The U of I chapter as a whole has also been transformed. This year, there was record attendance at the first large group of the year and their New Student Retreat. “Our chapter has been revived,” said Justin. This growth in attendance has been accompanied by a growth in faith. As Tim described: “There have been many non-Christians committing their lives to Christ and many Christians recommitting to living out their faith.” The chapter is also seeing more and more students understand what it means to be missional and making the same kind of answer to God’s call that Justin made his freshman year.

Through the support of the chapter, Tim has been reinvigorated to reach out to his teammates. He’s committed to praying for their lives to be transformed. “My main mission field is the wheelchair basketball team,” he said. “It is obvious to me that I am at the U of I to speak truth into the team, and to be a light.”

From lifting weights together to leading Bible studies together, Tim and Justin’s friendship is an example of how God can use community to bring us closer to him and give us new energy for pursuing his mission. It’s something that Tim knows will continue throughout their college careers: “My ��ñ�� journey has been centered around building and strengthening Christian community, which is a process, not a single moment.”

Related stories from the ��ñ�� blog:

“Jesus in Witte Hall”

“Who Needs Friends?”

“Good News About Real Christian Community”

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University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Athletes ��ñ��

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ��

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:48:21 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ��

A highly regarded football coach picks ��ñ�� to share in one of his post-season honors.

Robert Talley of Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts was named the NCAA Divisions II and III New England Coach of the Year by New England football writers following his team’s 8-3 record this year. He is also one of five coaches nominated for NCAA Division II 2013 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. The Liberty Mutual national award honors coaches who “best exemplify responsibility, integrity, sportsmanship and excellence both on and off the field.”

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship was named by Coach Talley as one of his three charities to receive part of the $50,000 award that will be directed by the winner of the Liberty Mutual title. “What I am most excited about regarding the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year program is the opportunity to give back to some charities that the entire Stonehill football team supports on a regular basis," coach Talley said. Winners will be announced on January 6^th at the BCS title game in Newport Beach, CA.

Maghan Perez, of Athletes ��ñ��, reports coach Talley’s connection to ��ñ�� began through one of his former players, Mickey Miela, who is now on staff with Athletes ��ñ��. “Mickey, as a student athlete, started a Bible study on the football and track teams while he was an undergrad,” Maghan said. “He is now is planting athlete chapters at multiple campuses in Worcester.”

Anyone can help coach Talley win this honor by voting for him daily between now and December 22nd at CoachoftheYear.com or Facebook.com/LMCoachoftheYear. Twenty percent of each finalist's ultimate standing depends on fan votes.

Coach Talley is a 1991 graduate of Boston University and All America selection, who still holds the school record in tackles. He has held a number of coaching positions at both the college and professional level.

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Stonehill College

Athletes ��ñ��

Athletes ��ñ����

Basketball and Bible Study

Basketball and Bible Study

“God, like the real God, spoke to you?”

“��ñ���� changed my life.”

Football Players Love Their Angry Neighbors

Football Players Love Their Angry Neighbors

Answers from the Bible

Bridging the Neighborhood Divide

The End of Football at Mendocino

Hall of Fame Honors for One Staff Member

Hall of Fame Honors for One Staff Member

Giving All The Glory to God

Giving All The Glory to God

Casting a Wide Net

Casting a Wide Net

Dimensions of Athlete Ministry

There’s Got to Be More to Life

Becoming a Leader on Campus

Deciding After Urbana

��ñ���� Launches Two New Ministries

��ñ���� Launches Two New Ministries

The Power of Community

The Power of Community

Looking for Fellowship

Reaching Out Together

Commitment to Christ

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ����

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ����

Athletes ��ñ��

“��ñ�� changed my life.”

��ñ�� Launches Two New Ministries

��ñ�� Launches Two New Ministries

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ��

Coach of the Year Supports ��ñ��