Ep. 137 | Coach Cast - Catching Up with FCA | ft. Chip Parker, Trey Lee & Tim Clark

This week, Astin Kahnk is joined by Pastor Chip Parker, Trey Lee and Tim Clark for a discussion about all things coaching and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In this episode, you'll hear about what FCA has been up to this summer, as well as get a field-level perspective of faith from three seasoned coaches. You won't want to miss it!

If you have any questions about this podcast, or about The Orchard Community Church, we would love to hear from you! Visit our website at theorchardcc.org and fill out our contact form, or send us a message on Facebook (@IAmTheOrchard) or Instagram (@theorchard.cc). Until next time!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

It's something that we've talked about at the church for a while is performative Christianity, where what we're focused on is what does this look like? How is this seen? How does it come across?

SPEAKER_04 0:08

I think that's super important for us to be able to see and know that we are all designed a specific way and called into a specific season. And these coaches are just those guys who just can't let it go sometimes. And it's just a relentless pursuit of how do we get better. And like I said, they all can rationalize, like, hey, it's not about wins and losses at the end of the day. And at the same time, they cannot turn the switch off.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

I think as you kind of mentioned, the discernment of hearing Laura's voice and that little seed that he planted and then began to water throughout that process were very affirming and enlightening to me. And that just began to grow. And by the end of the football season, I pretty much knew that that was it for me.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Welcome to Let's Talk About That, the podcast where we deep dive into Sunday's message and explore your questions. I'm your host, Aston Kank, and I'm excited to share this journey with you. Whether you're a longtime member of The Orchard or a first-time visitor, Let's Talk About That is your space to explore, reflect, and connect. Join us as we navigate the intricacies of faith, spirituality, and daily life, seeking to understand how the wisdom shared on Sundays can be applied to our modern challenges. So grab a cup of coffee, find a comfortable space, and let's dive in together. This is Let's Talk About That, where the conversation about Sunday's message never stops. Well, welcome back to Let's Talk About That. We hope you are having a great start to your week. So I am surrounded at a table with some guys and let them go around, introduce themselves, and tell us what they do.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

So what you're saying, this isn't a momcast?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

This is not a momcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

This is a coach cast.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

This is the first time in a minute that we've yeah, I've steered away from momcast. And I guess it is a coach cast because I'm around coaches. So we'll change that title to Coach Cast.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

I love that. Hey, there we go. I'm Chip, by the way. Hi, Chip. Nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Like your theological statement. I am Chip. If you missed that yesterday, that was quite uh quite epic. Yeah. All right. Let this other guy introduce himself.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Yeah, a longtime listener, many time guest, Trey Lee. Excited to be here with you guys. I attend our Lake City location. And I mean sometimes. I'm there literally every week, but that's fine. You have her a baby and skip. One week. That's awesome. I love that. Yeah. So, but yeah, been here for quite a quite some time. Also work for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Very cool. Excited to have this conversation. And we have last but not least Tim Clark.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

I'm FCA outdoors. Okay. I'm doing FCA ministry in the outdoors environment. I'm on the on the the great Trey Lee's team here. Let's see. So essentially what Trey does, but manlier.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Man, shots are already fired. All right.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Everybody knows I love Trey, allegedly.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

We know it's it's it's true. All right. So for funsies, first day of school in Columbia County in Swanee. And so I figured we'd start with a fun icebreaker question. Okay. All right. What was your it could be multitude of things, your favorite memory from school, if there was a moment in school that stood out to you, or for us fellow teachers, maybe a teaching year that stood out that you guys want to just, yeah, jump in and share.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

You know, I'll go first because number one, that's not the question I thought you were asking. I thought you were going to ask about the first day of school. Well, I was racking my brain. I can't remember a single first day of school I ever had. So I've liked it. Well, I'm sure it existed. I just don't remember it.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Okay. So I lived, it was my second year of teaching. I lived every teacher's nightmare of the first day of school. What is that, Trey?

SPEAKER_04 3:39

I think for men and women it may be different things.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

You may you may need to be.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

I was sick the first day of school. So yeah. So in Omaha, our meet the teacher was like the night before the first day of school. And so I'm sitting there, you know, meeting all these parents, and I'm like, I feel like death. I really need them kids gave you the crud. Well, no, no, I just met them. But literally, I'm not kidding you. By the time I got home, it was a stomach bug. And so I literally had to call my principal that night and be like, I think I'm gonna miss the first day of school. And it was terrible because like you teach the routines, you teach procedures, all of those things. So you had to start out with a substitute on the first day of school.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Oddly enough, I don't think that's any kid's worst fear for the city.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

It is a teacher's like first day of school nightmare.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

I have two relatable stories. So as a student, I missed the first day of school in eighth grade. I had a massive eye infection and I went home during first period. I wear contacts and probably had them in for too long. But um when's the last time you changed your contacts? Oh, that's uh that's not fair. I changed them right after the baby was born, but prior to that it'd been a while. So I had to miss, and I I felt behind for like the next like six weeks at school as a student. But as a teacher, I had almost had to miss the first day of school one year. I got summoned for jury duty. Oh put me in a like uh ethical conundrum because I was teaching civics that year. And so I was like, do I get out of jury duty? And like that feels kind of counterproductive, or do I do I miss the first day of school? And so I called and told them the situation, and they said, Hey, we'd rather you be at school. Don't worry, we'll we'll summon you again soon. Three weeks later, I was summoned for jury duty. And shout out to the Columbia County Clerk of Courts for getting me to be able to be at the first day of school because missing that is a is a challenge for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, because you start you know what's you want to start the school year off like with on a high note. And I mean it's really sweet, like the sub had all the kids write, like, we hope you feel better, Miss Sib. So I had a stack of like you know, notes from the sib that I had never met before.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Let me write you this very thoughtful card, though I have no clue who you are.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

It meant a lot. It meant a lot. All right, what about you fellas?

SPEAKER_05 5:41

So, Trey, I'm not sure if you were still teaching and coaching in the COVID era or had you already moved. Okay, so that was obviously just a crazy time. But I was coaching football at Brantford, Suwannee County. I know we did things a little bit differently through the COVID, you know, era. So this would have been 19, I guess. 1920. Yeah. So 20. That's probably the most memorable start for me. Yeah. Because, you know, obviously it was almost September when we started. Yeah. Yeah. But I remember coming coming in and we our first football game that week, when you we had to cancel a cancel week one, find somebody to play. And so it was just so rushed, and people are wearing masks. We're talking about you know how we keep people away from each other. I remember thinking, like, we're gonna play football tonight.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Like, let's get to play football games. You're not gonna be keeping people away from each other, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Yeah, serious question. No names. Did any players wear a mask behind their face masks?

SPEAKER_05 6:30

Absolutely not. I think that would have been socially pretty tough.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, socially pretty tough. Yeah, I'm here for that. So I don't have a first day of school memory, but you said favorite school memory, and I do have a clear, far and away favorite school memory. So in school, like I was always the good kid, made good grades, never got in trouble, all that stuff. But my senior year, we were in class, I was in an honors English class, and the National Honor Society had done uh coat drive for winter. But the thing is, not all the National Honor Society did it, like only the people who really took that seriously did it. But yet they came on the speaker about one o'clock that day and said, please release the National Honor Society students to go, it was to take a picture for the coat drive or whatever. Well, when they said that, I mean, they didn't say only the ones who participated, and I was a National Honor Society student. Why not? So I got up and I walked out. The bad part is when I got to the door and looked behind me, three quarters of my honors English class had walked out with me, and we just all left. Well, when we came back, waiting on us at the school was the principal, the vice principal, and the dean, whose daughter I was currently dating at the time. Okay. And I'm leading the way through the gates, and I can see it in my head. You know, Taylor County had a fence all the way on school. There's a gate you walk through. They were sitting there waiting on us at the gate. And the vice principal looks at me, Mr. Thompson looks at me, and he says, Chip, I'm disappointed in you. I you knew better. I thought you were a leader. And my favorite moment in the history of school is when I looked at him and said, Well, they kind of did follow me out the door. And that's the story of how I got half the National Honor Society in school suspension at Taylor County High School.

SPEAKER_06 8:20

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

It's incredible. It's pretty good. And the best part about this is my dad saw the assistant principal, Mr. Thompson, like a few weeks ago at a funeral back home, and they were talking about that. And I was like, Oh, yeah, I remember that, buddy. I remember that. That's amazing. They said that the ISS teacher said that was the best day of school she had ever had with.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

I could just imagine as Tim calls them NARPs, non-athletic regular people walking up and being like, uh, ma'am, can I have my work? And ISS teacher being like, excuse me.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

The best part of that day was like our teachers finding out we were all in ISS and them sending us assignments like, draw me a picture of a clown. That's your assignment for today. I mean, just like crazy stuff like that. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Well, guys, thanks again for being here. So yeah, I want kind of wanted to hear about FCA, what's going on? You had a really awesome, I want to say get together, but a kickoff is probably a better word. So definitely want to talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

But then it says FCA, it's a rally. It's a rally around. Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

We call it the kickoff classic, is what what we call it.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

But yeah, it's everybody calls their football game the kickoff classic.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Right, yeah. But ours is the coolest. But that's fine. Yeah, it's it's a rally, it's a back to school, you know, rally. Would you call it a bash? No. No, no bashing. Yeah. Dancing did not happen in the building that night.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

So well, I will say you did have this going for you. It was sponsored by Sunny's. Yes. And Sunny's was slinging the pulled pork, and I was a fan of this.

SPEAKER_04 9:43

What a really cool thing. So, for those of you who don't know, Sunny's originated in Gainesville, Florida, and they do a lot for the schools in Gainesville, Florida. And so for the last five years or so, they've been sponsoring the kickoff in Gainesville. And the Gainesville director is my boss. And so he was meeting with Sonny's and they said, We love what you guys do. We appreciate you guys. And so we want to do more. And so more meant they were going to sponsor Lake City's kickoff classic and Ocala's kickoff classic. So the north, the central, and the southern parts of FCA for north central Florida all got meals sponsored. And so Sunny's catered in, sponsored 500 meals, and they definitely brought more than enough for 500. So they had 530 there.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

There was more than 500.

SPEAKER_04 10:27

Yeah, we had 530 uh in attendance and plenty of food left over. And so shout out to Sonny's. And it was the Lake City Sunny's location who came over and served. Yeah. So the Gainesville team kind of put that together and then hired out the Sunny's up here to come and serve. And so they brought, they brought the food, set it all up, served the food. All we had to do was provide 10 tables and 10 volunteers to serve food. And it was essentially no cost to us. All we had to do was pay their workers for the day. That was the that was the deal. So they brought the food and we paid their workers for the day. And for 500 meals, we got out of there for almost a dollar a plate. Wow. So that's incredible. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I got a question for you. So you said 530 people. So who all was at this event? Like who was invited and kind of what was the purpose like behind it?

SPEAKER_04 11:12

Yeah. So FCA is a student-led organization, right? And so almost everything that we do, especially on school campuses, is student-led has to be student-led. This is the one event where we don't want students to have to serve at all. And we want to pour in and invest in them. And so we ask any of our FCA leadership teams at the schools to come and to be involved. But specifically, the the main target audience for this is football teams and football coaches. Okay. And then our kind of part B, the the people we attack next, are any of the other athletic teams on campus and athletic coaches. Part C, the people that we invite next, we open it up to the community here. We don't do that for every kickoff classic. But being from a lot of rural small towns with a ton of FCA support, we want anybody who is interested to feel like they can come and be a part of this. And so yeah, it was it was really cool. We had almost every varsity football team in attendance. There were a couple that had some like orientation that night and and were not able to make it, that kind of thing. But almost every varsity football team and a lot of other varsity and JV and middle school sports showed up and were present. And so yeah, it was a it was a really cool night. Last year we had 350 there. This time we went up to 530. And it's not all about numbers, but numbers are an indicator of whether or not we're growing in momentum. And it seems that we are gaining some momentum here. And so uh fun night, great band. The speaker, Frank Renoso, was incredible, did such a great job. And I gotta say, we we brought our team since last year has grown. Last year, I just hired George Dial to do FCA sports whenever we had the kickoff classic. But in the past year, Joe Gaddy has joined our team, and Tim, who's on the podcast with us today, joined our team as well. And and they're kind of all spread out through the region. Yes, Joe handles handles Suwannee County for us. Tim serves all four counties that I serve. So Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette, and Swannee with the outdoors, and George also handles those four counties as well. But yeah, we all are we are all spread out all over the place. But man, if there was anybody who was more designed to run games than Joe Gaddy, I've yet to find that person. The dude was in his calling, in his element, and that was was incredible. What a great part of that. In fact, some of the coaches were asking for his number of other teams who don't know Joe. They were like, I just want to tell him how great of a job he did just engaging us. And then Tim did our coaches moment, and we always want the coaches to be able to stand up, to be able to be prayed for by their team and by the community around them. And Tim just absolutely crushed that. And so looking back, last year I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off at this event. And this year had our team there. George came and was launching t-shirts with the homemade t-shirt launcher that he had. Which was pretty sick. It was pretty sick. And it was really nice this year to not have to do that and to be able to be back behind the scenes, just loving on, caring for coaches during the games, praying with and for a team, helping the worship team kind of know when and where to make some, you know, to cut some songs, to move some songs, whatever. But phenomenal, phenomenal evening.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

It was it was a really good night. It was cool, you know, as your friend to see you, like you say, step back sometimes. You know, leadership happens on a platform. Oftentimes leadership happens off the platform. And so that was cool. And you mentioned Tim, you know, sharing talking to coaches. I text Trey while you were talking, used illustration of fire and fireplace, you know, to to kind of talk to coaches uh about their faith. And I thought it was phenomenal. How about sharing like that just illustration, you know, with everybody listening? Because I I do think it was a it was a really good way to understand what faith is and what faith isn't.

SPEAKER_05 14:41

Right. Well, my background coming into this was 12 years of of football coaching, nine as a head coach, you know, leading up to this last end of school year. So, you know, it's really fresh for me. And so having the opportunity that Trey gave me to to encourage the coaches presented an opportunity for me to really come from a relatable place, you know. So I wanted to emphasize two things to him when I when I had the microphone and that moment is just that one, there's really good coaches in our area. Yeah. So I kind of highlighted that we had state championships in multiple sports across, you know, our area and our four counties. And then the the second thing was that I know what cost that comes at, you know, that it's a heavy, heavy profession. It's there's a lot of stress, it's the time commitment. There's a whole lot that that goes into what these these coaches put on the table for their student athletes and and care for them from the physical and performance standpoint, let alone the ones that truly care about pouring in spiritually to the to the well-being of their kids. And so I just wanted to encourage them really to not waste their influence. And and the illustration that Chip was referring to was just that, you know, I felt like when I was coaching, I could get in that rut of focusing on the grind and and just having so many irons in the fire and doing so many things that, you know, we we can get in that call it stagnant maybe phase where consciously I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong, but I was going through the motions and and it's almost like, you know, I said you get on YouTube and you put that image of the fire up on the TV, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Which a hundred percent happens. Oh, absolutely. Every Saturday during the fall and winter, my wife is gonna YouTube TV a fireplace.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I'm telling you. So we don't have a fireplace in pace. So we would literally put that just for the ambiance so I can feel that ambient.

SPEAKER_04 16:19

You guys are building this even more and more right now.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so my wife's a a big Christmas time nut, you know. So man, you you Google that or you you YouTube that during Christmas time, man, there'll there'll be some stockings on the little fireplace on there, you know, there'll be some jingle bells in the background. So I use that illustration just to kind of portray that you know, we can put that up there and it can look great and it can sound great, and we really feel like we're we're presenting well. But when you get close to it, it's not producing, it's not generating any of that truly effectuating warmth, any of that heat. It's not changing the temperature per se of anything around it. And and that can be tough, and it can be easy to slip into that. And and for me, I said, you know, I would tell myself, I'm just busy, you know, this is this is what we've got to do right now. But it it was just it was tough to get up and go chop the metaphorical wood. Yeah, to it was a lot to want to carry it. And so I just wanted to encourage those coaches to not waste their influence and to be very conscious about that and to let us help them with that. That's you know, um, just because the job is heavy, you know, we have Trey, we have George, we have Joe and and myself that can just be there for them and help to carry that loads on throughout the season when they need somebody to talk to, some advice, you know, just some counsel, some encouragement. But the opportunity for them to use their influence that they have is just astronomical at the in the coaching field for sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was just such a good illustration about, you know, it's a lot easier to turn on a picture of the fireplace than it is to build a fire, you know. But even thinking about that even more, that fire on the fireplace is often gonna look a lot better than the fire that you build as well, you know. Right. And it's gonna start out big and fast. And if you're building one, it's not gonna start out big and fast and let's use diesel. But like, you know, I I just thought it was a good illustration for a lot of people in the room, and it's something that we've talked about at the church for a while, is performative Christianity, where it what we're focused on is what does this look like? How is this seen? How does it come across? And so I I think that fits really well. A lot of times in our faith, we're just concerned about is the fire on TV not is it real? You know, and so I I thought that was I thought that was really good. So we've already said, Tim, that you are far more manly than Trey because um he works with FCA and you work with FCA outdoors. But I I know that like you serve on his team and Trey's kind of like the administrator that helps administrate and lead the team and the region as a whole. But while FCA is like Trey was saying, a student-led, like let's do the huddles, let's get in the schools, FCA outdoors is really an offshoot for that, right? Like you're not focused on students, you're focused on coaches.

SPEAKER_05 18:48

Well, yes, and really the FCA's goal that you go through the mission is to we we see the the opportunity to reach far more of these kids if we if we minister these coaches first and foremost as well. But you know, you're right, Trey and Joe, when you think of SCA, those guys are the the boots on the ground guys that are in these campuses, you know, face to face with these student athletes and the coaches on a more daily basis than I am. And I haven't been with the team very long, but but what we've effectively been able to do so far is is Trey, Joe, they they can work to funnel those extra opportunities for the coaches and athletes to to receive ministry through the outdoors experiences in my realm. And so what do those look like? What do those outdoor experiences look like? So so far, I mean, it's dead absolute middle of summer in Florida, right? There's not much to hunt and the fish are hot. Right. Even even the fish are hot.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

Now everybody's hunting water. Right.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

That's what's happening. Yeah, seriously. So we've been doing a lot of bass fishing right now. Yeah. So a great example is is the week before the the kickoff classic. I got a hold of Joe and said, Hey, you know, who's some bulldogs in live oak that like to fish? And he said, Oh, I've I've got you. You know, there's this, there's this boy, I call him T3, and he loves to fish, man. Take him. And so I got off we connected through Joe and and he asked if his brother could come. I said, Absolutely. And we got on the boat and they they're football players, so they didn't mind getting up early. So we were at daylight on the water and we we fished for a few hours. They had a phenomenal time and just talked and built that relationship. You know, when we were done, we climbed up on the hill and got in the shade and we opened up, you know, the Bible and and we had a great devotional and we prayed and we just talked. And that's what it is. That's truly what it is. I'm not bound by the constraints of um of our region either. You know, I've I've talked to to many people in you know, Georgia's made connections for me in other counties too that aren't in our four county region. And uh I've really enjoyed so far the freedom to be able to branch out off of these campuses and and reach these student athletes and and opportunities that don't always present during the school year or two. Because you look at look at a guy like Trey, he may be with, for example, CHS baseball, right? Take that for example. He's gonna see them from January to to May, right? And they're in their sports season. But because there's so many student athletes at CHS, he may not see a lot of those kids again until if they're underclassmen in the following baseball season again, especially at a school that size where they may not dual sports. Yeah, right. So this gives a great opportunity for our team to continue to stay in connection with these coaches, with these athletes in the summer, on the weekends, in the off seasons when some of those may fall through the cracks. Otherwise.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah, that's good. I I think another thing that that I heard about you doing, saw you doing, is you had a group of guys that connected to the orchard. Shout out Tony DeMoya here from our Lake Sea location and and some of his guys, Hayden, some of his buddies that you you did something with that they loved and had they showed up from that to the kickoff classic that night. So so tell tell us about that. Cause I think I know what it was, but tell talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_05 21:40

Right. It was just a hunter safety course for FWC certification, and it was as simple as this. I was contacted and said, Hey, we're doing this class, and really the the involvement that we're looking for with FCA is if you guys are willing, would you come in and and just help, just assist and do it, do some devotionals each day? And so that's what we did. And so simple little opportunities like Like that that we can put together, it turned out to be just far more to me effective, you know, spiritually, just to be around a group of men pouring into young men, not only spiritually, but just also just a good practical cause. You know, let's get these kids into the woods and let them do it safely. Let's teach them, let's get them in God's creation. And it all just came from one idea and one conversation, and and that's what FCA outdoors is, really.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

That's cool. Yeah. And it was from the other side of this, you know, there was FWC did the work, right? They did the legwork and we were able to just come in and partner with them. And so it wasn't necessarily an FCA outdoors event. It wasn't necessarily, you know, something that we were were trying to take hold of. It was just something that we were invited to come be a part of. And and through, we've talked about this plenty when I've been on the podcast, but you know, Tim is a local missionary as well. He support raises as well. And through the generosity of others, we were able to provide them a meal. Every kid left with a Bible, which many of them already had FCA Bibles. And so what I told them was if you've already gotten one of these, now your your job is to take that and give it to somebody else. And so, you know, they they didn't have them with them when they showed up, but they left with another Bible. And so, yeah, if they had one, now they're on a mission to go give it away.

SPEAKER_05 23:13

Um and how many kids were there? 15. And Trey, something off of that point that you made, you know, the first day we had the Bibles and Trey said, you know, hey, we have Bibles here for you guys. And exactly what you said, they were church kids. Yeah. So a couple of them took one, you a couple of them grabbed a couple. But then when Trey had that idea and told it to me, I told them that before I left on day two. Man, they the stack was gone. Awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

They just rushed to the table and everything. And I'll encourage you too. I think some of those kids from conversation I've had are more church adjacent kids than church kids. And so that's cool seeing them get intentionally, you know, invested in hey, not not just come on Sunday and this is church, but this is faith outside of church. Right. And what does that look like? So I think that's really cool. And again, just from the orchard perspective, you know, shout out to a guy like Tony who is kind of willing to open up, say, let me know what I need to do, let me be able to help. I just want to get these guys in front of Jesus, these kids in front of Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 24:07

Yeah, Tony has definitely bought into that idea of informal missionary that we've been talking about over the last year or so on Sundays. And and that's what it looks like. I think a lot of times we're going to overcomplicate this, but Tony, Tony has recognized his time, his talents, and his treasures, and he's been able to use those to influence and reach other people. And that I mean, that's all that an informal missionary is, right? Is it doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be something crazy. This this took very little on his end other than I like this, I have a passion for this, I'm good at this. How can I use this to get others in the room and tell them about Jesus? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

It's really good. Really good.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

All right, I got a question for you guys. So both of you guys have been coaches. So what has it been like stepping away from coaching, but still being around it?

SPEAKER_05 24:53

Well, um, that's a great question for me because we're we're in the the season that that I lived in. Yeah. Right. So Trey was a baseball guy. So spring, I'm sure, is that is that time for him, even though sports at this point or year round at the high school. Yeah, they are. But certainly for me, at I mean, today's Monday of the second week of August, I'd be wide open. Yeah. It'd be nine 90 miles an hour. So it's been incredibly refreshing for me personally, for my family to be at the pace that we're at now. There's a lot of things I could go into with that, but it's it's just been such a blessing. But in terms of what it's been like for me, from the football standpoint of it, it it's been it's been amazing, honestly, to to still feel the connections that I have with former players, especially ones that are currently still playing at the program that I left. We're in almost daily communication. That's awesome. And it's cool because I'm from a different angle of it now.

SPEAKER_06 25:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:42

We're really blessed that the that the coach that replaced me at Brantford, you know, we're we're good friends and we're very aligned in the vision. And he's been been very welcoming about my continued influence on those kids there. Yeah. And so I've I've had no hesitation to reach out to them. And you know, today they all got the day one, BNNO this week, go get it text. And it's just neat to start to build that relationship up continually, but from a different angle.

SPEAKER_06 26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

So it's been it's been exciting for me. It's uh I I have not missed the whistle yet. I'm sure I'm going to. Yeah. I'm sure. You know, those Friday night lights kick on, it'll, you know. Absolutely. But but it certainly has been phenomenal to stay connected with those kids and be able to continue to influence them just from a different, different.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Yeah. I have a question for you. So I mean you said this is your first season stepping away. What was that? What would that look like for you when you felt like God's calling to do something different? Like how did you like process that? Who did you, yeah? I I kind of don't know all the details of that.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Okay. Well, I don't know that we have enough to give all the details of the colours.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

All the details, but some of the details always love to hear how did people because that whole process of following God, trusting him on a calling, it's it's just so cool to see that like discerning process of God takes. So I bring it to kind of here just maybe bits and pieces of that.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you the Cliff Notes version.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Perfect.

SPEAKER_05 26:54

If you rewind to last football season, there were there were a bunch of different factors that made last football season pretty difficult on me. We I had a a coach that that took a job in Georgia. I wasn't able to replace him as a defensive coordinator, had another coach on campus that that had some health issues within his family, had to step away. So about eight days before the season, I've I was looking at being the the only varsity football coach on campus there. And I had phenomenal help, phenomenal volunteer volunteer guys, but they they were guys with nine to five jobs and you know weren't on campus with me. And so it was a grind of a football season, you know, I'm not gonna lie, it was. And and about halfway through the season, I was in the weight room running a group, and and Noah, our regional director, came by just to see me, and he just kind of casually mentioned, hey man, you'd be great at the outdoor stuff and said, But we, you know, we both know you'll coach till you die. Yeah. And we we chuckled and moved on about the day. And I think as you kind of mentioned, the discernment of of hearing Laura's voice in that little seed that he planted and then began to water through other things that that Trey termed confirmations, yeah, you know, throughout that process were very affirming and enlightening to me. And that just began to grow. And by the end of the football season, I pretty much knew that that that was it for me. Yeah. And and just through prayer and and just further convictions of the time taken away from my family, with the the state that that it was in in my football career coaching career, all those doors just started to open up. So I like to tell people that I really didn't have that in terms of call to the mission field, the road to Damascus moment. It was it was a whole lot of just kind of personal conviction with my family of the time that I was devoting to it and what he was doing to to myself and the leadership of my kids and stuff like that. And so ultimately it through prayer and and all that seeking the Lord's will, it led to a phone call to Trey Lee. Yeah. And here we are.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Yeah. As you're talking, it made us so we've started a sermon series called NIL Name, Image, and Likeness, and it all goes back to like Jesus. And as you were talking, Chip made a comment yesterday about kind of the the tension between that sanctification process of knowing what you want for your life, what God wants for your life, and like choosing what God wants. And it takes sacrifice, it takes hanging your hat of like, man, this is where I felt God was this is what I'm really good at. But God, I trust you in that. And the fact that you took that leap and like I guess Trey mentioned your support raising as well. That's I've been on the side of that. That's that's not easy. That is constantly like dying to self every day of like, God, like I rely on you to supply all of my needs. And as God does it, he does it like every time.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

So I mean it's Romans 12, too, right? I mean, we're just in all things, we're just what's the Lord's will?

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

What's the Lord's will? And if we do that, then it's Roman, then it's Romans 8, 28. We're trusting that all things are gonna work together for good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Really cool. All right, Trey, used to be a coach. What is that process like now that you kind of stepped away from that?

SPEAKER_04 29:39

Yeah. So this this baseball season will be year two. So I've had a year out of coaching, and and that's all I really known as an adult. I I remember I was not gonna coach because I was going into education. Everybody's like, oh, you're gonna coach, you're gonna coach. And I'm like, no, I'm not. Yeah. And and I never took a break from it. I jumped straight from baseball playing into baseball coaching. And I will say year one was refreshing and relaxing. Year two, I miss it a little bit. I don't know that I'll ever not miss it, but I get to scratch that itch all the time. I get to go out. I mean, I spent some days with Columbia High School's football team this summer holding the pads and getting run through by some high school football players. And and one of those boys that's over there playing wide receiver, he might should look at safety because he was hitting me. And I was like, my goodness, you know, I'm not, I'm not built for this, but I get to scratch that itch. I get to go and hang out with coaches. I get to speak their language, you know, not all their language, but I get to speak a lot of their language. You know, uh, baseball and football coaches, we are very similar in a lot of ways. And so I get to hang out with basketball coaches and learn that a little bit. And and that's what's really cool about this job is I get to see different sports that are very different from the culture that I knew through baseball. And at the end of the day, all the coaches are still like the same. All the coaches' hearts are still the same. They're they have this competitive fire in them that they just they can't relinquish. And and here's the the cool thing about it over the last couple of years talking to them, every single one of those coaches knows in their heart of hearts that wins and losses ultimately mean nothing.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

And yet when the lights turn on, there's something about them that they just can't get away from. Yeah. And it's like, no, I'm here to win. Yeah. And then, and then after they taste that loss, like practice, the intensity level just increases so much. And and it's really cool because I think I think that's super important for us to be able to see and know that like we are all designed a specific way and called into a specific season. And these coaches are just those guys who just can't let it go sometimes. And it's just a relentless pursuit. Yeah. How do we get better? And like I said, they all can rationalize. Like, hey, it's not about wins and losses at the end of the day. And at the same time, they cannot turn the switch off whenever it's on. And so I get to scratch the itch all I want to. I get to be home with my family all the time. Sammy thinks that he is like a sideline reporter or something. He gets to come stand on the sidelines with mascot. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he he doesn't even know what it's like to watch a game from the stands because we're in the dugouts or we're uh you know, we're on the field or whatever at courtside. It's it's it's really awesome. So I I don't regret in the slightest leaving, but there are some days that I just really miss the relationships you can build because when they come to you straight from school every single day and you see them every day, I I still and and I love what I do. I served here, leading student ministry here for a while. I have never had a ministry impact like I had coaching. And you know, there's there's some great stuff happening through FCA, and we're we're doing great things and reaching way more people than I could have ever reached as a coach at LCMS. But those 20 guys every year, like they were my guys. Yeah. And we did everything together and we poured in. And for for three months out of the year, like we, you knew, you know, what they had for dinner. You know what I mean? Literally, we ate dinner together, right? And so, so I I miss that aspect, but I I don't miss the grind at all. So it was time for me to give it up. I wanted to be home with my kids, and middle school doesn't take up nearly the time that most of these coaches that we're serving have to give up. But I didn't want to, I didn't want to miss that. I wanted to be at Sammy's jujitsu practices. Yeah. I wanted to, you know, see whatever Nate gets passionate about. Now Sadie's here, and like I don't have to make that decision. I just get to be a dad. And that's that's the I don't miss the grind of coaching at all.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Yeah. Yeah. Well, what are some things that you guys are like looking forward to for this coming year? You just had the kickoff. So what are like some goals, things that you guys as FCA are like praying into or excited about this year?

SPEAKER_04 33:34

I'll take this one first, let you think about it some. But I am very excited to have Joe Gaddy in Suwannee County helping to serve mostly at Suwannee High School because that's where he works. Okay, resource the middle school and also resourcing Brantford, middle, and high.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

And so is that because you like Columbia better than Swanee?

SPEAKER_04 33:52

No, it's because I like to I like to be able to be anywhere that I can be and not anywhere that I have to be, if that makes sense. And so we have a guy there.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

I I heard that as more than just I refuse to wear green and white.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

I I do wear green and white. Okay. Ask Hunter Abercrombie, text Chip, and tell him that you have seen me in a Swanny Bulldog shirt, please. I'm waiting for Hunter.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

I'm waiting on that text hunter.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

But no, I'm excited to watch our team grow prayerfully in the next couple weeks. Our team's gonna grow a little bit as well. And so that just it gives us an opportunity to reach more people in more places. And in a sense, what I'm most excited for is this is the start of working myself into the background and everybody else being able to say, Hey, Joe Gatty's the FCA guy. I like I don't want to be the FCA guy, I want to be the guy who's pouring into the FCA guys, and so this is like step one into that. And so I'm very excited about that. But then Fields of Faith for Live Oak is already locked in, and we're excited to have that happening. And Patrick Young is gonna be our guest speaker there, and he's gonna do an incredible job. Fields of faith at Columbia, that team is starting to get together and work on that soon. Hopefully, we see fields of faith just all around soon. Uh, I know Rantford took a year off last year, and maybe we're able to relaunch that this year. Mayo does two each year, and so seeing one in Hamilton County this year would be incredible. And having a team that has grown allows me to be able to go and help Hamilton be resourced to do that now. And so that's that's what I'm most excited for. It's not really flashy to anybody else, and that's fine. We're not about flash. We're we we just want to continue to grow and do the things that we do and do well and reach more people in more places.

SPEAKER_05 35:27

Yeah, very cool. What about you? So as I said earlier, I'm only three months into this, right, Dre. Something like that. So we've been we've been blessed to have the opportunity to do some things in the outdoors already. Yeah, I've taken a lot of advantage. Right, exactly. So that's where I'm going, Jim, is that as I am a I am an admitted outdoors nerd, right? So I'm an I'm an outdoorsman, but I love just the the Romans 120 of those invisible attributes, right, that God has written into creation that nobody can deny. Yeah. Right. So, you know, why are there so many different species of waterfowl, for example, and and every single one of them different color patterns and feather structure and all that when he could have made every single bird look like a crow or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Or why did he have to make them taste good? Exactly. I swear to you that God made cows taste as good as they do is evidence of his goodness.

SPEAKER_05 36:14

A hundred percent. Absolutely. Yeah, a hundred percent. So with that, you know, he he causes the the bass to spawn, you know, and he causes the deer to to chase after each other when when the weather starts changing and you know, when it gets cold, there he causes the waterfowl to start migrating this way. So it's gonna be really, really cool, I think, for me, because I am that outdoors nerd that just loves to see God's glorious creation, to see the opportunities he opens up as those things start to change by his design. So right now, all we've been doing is is bass fishing, but I know that when the fall comes here, we're gonna get some kids in a deer stand. Yeah, we're gonna set up some dove shoots, maybe. You know, when it gets really cold, we're gonna be in the duck blind. And then as the spring rolls around, we're gonna chase turkeys. So um, I think it's gonna be really, really neat to see how he opens up through what he's created opportunities for us to do ministry and his creation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

I would uh just like to throw out that there is a coach of one of our high school teams sitting at this table.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

The Belmont boys golf coach is at this table. Here he's a big deal, to be honest with you. Big deal.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

I was thinking that he might need to be reached. And so he might need to, he might need to go fishing soon. You know, do I need to get the Belmont boys the inaugural Belmont Boys golf coach?

SPEAKER_02 37:21

No, you're not. I know this isn't the inaugural season. No, so Chase Hagler actually started the team last year. Yeah, but that was a crazy story. So first year Belmont's ever had a sport, that's you know, he started the golf team. And at the end of the year, Leanne's like, yeah, he he left. He got hired by IMG Academy. I was like, no, he didn't get hired by IMG Academy. You don't leave Belmont to go get hired by IMG Academy. 100% got hired as like the director of golf at IMG Academy, has like a whole staff under him and everything, and they found me. Big shoes to fill. I was literally about to say that. You know what? Hey, your thing everybody loves to win. Winners hate to lose. I don't care what I'm playing, I hate to lose, baby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Well, as we wrap up this conversation, wait, that's that's as we wrap up after that. Well, I I was gonna ask if we could pray for him. Like how I'm sorry if you want to get spiritual, that's why whatever. I do. How could seriously, how could we, just as a church, as listeners on the podcast, just could be praying for you guys and encouraging y'all this year? Any specific things that we could yeah, pray for.

SPEAKER_05 38:21

Well, as as Trey's mentioned, you know, our team overall, just praying that it that it would grow if it's his will. You know, and and there's some really good leads that that Trey's working on right now for that, and we're excited about them. Those fields of faith that he mentioned, those are phenomenally impactful events, and so that the preparation of that will go smoothly. Personally, for me and my branch of our team, you just more more opportunity. You know, the Lord has blessed us so far incredibly in the short time that we've been doing it, but there's people out there who don't know about FC Outdoors yet, and we're excited for them to for that to be on their radar and potentially make those connections. There's coaches that uh maybe not even are that outdoorsy that we can still reach because of you know the the relationship that Joe, Trey, George have already put in place there, and and we can introduce them to it maybe. So just be in prayer that he would continue to show us the direction we want to go with his team with with the outdoors and it being so new specifically and open up his doors.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Yeah, yeah. What about you, Trey?

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Yeah, mine's gonna be kind of obscure, but it's just been heavy on my heart. There's another nonprofit organization that is, I don't know what the word they they just oppose us drastically. And so to be clear, they are not a Christian non-profit organization.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

They're not. I can see where that's going.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Yeah, thanks to clear that up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, they sent out a letter on their behalf, nobody else's behalf, to every superintendent in the state of Florida. And basically, if I could summarize the letter, it said FCA is doing their job, but they highlighted some things that we could be doing poorly and we need to be careful to make sure that we're not doing. And that's true. We want to be good stewards of that. We want to honor and respect the the guidelines that we have to be on campus because if we get kicked off campus, then we now are upper creek without a paddle, literally. And so they did highlight some of those things. And so we want to pray for us to be obedient to what God has called us to do to steward the resources and time that we have well to be equipped and trained to do that well. But the real prayer request is this. And I thought our our president, Matt Roop, uh, the state president for Florida's FCA, said it really well. Our real prayer is that those who are coming against us in opposition, we pray for their salvation. And specifically, Matt said, let's take it one step further and pray that instead of being opposed to us in the near future, that they're coming on staff with us and helping us fulfill the mission and vision that God's laid on this ministry. And so if you guys could just join in praying with that, but pray for our staff because they are watching us like hawks and they send letters every day on the superintendents and in hopes that the superintendents will lock us out, shut us down, or whatever. But the reality is if we do our job the right way, we're not breaking laws. We're not we're not out of compliance. And so, but we do want them to come to a saving faith in Jesus. And that's our hope and goal for the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Well, anything else you guys want to wrap up our conversation with or any last words, Chip? No. I'm good, I guess. All right. Well, guys, thanks for being here with us. Thanks for sharing us, telling us more about FCA and kind of your goals. We'll be praying for you guys, and we're excited to, yeah, see what the future holds for you guys. But for the listener, we are praying for you guys. We hope you have a great week and we'll catch you next week. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Let's Talk About That. We hope it encouraged and challenged you as we continue to grow on this journey of faith and embrace community together. If you have more questions, thoughts, or feedback, we want to hear from you. Be sure to reach out to us through our social media or visit our website to stay connected. If you found today's discussion meaningful, don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Until next time, we hope that this episode inspired you and will keep Sunday's message at the front of your mind. See you next week.