In a world where competition is stressed to the highest capacity and the opposing team is considered the enemy, Lee County FCA in Florida is crossing lines to connect athletes in the name of Christ.

Students from fourteen high schools gather once a month for Game Night, an event full of restoration, perspiration and inspiration.

Game Night had started a few years ago but never quite gathered momentum until Buddy Key came on staff as Lee County’s FCA Area Representative in July 2013 and began to see a need for connection.

Students fellowship at Studio G after dodgeball.

“Lee County is a very populated community, and it’s a wonderful place, but one of the things I didn’t see was a cohesiveness that brought them together,” he said. “God just gave me a burden to get these kids off the field of competition and bring them together in a less pressure situation and let them get to know each other.”

Key began with three schools close geographically, and gathered students at Studio G, the Family Life Center of McGregor Baptist Church, which youth pastor Ben Fleming offered as their monthly meeting space. From there, he called on Huddle leaders from his other schools to start inviting students to attend. When new arrivals came, the leaders were the first ones to make contact, asking them questions about themselves and welcoming them into the gym for a game of dodge ball or basketball.

“I really like playing dodge ball,” Jared Nash, senior Fort Meyers High School and Huddle President, said. “But FCA is very good for me, because I feel like it gives me a strong, Christian value on my football team. I lead prayer before games sometimes and I feel like I could not be where I am today without God and all He’s done for me.”

Students play and mingle in the gym before heading into the meeting area for pizza and fellowship. A speaker comes in for devotion or “Challenge Time,” as Key refers to it, and they will occasionally have student testimonies, which all students relate to.

“No matter what kind of school, whether it’s an inner city school, a rural school, or what we call an ‘uptown school’, they all have the same struggles,” he said.

A mixture of key ingredients make up the popularity of Game Night.

“It’s the acceptance, meeting new friends, a safe place to go and relax, and where parents like them to go,” Key stated. “One of the guys said, ‘I love coming here and playing basketball and not worrying about getting into a fight.’ There are a couple public gyms but if you get on a court and foul and somebody doesn’t like it, there’s going to be a brawl.”

Morgan Hunter shares her testimony.

Added Dunbar High School senior Morgan Hunter, “You feel really welcome there, like ‘Ok, well these are people like me—they have their struggles but lean on God.’ There are students who will help you and lead you to verses and who will listen to your story and what you have to say.”

Hunter, a member of Dunbar’s FCA leadership team, remembers first coming to FCA and the subsequent game nights. “I used to be a really angry person and not want to communicate with anyone for fear of being hurt or being judged,” she admitted, “but going into FCA this year really helped me change my perspective on things and others because it taught me that with God anything is possible—you can change no matter how hurt or broken you are.”

That truth resonates through the framework of Game Night down into its very core. “What is it that we have tried to do consistently with these young people?” asked Key. “To tell people about Jesus. All these game nights and everything we are doing- they’re all about one thing—we are here to lead young people and coaches to Jesus Christ.

“We are also here to continue to disciple and mentor and plug them into the local church,” he continued. We want to partner with them to grow year after year, and be in their life with FCA.”

FCA Game Night in Lee County has quickly become an easygoing activity that allows students to forget about the distractions of life and simply savor time of laughter and play, experiencing the love of Jesus at the same time. Nash explained, “We want to get FCA out there and have everyone feel comfortable and show that Christians can have fun, too.”

Originally published August 2014