The Spiritual Playbook for Student Athletes

Episode 03: The Spiritual Playbook for Student Athletes

What if you’re physically in your prime and winning on the field, but spiritually exhausted and running on fumes because you’ve prioritized physical conditioning over the spiritual training and armor you need for the real battle? Today’s episode of Hot Takes and Holy Things explores the intersection of athletics and faith. Hosts Jarvis Koyate, Cole Bearden, and Jake Kimbrell dive into the reality of being physically strong but spiritually drained when sports take priority over your relationship with Jesus. They unpack the tension student athletes face and why it often leads to a struggle balancing faith and sports commitments. The hosts break down supporting scriptures to help students find their true center, Jesus, share three key questions, and offer a challenge to set up a personal faith training program, showing how Jesus can transform their lives.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Story time with Uncle Jarvis: a sports story.

• The great debate: Apple Music or Spotify?

• Today’s Student Shoutout: reigning girls’ soccer state champions.

• Student athletes: in shape physically but exhausted spiritually.

• We see the tension our student athletes are feeling.

• The struggle of balancing our faith and sports commitments. 

• What the bible teaches us about our faith in sports commitments. 

• Jesus calling us to surrender.

• Training plans: three questions to ask yourself to see if you are training your faith. 

• Today’s challenge: creating your training plan.

Quotes:

“Today's hot take is our student athletes are in shape physically but exhausted spiritually.” — Jarvis Koyate [00:08:37]

“Our students physically, they’re in their prime, but spiritually, they're running on fumes.” — Jarvis Koyate [0:09:34]

“Our students, they're out there grinding for a starting spot, grinding to be as successful as they can in their sports, but we're not really doing the things to guard our hearts. And so maybe you would say that our student athletes are physically winning, but spiritually they're fading.” — Jake Kimbrell [00:09:46]

“And here's the truth. Faith was never meant to be squeezed in or around sports. Faith is meant to be the foundation that shapes how you play, why you play, and who you become through your sport. It's not about choosing between faith and sports, it's about choosing who sits at the center.” — Cole Beardan [00:11:16] 

“Our students, while they're in shape physically and they're physically strong, they're fading spiritually because they're going into a war unarmed.” — Jake Kimbrell [00:14:10]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

1 Timothy 4:8 NIV

Ephesians 6:8-10 NIV

Family Church Students on Instagram

Family Church Students Linktree

Family Church Network

Family Church on Instagram

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to Hot Takes and Holy Things. This is the podcast for the students of Family Church in South Florida. We're tackling the real questions students are asking and bringing you hot takes backed by God's Word. This is Hot Takes and Holy Things. What's up, students? Welcome to episode three of Hot Takes and Holy Things. My name is Cole Beardon, and I'm the student minister at Family Church Gardens, and I'm here with two of the best co-hosts in the podcast game.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hey, what's going on, everybody? Jake Kimbrell, Family Church Sherbrooke, student pasture. Pumped to be here for episode three.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Well, hello, students. It's Jarvis Koyata here, Family Church Tequesta. And uh I'm very excited to be here. Boys. There's like a little southern twang to that introduction there. Yeah, that was new. That was cool. Yeah, that's good. That was awesome. Hey, I'm excited for today's episode. You know why? If you read the title, it's like a sports type of hot take.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Do you guys mind if I share a sports story with you guys?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

I'm gonna tell you right now, I think that story time with Uncle Jarve is my favorite segment we do on the pod. And so anytime there's a story time, I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I got one. This one, let's go all the way back to the fourth grade, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Uh-huh. Back in the fourth grade, all my friends were just starting to play tackle football.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I was like, all right, mom, it's time for me to get into tackle football. Before I was just a basketball player, but now I want to play football. Every practice, you had to run like these two football length fields, right? That's how you started off your conditioning. Yeah. And back in the day, I was kind of built like an offensive lineman, not like a quarterback. If you're picking up one. That's just what I was. If you're picking up one putting down, all right. And so this part was always the worst part of practice. And one of my teammates, he never had to do conditioning. He was always off to the side. And I looked at him. I was like, Blue. That was his name, Blue. You got some friends with some ego.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

We gotta address this because you got some friends.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You got some friends with some names, dog. I said, Blue, why do you never get to run at the beginning of practice? He was like, Man, I got asthma. And I said, now that is interesting. And so I go to my coach later that practice. I said, Coach, I think I have asthma. He goes, Well, all right, well, like, you know, I gotta talk to your mom about it. And like, you still have to run because like I need like a medical, you have to like literally go to the doctors.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

You gotta prove it.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

I didn't think all this through. I'm in fourth grade. And so I'm like, so he goes to my mom and tells my mom about it. My mom's like, oh, really? He's like, you know what? I can schedule an appointment with doctors tomorrow. So let's go to the doctors and let's figure out this asthma situation. So now I'm deeper than ever. So we get to the doctors. And like, I really don't want to run in practice, so I get to the doctors, and the doctor's like, hey, what's going on? I'm like, I think I have asthma. I'm wheezing all the time. And so they put the testosterope or whatever it's called, the little thing up to my luggage. She's like, all right, breathe. And I'm like, and Jake and Cole, I don't know if I'm either, I might have been the world-class actor back in the fourth grade, or my doctor was this bad. She was like, all right, you got you got asthma. Perfect, look at that.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

They're like, man, if this kid, if this kid tried this hard not to run, we shouldn't make him.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

So you went back to your coach with medical clearance that you had asthma after we said.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

It was uh exercise induced asthma. And so I got cleared for that. And so twice a day I'd take my inhaler. I'd take that. That cannot be good for you, though. No, no. Definitely if you don't need it.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Oh man. Oh my gosh. But now I play basketball.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Yeah, now you're hooper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, because you don't run in basketball at all. Yeah. Yeah. Magically my asthma did go away four months later for basketball season. Oh my gosh. That is incredible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Oh, that's good. Well, hey, students, we love some story time with Uncle Jarve. What we want to do next is we want to kick it over to our next segment. You guys know this segment. You love this segment.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

It's the great debate. Yep. Today we're debating which platform is better Apple Music or Spotify. And today, I will be playing the judge. Jake and Jarvis will be debating. But here's the thing. From episode one, we've seen that Jake isn't a fair judge. We know that he doesn't know what 30 seconds actually is. So I'm going to actually give Jake and Jarvis each 30 seconds, not one 40 seconds and the other 20, and then interrupt them for 10 of the seconds.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I would like to formally apologize to Cole on the pod in front of all of our students. That he didn't give a good argument. Man, I'm so sorry. No, that I didn't keep time. So Cole, I'm happy you get a judge today.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

All right. Well, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna, I think I started on the last great debate, so we're gonna start with Jake today.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

All right. Jake, you're gonna start us. I'm gonna give you 30 seconds on the count of three. Yeah. One.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Hey everybody. Well, first of all, I'd like to say that 89% of you right now are currently listening to this podcast on Spotify. The stats don't lie. I also love that Spotify actually knows me. Spotify likes to recommend songs to me. Apple Music just wants you to re-listen to the same album that you've heard time and time again. Spotify rapped at the end of the year is actually a report card on all the music, the podcast, the Apple books that I've listened to, or the audiobooks I've listened to, which by the way, your app can't do that. All yours does is just give you a knockoff version of what mine does.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Time.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Jarvis, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

That was a fair that was a fair album.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

That was good. Hang on, sorry. I just gotta catch my breath after that. I don't think I breathed for 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

That's all right. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

All right, Jarvis, your time starts now. Here's the thing about Spotify. Spotify wants to be everything. Okay, they have the podcast, they have the audiobooks, they have the music. This is like coles are. But here's the thing Spotify does too much, and their music quality actually takes a hit. And so Apple Music, what I love about Apple Music is it focuses on the music. The quality of the music is better. Everything about the music is better. Here's the thing you say everybody uses Spotify. 89% of our listeners use Spotify. Guess what? Fast food is also super popular. People love fast food. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's quality. Apple music is quality music. Stick to the music only, not to the podcast and all other stuff.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

And time.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yep. Come on. Can I ask you a question, Jarvis? Did you use Chat GPT for that? I had to recount my notes, but I didn't use chat though. I had to write it down. You should have. Okay. Fair enough. You should have. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Is it an argument about fast food? This is an argument about.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I think my point to that was like, hey, something can be super popular, but we got three seconds. Yeah, yeah. We already talked about it.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

We don't need to bicker anymore. I think it's clear. I think the winner of this episode goes to Jake. We're giving it to Spotify. And listen, I'm not biased.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

I'm not biased here. It's a popularity contest.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Listen, because if I was biased, I would have let Jarvis win because Jake doesn't know what true 30 seconds are, but I'm giving this one to Spotify.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

That's fair. I appreciate that. All right, everybody. Well, as the winner of the great debate, I feel like I get the right that I get to shout out or introduce the shout-out for the student shout out. And so just a reminder, every single episode, we're going to shout out a different student in each of our different ministries all across our family of neighborhood churches. These are students that are involved in our student ministries, both midweek and Sunday morning. These are students that are not only the church in here, these are students that are also the church out there. Great job, guys. Hoping you'd pick up on that. And so today, since it's a sports episode, there's actually a really big sports accomplishment that just happened not that long ago. And so, Cole, I'm going to kick it over to you to introduce who we're shouting out today.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Today we've got three students that we want to shout out. These are some of the best soccer athletes in the state. And we can confidently say that as a fact, because they are reigning state champions for girls soccer. They are Sophia Cueto, Elise Bloomers, and Deonce Story. So shout out to you three girls. You guys have showed up on the field in big ways for your sport, but you've also showed up off the field in big ways in your faith by being point leaders or assistant point leaders, and the way that you have discipled younger girls is so, so awesome. So shout out to you three gentlemen. Let's give them three. Ah, that's like two.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Let's give them three. There we go. A little false start the first time, but the second time was good. All right, boys. Well, right now it's time for our hot take. All right. You guys know this hot take is flaming. You know, we talked about this hot take a lot, so I'm excited to share it with our students. And so today's hot take is our student athletes are in shape physically, but exhausted spiritually.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

That's good. That's a good hot take. You know what I'm gonna ask? Say it. Can you say it again for the people in the back? I'll say it for the back.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

All the way in the back. So our student athletes are in shape physically, but exhausted spiritually.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

I know what you guys are thinking. That's a strong statement. You probably think that our student athletes right now are catching some strays. But stay with me because the three of us, we were gonna list out all of the different commitments that you guys have as student athletes, from practices to tournaments to games to different private trainings and things like that. But if we were going to actually list out all of those different things, it would take up so much time on this episode that it would actually consume the entire episode of just your commitments. So we weren't able to do that. And so that's kind of a problem.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

That is a problem. I think about with travel sports, you got club sports, you got school sports. Our students physically, like they're in their prime, but spiritually, they're running on fumes. And so it's crazy. Like our students will wake up at 5 a.m. for conditioning, but then you struggle to find five minutes for prayer.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, I think our students they're out there grinding for a starting spot, grinding to be as successful as they can in their sports, but we're not really doing the things to guard our hearts. And so maybe you would say that our student athletes are physically winning, but spiritually, they're fading. And so if you're a student athlete and you're listening to this, you you're you're feeling this tension, and we want you to know that we see you, we acknowledge the tension that you feel, because you're sitting here over here thinking, well, well, I can't miss practice, because if I miss practice, then I won't get to play. And then even worse, if I miss too many practices, then I actually am gonna get kicked off the team. And I know for a fact my youth pastor is not gonna kick me out of student ministry. Uh and if anything, after I maybe miss a couple weeks and I come back, I even feel a little bit bit more celebrated. But if I miss a few practices, I'm either gonna get yelled at or I'm gonna have to go run with Uncle Jarvis.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

That's so true. It's like here's the struggle, right? There's a struggle between balancing our faith and then like these sports commitments. And so on one side you have your sports commitments, right? You have your practices, you have your games, you have your tournaments. Then on the faith commitment side, you have your time with God, you have your scripture, you have your prayer, you have going to our big three events. And so it kind of feels like you're in this lose-lose world because the struggle is like we treat sports like a priority, and then we treat Jesus like this optional add-on. And so sports give us a structure and this planning and this sacrifice and consistency, then our faith kind of gets what's left over.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

And here's the truth faith was never meant to be squeezed in or around sports. Faith is meant to be the foundation that shapes how you play, why you play, and who you become through your sport. And so it's not about choosing between faith and sports, it's about choosing who sits at the center. Because God doesn't just want to be our first priority, God wants to be at the center of all of our priorities. And so that means that whatever is important to you is built on the foundation of your faith. And your priority shifts from how can I be the most successful athlete that I can be, to how can I glorify God the most in my sport.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, I just want to verify like we're not saying we're anti-sports, right? All of us have played sports growing up, we all have kids, like I'm gonna have a kid here soon, and like our goal is like our kids are playing sports together, and I love that.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, the real goal is all of our kids are on the same team. And then the best part is tell them we get to be the coaches.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

That's right. Come on, I love that. I'm excited for that. And so it's easy sometimes for our sports to become a threat to your faith. But when your sport is sitting on a throne of your heart, it's actually in the wrong spot because you know who should be on a throne in your heart, King Jesus. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

And now remember, this conversation about faith in sports is just that a conversation about faith in sports. If we're not rooting it in scripture. So, Jarvis, why don't you tell us a little bit about what the Bible teaches us about our faith and sports commitments?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah, cool. That's a great point. So the Bible actually tells us exactly why we can't allow our commitments and our sports to supersede our relationship with Jesus. So look what it says in First Timothy 4. It says, For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. In other words, your workouts help, but spiritual workouts matter even more.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, and I also think a passage that comes to my mind when thinking about this, when I think about athletes, I think about all the different equipment that is necessary for you to play the sports that you want to play. Expensive equipment, right? I think about if you're playing football, the helmets that you need, the pads that you wear, if you're playing golf, the clubs that you have to buy, all the different things that you have to go through, all of those things have equipment because all of those equipment pieces have a purpose. So I started thinking about Ephesians chapter six in the armor of God, and how maybe there's actually something bigger happening behind this whole argument of faith and sports. So, what if our students are actually in a spiritual war right now and they're not really thinking about it like that? And so maybe a lot of times our students are really focused on their power, but they're not really wearing the belt of truth. Or maybe our football players are concerned about what kind of helmet they wear, but they're not really wearing the helmet of salvation. Maybe they're memorizing all the plays, but they're actually not memorizing the scripture, the sword of the spirit. And so maybe our students, while they're in shape physically and they're physically strong, they're fading spiritually because they're going into a war unarmed.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

And Jake, I think what you're talking about, or really what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 6, is exactly why our students are spiritually exhausted. For many of them, right now, they might be in the off-season of their sport, but in reality, they're actually in the regular season facing a real spiritual battle that's ahead of them. They're wrestling a spiritual enemy, but they're not training spiritually. And so they're losing battles that they were never meant to fight unprepared. And anytime you wrestle with a spiritual enemy without spiritual preparation, you're gonna be left feeling drained or discouraged and defeated. And that's why our student athletes are exhausted, not because they're doing too much physically, but because they're doing too little spiritually.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

And again, I do want to emphasize what Jarvis said just a little bit ago that we are not saying that sports are wrong. We're not saying that sports are bad for you, and we actually acknowledge that sports are important. All three of us played sports growing up, all three of us were on different teams and built different relationships with different guys on those teams that we're still friends with today. Some of those coaches we grew up with were some of the most influential people in our lives. And so what are we saying if we're not saying we'll stop playing sports? What we're trying to do is to help our student athletes acknowledge and maybe even label the tension that they're feeling. That sports, while yes, it does call for a commitment, Jesus actually calls for us to surrender. And so it's not wrong for Jesus to push sports to second place, but it's actually wrong when our sports and those commitments push Jesus into second place.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

As we wrap up, I think the best athletes, they didn't get great by accident, right? Michael Jordan didn't get great by accident. They got great because they followed a training plan. And so if you want to be strong in your faith, you need a spiritual training plan too. And so as you're developing the spiritual training plan, I want you to think of some questions that you can ask yourself, right? So question number one is what am I doing daily to connect with Jesus? Whether that looks like prayer or reading scripture or journaling or worship. But J. Cole, what are some other ways like our students can train their faith?

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yeah, I think the second question that you should be asking yourself is what am I going to do weekly to stay rooted? Like how am I going to prioritize my church attendance or how am I going to prioritize my small group or serving? And what sort of accountability systems am I going to have in place weekly to help me stay accountable to the training plan that I've set for myself spiritually?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yeah, and I think the third question is who's going to be my spiritual coach, right? I think that if you're listening to this podcast, it is likely that you attend one of our neighborhood churches. It is likely that you know who your student pastor or who your student minister is. And I think that those people, along with the other pastors in your lives, your parents, maybe there are some other influential, significant adult relationships in your life that we could point you to. Those people, God put them there to be spiritual coaches, to challenge you and to help sharpen you and to call you to a standard higher than what you think that you could even reach on your own. And what I love about this, this idea of these training plans is that it emphasizes the point that you don't grow spiritually by just hoping that you do. You grow spiritually by training, by putting in the work every day, every week, and having some accountability to go along with that. So build your plan, commit to it, and watch how Jesus transforms your life.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

That's really encouraging, Jake. And so, students, every week we'd like to give you guys a challenge. All right. So today's challenge is to create your training plan for your faith and then share it with your student minister or pastor to keep you accountable.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Hey guys, thanks for listening to Hot Takes and Holy Things. On behalf of Jake, Jarvis, and myself, it's been a great episode. Gentlemen, let's give them three. Thanks for tuning in to Hot Takes and Holy Things. To stay up to date on new episodes, follow us on Instagram at GoFC Students. Share this podcast with a friend and send us your questions. We'd love to talk about the stuff you care about. Catch you next time on Hot Takes and Holy Things.