I remember how nervous I was before the deacons’ meeting. I was about to ask them for permission to leave the office early in order to coach middle school football. We had seen God do amazing work in our student ministry, as 12 radical eighth- and ninth-graders grew to more than 200 gathering each week in a town of 5,000. We had seen hundreds of teenagers baptized. I wasn’t satisfied. There were more teenagers out there who would not come inside our walls. We were going to have to go to them. I knew other student ministers who had asked similar questions of their pastor and deacons and were told to do those activities in their spare time.
ClampThere was little discussion. They said, “Go!” So I crossed over from chaplain to coach. It was a dramatic shift. Every day I worked with the offensive line, and I met Kevin. He was a good football player, a likable kid, and didn’t know Jesus yet. I began to talk to him about Jesus and invited him to our student ministry services. He didn’t come, but he listened and watched me. A month or so later he came, and one night confessed Christ as Lord. His father was a coach, and his mom and sister loved music. The first time they had been in a church building in a while was when they came to see Kevin get baptized. Through conversations over the next year, they understood the gospel and wanted to turn over their lives to Jesus. I had the pleasure of baptizing the rest of the family. His mom now leads our children’s choir, his dad is a Christian coach, and his sister plays in our praise band. Kevin is now at North Greenville University, pursuing a call to ministry.
There would be others. Rokeem, who became my unofficial adopted son, was about to quit the football team because he was walking home five miles after practice. I began to take him home and get involved in his life. He has accepted a full scholarship with Miami University to play football and will be the first in his family to go to college. There was James, who died on the football field from heat exhaustion his junior year. There were triplets this past year who inquired about Jesus. Kevin, then a senior, told them his story, and they were all baptized and also helped bring reconciliation to their family.
We have the greatest immobilized missionary force on the planet sitting in our church buildings each Sunday. Break out of the walls and into the world. Who knows? You may partner with God to radically change someone’s life.
– Clamp is evangelism group director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.