When Alex Hagler ministers to Memphis’ inner city female high school athletes, she sees a lot of fa-miliar faces. But it’s not just because the same girls show up week after week to hear the former col-lege basketball player share her compelling story.

It’s more personal than that.

As Hagler looks into each set of inquisitive eyes, it’s almost like staring into the proverbial mirror. She can sense the same pain she felt during her teenage years. Once a victim of inse-curity and a false sense of insignificance, Hagler can read the lines on the girls’ faces to detect the hidden anguish wrought by varying levels of abuse and rejection.

Alex Hagler (back, center) with female athletes involved with Memphis FCA.

In reality, Hagler and her audience are the same people sharing the same experiences, pains and challenges. And that’s why they listen. They have no choice but to listen as Hagler walks them through a story to which they can unequivocally relate.

“I know what it’s like to be rejected,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be betrayed. I know what it’s like to try to find love in all of these other places. I know what the consequences are when you try to seek all of these things outside of a relationship with Christ.”

The Long Road Home

Meeting Alex Hagler now, it’s impossible to imagine the sad, lost and confused girl she was during her earliest days at Mississippi State University. By then, she had endured years of strained relationships and the negative impact of her parents’ fractured marriage. Although Hagler grew up in church and prayed to receive Christ as a high school sophomore, there were no spiritual mentors in her life and no accountability to keep her on the right path.

Bad choices compounded an already adverse atmosphere. Basketball was her escape.

When even that wasn’t enough, she looked to dating relationships for fulfillment but instead only unearthed more hopelessness and darkness. In her first two years of college, Hagler was in the hospital seven times, including two knee surgeries and complications from an abortion.

She was physically and emotionally spent.

“I thought God was punishing me for what I’d been doing,” Hagler says. “It was too much to handle, and I fell into a deep depression as my life spiraled downward.”

But just as Hagler was about to hit rock bottom, God used a walk-on freshman named Beth-any Workman (now married, Bethany Pigott is on FCA staff in Mississippi) to reveal Christ’s unconditional love. Over time, the unlikely friendship resulted in Hagler’s first exposure to FCA and other campus ministries like Baptist Student Union. At an FCA Huddle meeting, Hagler gave her life to Jesus and fully submitted to His will.

“I experienced the life-changing work of the love of Christ,” she says. “Immediately after I got saved, I had a desire and a burden for the girls around me—my teammates, my friends—to know what I had experienced. God placed in me a passion to share His Word and share His love with them.”

After she graduated, Hagler spent the next three years ministering to her alma mater as an FCA staff member. But she also had a burden for inner city girls and, over time, her heart drew her back to Memphis. Hagler had a very specific message she was now ready to share with these young athletes to whom she could so easily relate.

“I wanted them to know their worth and who they are in Christ,” she says. “I wanted them to know that they were valued and that God had a plan for their lives and that He didn’t make them haphazardly for no reason.”

The Vision Comes To Life

In August 2011, Hagler officially joined the FCA Memphis staff as a full-time area representa-tive and quickly began working with female athletes and coaches throughout the Shelby County area. But her transition to high school ministry was more difficult than she anticipated.

After struggling for the first couple of weeks, she came home one day and made a prayerful plea: “Lord, I want to do what You called me to do, but You’re going to have to help me because I have no clue how I’m supposed to go about doing it.”

A few days later, Hagler was sitting in a high school office when the Holy Spirit placed in her a vision of reaching female athletes by teaching them about the Proverbs 31 virtuous woman.

Even with the breakthrough, Hagler still needed to develop her concept, so she turned to Memphis FCA Administrative Assistant Kristy Makris for help.

“Alex came to me with the idea but didn’t know how to take the next step to create something that could be used by others to disciple these girls,” Makris says. “I had been discipled by a woman in Memphis who taught me to know God as He has revealed Himself through the sto-ries of the Bible. I shared this story method with Alex, and that was the beginning.”

The Virtuous Woman material made its partial debut in November 2011 at a local girls' bas-ketball camp. After receiving a positive reaction from the attendees as well as an overwhelming thumbs up from Huddle group leaders, Memphis FCA Area Director Larry Coley encouraged Hagler and Makris to complete the material as soon as possible and helped the ladies with the editing process.

“It really resonated with the girls in our area,” he says. “A lot of the girls Alex is ministering to are underprivileged girls from inner city areas of Memphis who need that identity in their lives. A lot of them didn’t have role models to show them godly womanhood. Alex is that role model for them, and this material is really speaking to them.”

The result was an 11-part question-driven Bible study on eight character traits exemplified by notable women of the Bible. The format is designed to promote discussion amongst teams and small groups. The letters in the word “virtuous” are used as an acrostic. V, for instance, stands for valor and is illustrated through the story of Rahab. Other topics include integrity (Ruth), resourcefulness (Esther), trust (Mary), uniqueness (Eve), obedience (Mary Magdalene), unity (Mary and Elizabeth) and service (Rebekah).

"I'm just trying to help girls realize that God is involved in our brokenness and our messiness. They can trust Him to lead them and guide them in those areas where they are broken." - Memphis FCA's Alex Hagler

For veteran FCA Memphis volunteer Pat Sexton, the gender-specific material is something she’s hoped to see for quite some time.

“A lot of these young ladies are turned on to this because they see every type of woman in the Bible,” Sexton says. “Kristy and Alex have chosen women in the Bible who had flaws but also loved the Lord, and the young ladies grab hold of that. They know they’re not perfect, but yet there’s a place for God in their lives. It’s a great vehicle to let female athletes see their uniqueness and help them be proud that they are women.”

Sexton has personally used the material in early morning Huddle groups and seen its impact on the individual athletes.

“We’re seeing these girls get to school at 6:30 on a Tuesday morning to hear what Alex has to say through this curriculum,” Sexton says. “It shows the deep love that God has for the fe-male as well as the female athlete. We’ve had several young ladies whose lives have been turned around. They’ve become much better students in school. It’s a life-changing event.”

According to Makris, it’s the curriculum’s overarching message that captivates its attentive audiences.

“There is more to our lives than just what we can see with our physical eyes,” she says. “God is at work constantly all around us to bring about His purposes. He is not limited by our current circumstances, past behavior, dysfunctional families, broken relationships, corrupt leadership—nothing hinders His ability. Because of this, we have hope in every situation.”

And once the young athletes understand that truth, it’s much easier to help them grasp the possibility of becoming a virtuous woman in a world that conspires against their quest for holiness, purity and righteousness.

“The world gives these girls a script to live by as far as what they’re supposed to look like and how they’re supposed to act and speak and carry themselves,” Hagler says. “But the Lord gives them a different script. He gives them an example in the Proverbs 31 woman.”

Hagler admits that many of the girls find it difficult to see how the Word of God applies to their lives. They have often fallen for the lie that says they have to be perfect before they can come to the Lord.

“I’m just trying to help them realize that God is involved in our brokenness and our messi-ness,” Hagler says. “They can trust Him to lead them and guide them in those areas where they are broken.”

Spiritual Daughters

FCA Virtuous Woman Bible Study

Although Hagler has been using the Virtuous Woman study for more than a year, she still gets excited thinking about how God has used her to bring such a transformative study into public schools. She is equally humbled when she thinks about how much the Lord has brought her through.

“When I speak at the schools, these girls see a living example of somebody who has walked the walk,” Hagler says. “But they also see somebody whom the Lord has redeemed—someone He is using for His glory.”

She is even more humbled when she imagines how God might use the Virtuous Woman study at the national level. The study guide and leader’s manual are now available through FCA Resources and are used by Huddle groups across the country.

“I’m excited to see what the Lord is going to do,” Hagler says. “I may not see it all on this side of Heaven. I struggle with that sometimes because I really want to see fruit. I really want to see these girls walking with Jesus. But He reminds me to just share His Word and be faithful to what He’s called me to do.”

That’s why Hagler is more than content to speak into the lives of the female athletes as she travels throughout the Greater Memphis area. And when she looks into their eyes, she is re-minded of another reason why they look so much like her.

“'Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the forsaken one will be more than the children of the married woman,' says the LORD." – Isaiah 54:1

“I know that God brought me back home to see all of this come to fruition,” she says. “I feel like the Lord is fulfilling His promise to me through this curriculum as it’s being used here in Memphis and across the country. Through that, I believe that He’s bringing me many spiritual daughters and allowing me to lead them into His Kingdom. That’s my hope and my desire.”

Visit www.fcaresources.com to download the FCA Virtuous Woman Bible Study and Leader's Guide.

Originally Published: May 2013

Photos courtesy of Larry Coley