This story appears in FCA Magazine’s January/February 2016 issue. Subscribe today!
It's a new year with fresh opportunities for reflection, learning and growth.
Resolutions can be very self-focused, committed to whole-person health or well-being, but it’s also common for resolutions to include investing in something volunteer- or service-related. With a vast array of options to get involved, it is often difficult to decide on a specific area that best invests in lives for an eternal or tangible impact.
That’s where the ministry of FCA steps in. By reaching one of the most sought after spiritual battlegrounds—school campuses—FCA provides the perfect place for willing people to give their time, energy and heart to help build up the next generation.
For more than 60 years now, the ministry of FCA has been buoyed by volunteers who selflessly pour into coaches and athletes in need of someone to walk life’s journey with.
While volunteers range in their involvement and knowledge of the ministry, what they all have in common is a desire to see needs met, provide a solid support figure, and simply be a listening ear for questions. They want to provide as much as they can in a physical, emotional and spiritual sense to tend to their spheres of influence—not just to athletes and coaches, but to staff as well.
“I’m only one person; I can only do so much,” Cecil County (Md.) FCA Area Representative Brian Hamson said. “But through volunteers who are willing to step up and step out in faith and serve, more lives can be impacted for the Kingdom.”
In his second year with the ministry, Hamson continues to see his role on staff with the volunteers serving as Huddle sponsors, character coaches, donors, board members and more. He pinpoints the role the Lord has played in their lives, connecting with people and sharing the heart of the ministry.
“To be able to link arms and enter into a mission field powered together with others who have the same heart and mind, it's encouraging entering the field that equipped,” he said.
Quite often, Hamson added, the Holy Spirit guides volunteers into their “sweet spot” of a serving role.
“This has to be a God thing,” he said. “[It's a] Holy Spirit-driven [thing] that’s based not only on love and a heart for young people, but a sense of, ‘Yeah, I know God has called me to this, and I’m going to go for it.’”
FCA Magazine spoke with several people about what it means to volunteer for FCA and make an impact for Christ through the avenue of sports.
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When Tim Cote moved to California in 2011 for a church plant, he was invited to an FCA Huddle at Desert Ridge Academy Middle School in Indio. Cote became captivated with the ministry and continued his involvement, even after he became associate pastor at Sword of the Lord Ministries.
He loves working with middle schoolers and appreciates their willingness to listen to ideas and use intellect to formulate their own conclusions. He views the power of prayer as a staple for the students in his Huddle.
Kids see him around campus every week with pizza and an open invitation to attend meetings, and he’s amazed at the growth and development of his students.
“I’m watching God do what only God can do, which is lead them toward Himself and bring them into that deeper understanding of who He is,” Cote said.
FCA has a plethora of tried and true methods to set up local ministry. A beginning volunteer can easily follow the blueprints and tailor for specifics pertaining to their area.
“FCA provided the vehicle; all you have to do is climb in behind the driver’s seat,” Cote said. “They provide you with materials and online resources. Everything is set.”
All that’s required is a little bit of time.
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Time is something Evie Lee eagerly gives. She is in her third year as the Huddle sponsor for Cathedral City High School in California. The physical education teacher was in FCA as a college student at Southwest Texas State (currently Texas State) and stepped into a volunteer role to invest in the lives of young athletes looking for an encouraging adult to walk with them through high school.
She wants to reach out for eternity with a faith in Christ and build continual relationships. FCA provides that opportunity.
After her husband was diagnosed with cancer, Lee stepped down from coaching volleyball and prayed God would give her a passion and reason to be on campus outside of teaching, something that would create relationships with an eternal influence. Then came FCA, and she and her husband both jumped into growing the ministry with more outside activities, chauffeuring students to dodgeball tournaments and FCA Camps. They took 11 football players to an FCA Camp in San Diego last summer.
Lee also serves on her local board, which lends a unique perspective.
“I can add to what the board doesn’t see or what FCA might need,” she said, “because I’m on site and I see what’s going on from a school perspective.”
Lee simply likes helping and jumps at any chance to be a part of moving the ministry.
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Though a small, private school, Tome School in North East, Maryland, FCA participants make up more than 10 percent of the student body, doubling from its inaugural season last year. Volunteer Lori Griffitts caught interest when she heard Brian Hamson speak at a youth Sunday a couple years ago.
“I didn’t even know Brian, but I spoke to him afterwards because I was a parent and I wanted my own kids to be a part of something like that,” said Griffitts, whose three children are now very involved with FCA. “So we talked after service, not knowing at all that I would become the advisor of FCA the following year. That was God’s work.”
Griffitts has a fondness for FCA creating a safe place for kids to be kids and feel comfortable in who they are and their own faith, and she believes in the desperate need for role models to reach teenagers.
“I’m a mom, and it’s not easy for kids today to be young adults,” she said. “My son is actually involved with FCA in his college, so it’s carrying into his adult life. There’s a need for Christian adults to get involved and become invested in the lives of kids and meet them where they are.”
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If potential volunteers are looking for ways to help, devote themselves to helping hearts and spread the gospel, FCA is a very practical “how.”
Josh McCord was a young youth pastor in San Antonio at a church across the street from a high school. Church staff told him the school wouldn’t have anything to do with religion, but McCord began to pray, believing the school’s proximity was no coincidence. As he prayed, the Holy Spirit nudged him to call the school and ask about FCA. McCord had no idea what FCA was at the time, but he obeyed, and he immediately got connected with a coach looking to start a Huddle who had been praying for a local pastor with whom he could partner.
Kingdom impact began as God built up the ministry, and McCord walked right into the school to preach the gospel.
A few years later, God called him to Maryland to pastor Conowingo Baptist Church. There he connected with FCA in Cecil County, becoming involved with Huddles at Rising Sun High School and Middle School. Last season, he became a character coach for the high school football team, which subsequently won the conference sportsmanship award.
What keeps McCord with FCA is his belief in the ministry’s ultimate motivation to glorify Jesus as King and Lord of everything.
“As long as God gives me breath and as long as God calls me to serve Him,” he said, “I will be doing everything I can to be a part of FCA because I believe in it, and I’ve seen the fruit.”
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Volunteers are the heartbeat of the FCA ministry. Hamson summed up well those who give of themselves so selflessly.
“This ministry literally would not exist without volunteers,” he said.
And a key component to this part of the ministry is a willingness to show up and invest in students’ lives with no strings attached. FCA relies on the relentless pursuit of Jesus in its servant-hearted volunteers, including its donors, board members, and those on the front lines serving at events and with Huddles. Those volunteers carry out the core values of integrity, serving, teamwork and excellence that connect to the lives of the coaches and athletes they come in contact with daily. Yet, however genuinely volunteers pour of themselves, there is a certain gift from God that catches them on the overflow.
“There’s not one area in my life where no matter what you give God, He always gives you back much better than you put out,” Cote said. “Even if I consider it to be a sacrificial service, it always seems to come back to me tenfold.”
Want to get involved? Find an FCA Staff person in your area by clicking here.
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–This article appears in the January/February 2016 issue of FCA Magazine. To view the issue digitally, click here: January/February 2016 FCA Mag Digital
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