This article appears in the Fall 2024 issue of the FCA Donor Publication. The FCA publication is a gift from our FCA staff to all donors giving $50 or more annually. For more information about giving, visit here.

Brad Livingstone is the First Gentleman of Baylor University, with his wife, Linda, serving as president of Baylor since 2017. Livingstone first became involved with FCA as a student at Okmulgee High School (Okla.). He played basketball at Oklahoma State University and toured Europe in 1983 as a member of an Athletes in Action basketball team. After college, he worked on the Oklahoma FCA staff for five years before began teaching at various Christian schools in Texas, California and Virginia. He currently teaches history at Vanguard College Preparatory School in Waco, Texas and serves on the FCA Heart of Texas executive board. He and Linda have been married 39 years.

Please briefly share your testimony of how you came to know the Lord. 

I grew up in the church but didn’t really have a relationship with Jesus. I was invited to my first FCA Huddle meeting by my basketball teammate and friend, Robin Tull, when I was a sophomore at Okmulgee High School in Oklahoma and it’s really the first time I can remember hearing about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I accepted Christ my junior year in high school when Coach Dan Rhoades led me to the Lord during one of our FCA meetings. Coach Rhoades passed away a few years ago, but thankfully before he passed, I was able to tell him I’m a follower of Jesus because of him and his leadership in FCA.

You played basketball at Oklahoma State and met your wife there through FCA. Please share about that.

Both Linda and I played basketball at Oklahoma State and we were very good friends for three years before we started dating. We both were very involved with FCA at OSU and really enjoyed it. Interestingly, my dad saw an article on Linda my freshman year and sent it to me with a note saying, “These are the kinds of girls you should be dating”! Linda and I got a big laugh at my dad’s letter at the time. But little did we know my dad was a prophet because three years later, we were dating and two years after that, we were married.

How has being involved in FCA impacted your faith?

FCA has given me a platform to share Jesus to the world as a FCA staff member, a coach, a dad, a husband and a high school teacher.

Why did you want to get involved on the local FCA executive board?

FCA has played such an important role in the life of my entire family. I was saved through the ministry of FCA. I worked for Oklahoma FCA. I met my wife, Linda, through the ministry of FCA. And our daughter, Shelby, was a leader in her FCA Huddle at Rice University. So when FCA Heart of Texas Metro Director Ben Johnson asked me to serve on our local board, I knew it was time to give back to the ministry that has given us so much over the decades.

What’s life like as the First Gentleman at Baylor?

It’s fantastic! Every day is a new adventure and as I tell everyone, it’s always good to be a Baylor Bear, but it’s never been greater than right now! God is doing amazing things on this campus, and we are thankful to be a part of it.

What is most meaningful to you in your roles on the executive board and leading the staff support team?

It has been great to witness the hand of God on this magnificent ministry through the hard work of Ben Johnson and his entire Heart of Texas FCA staff.

Do you get to have any meaningful interactions with Baylor athletes? Please share about those.

We travel quite a bit to cheer on the different Baylor sports teams during the school year, and it’s fun encouraging these incredibly talented athletes both on their respective playing fields and also back on the Baylor campus.

Our Q4 theme in 2024 is Ready 24/7, based on 1 Thessalonians 3:12: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” How do you try to live out this concept in your own walk with Christ?

FCA taught me as a teenager to have a daily quiet time to start the day and now, 50 years later, it’s still a vitally important part of my daily life. Spending time in God’s Word and prayer has allowed me to strengthen my walk with Christ and help remind me to keep my eyes focused on Him as I’m looking for ways He would have us serve others.

What is God teaching you now?

To trust Him in all circumstances and always remember that God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. This has proven to be so true in our lives.