Leading with Purpose: Faith, Sports, and the Next Generation

What if a football camp could change the culture of an entire community?

That question drives this conversation in this episode of Consulting from the Couch. We sit down for a fantastic interview with Ken Lovell, Director and Minister with Coastal NC Fellowship of Christian Athletes, whose mission is to bring everything together in Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.

Ken shares his journey from the Marine Corps to ministry, unpacking how purpose—not position—has guided his leadership across four counties. He walks us through the growth of FCA’s Eastern NC Team Football Camp, the power of student-led huddles, and how discipleship—not just inspiration—creates lasting transformation.

From the “sandpaper” principle of accountability to the ripple effects of the FCA’s reach in Okinawa, this episode demonstrates how faith, leadership, and teamwork can transform communities.

Whether you’re a coach, parent, or leader, you’ll find practical wisdom on how to engage, equip, and empower the next generation through purpose.

Listen now on your favorite podcast platform and join the movement at BLCConsultingLLC.com.

Episode Transcript

unknown (00:00):
Every better.

SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
Welcome to Consulting from the Couch, where
we explore people, ideas, andleadership, shaping our
communities and our lives onestory at a time.
In today's episode, I'm going totalk with Ken Lovell, Director
and Minister with Coastal NCFellowship of Christian
Athletes.
I'm going to explore how Kenleads with vision, trains up

(00:32):
students, coaches, and stewardsteams dedicated to spiritual and
athletic growth.
Ken, welcome and thank you forjoining me today.

SPEAKER_01 (00:39):
Thanks for having me, Steve.

SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Absolutely.
Listen, take a couple minutes totell the listeners more about
yourself, just your background,how you got involved with FCA,
and tell us about your familybecause I know you're proud of
them.

SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
Yeah, I sure am.
Thanks for asking.
So ten years ago, I received aninvitation that was kind of
disguised as a calling from theLord to come on staff with the
Fellowship of Christian Athletesas the coastal North Carolina
FCA director.
I took took that role on, and uhover the last 10 years I've
actually for a brief time servedour region, the Carolinas, as
the regional director of talentadvancement, and then uh let go

(01:14):
of that role to really focusmore intimately here on this
calling.
But then also over the last sixyears, I've been the director of
Eastern North Carolina's teamfootball camp, which is FCA's
largest camp in the world, Ifound out last year.

SPEAKER_00 (01:25):
So And I don't want to divert from where we are, but
that thing has since you sincethat thing started, man.
I mean, I I I see you guys putyou know post on you know a lot
on social media.
So one of my questions thatbefore we get into everything is
how many counties does does thecoastal NC FCA encompass and

(01:47):
does that the the the countiesthat it encompasses does the
football camp actually reachbeyond your your thing?
So two questions.
Four counties.

SPEAKER_01 (01:59):
Four counties Onslow, Jones, Duplin, and
Samson.
And Samson.
And then that lines up withactually the court district from
what I understand.
Okay, same same district.
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (02:06):
That's exactly right.
Now talk a little bit, and thisisn't we're going off script in
the first in the first twominutes.
Yeah, how about that?
Talk a little bit about thefootball camp.
Because I because I'm veryinterested in that, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Yeah, yeah, I know you're a big football guy.
And and uh so my first year withFCA in 2015, I was really
discovered that part of our jobduring the summer is to serve
and and lead in these camps.
So FCA has a variety of camps.
Back then, I think we might havehad 15 or so.
Now we have nearly 40 camps justin the Carolinas.

SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
You just had a just had a women, did you just have
like a women's campaign?
Yeah, a girls' multi-sport camp.

SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
I just came back from leadership camp.
I mean, there's this there'sthis camps everywhere all summer
long and and uh really all yearlong, but dominantly during the
summer.
So I went to football camp, andand that was where the Lord
really gave me a vision of whatcould be when you get a hold of
50 or 60 young men's lives forthe Lord, and those guys happen
to start the school year on firefor their faith.
You know as well as anybody thatfootball is such a driver

(03:02):
economically and fan base andeverything in the school
systems.
And when those guys' lives aretransformed for the Lord and
they start to play the gamedifferently, it just ripples
throughout communities.
Uh, and and as it started tohappen, it then came about a
couple years later when thedirector who had the camp uh had
grown it from just one session,about five teams to now we were

(03:22):
doing three sessions, about 30teams, 30, 35 teams, and he was
done being the director.
And uh I went ahead and asked ifI could take it forward.
And now we have grown it toabout 50 teams.
We're just about maxed out forwhat we can do, and then and
this camp serves all I sayeastern North Carolina, so
everything from Outer Banks toRaleigh to to Wilmington, but we
sometimes pull teams in fromwestern North Carolina, we have

(03:44):
a team from Florida that comesup every summer because they
they love it here.

SPEAKER_00 (03:47):
So from five teams in 2015 to 2001.
Okay, 2001.
So when but when you okay, sowhen you were exposed to it in
2015, how many how many teams?
About 30 to 35, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (03:59):
So it started in eastern North Carolina with one
camp, one session, five teams in2004.
I'm sorry.
Okay, two thousand four.
21 years now we've been at it,now we're at 50 teams.

SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
You guys didn't do that.

SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
No, no, that's that's the Lord.
Yeah, absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_00 (04:12):
He gets credit for the growth about it.
That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
But we we do, though, just to just to give
credit where credit's due tohere, uh, is the team that the
Lord has called together.
We got the right people in theright seats, and and that's what
enables coaches to come back andsee this as value added to their
program to get the seasonstarted.
We just have really funny peoplewhere they need to be.
We have really organized peoplewhere they need to be, and just
across the board, it's 55 staffI have to recruit to make each
three-day session work.

(04:35):
Wow.
And and at least half of thoseare just volunteers.
They're not they're not FCAstaff that get paid to do this,
they're giving up something tocome be with us for a few days,
if not 10 days.
Great team.

SPEAKER_00 (04:45):
That's awesome.
So you said you've been involved10 years, but you you came out
of the military and then andthen and then got the calling.
But tell me, you know, Iinterrupted you and I and I'll
be remiss.
Tell me about your family.
Thank you for bringing us backto that.
I've been in trouble with that.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I understand.

SPEAKER_01 (04:59):
Yep, I did I did 21 years in the Marine Corps, and
for 16 of that, I was married tomy wife, Angie.
We actually grew up together,and so I yanked her out of
Michigan about six years into mycareer.
Uh, we have two uh justincredible young women as
daughters, and uh they're bothat East Carolina University.
So, yeah, the three of them arethe absolute best of me.
I love them to death, and betterfor uh them holding on to me.

SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
And Angie works as works apart with the FCA, right?

SPEAKER_01 (05:22):
She is my the the official term in the FCA system
is admin assistant.
Yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_00 (05:25):
Yeah, I saw that on the butt.
But yeah, she's probably I mean,like your boss, probably.

SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
She's a leader, and um, and being able to do
ministry with her is probablyone of the highlights in the
season of life.
We're empty nesters now, youknow how that is.
Absolutely, man.
Being able to just go everywherewith her and do everything with
her.
She she's my best friend, sothat makes it easier as well.
But she is she's she's highcapacity, she's super talented,
and uh to be able to seeministry, our FCA ministry get
better because of thecontribution she makes is a lot

(05:51):
of fun for me to have a frontrow seat to that.

SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
That that's awesome.
So let's uh so let's pop intonow the questions, really.
Yeah, so describe your role withFCA and then describe what drew
you into the leadership withinthe organization.

SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
Yeah, you know, the the I have discovered this,
especially this when I was inthe talent advancement seat.
Much of my responsibility was tohelp us as a region discover how
to attract the right people.
So recruiting and then onboardthem well with clear
expectations and training andthings like that that had them
ready to serve.
But then also once you get them,it's it's it's training and
developing them to retain them.

(06:26):
And uh so, you know, coming outof the Marine Corps, I really
saw this as a calling to dosomething really special.
So, you know, I think youunderstand that being a Marine,
you are part of something somuch bigger than yourself.
When somebody says, you know,what do you do?
Well, I am a Marine, right?
It was just this title, thislifestyle.
And I struggled a lot withtrying to figure out what I was
going to do when I retired.
That would I looked at all thesedifferent companies that had job

(06:48):
expectations or jobdescriptions, rather, that I
felt like, yeah, I can do thosethings.
But it was just all about thedo, not about the what and the
why.
And the why.
When I stumbled into FCA and Isaw this real clear opportunity,
you know, the short version ofthe story is just that as the
Lord revealed to me purpose,then that that's that's what
would serve to drive me throughall the pressures and challenges

(07:09):
of leading in ministry.
And so, in short, it's just tobe a means in our community to
bring everything together inChrist is the purpose behind
everything we do in FCA.
Uniquely, we have coaches andathletes and athletics in
general as this vehicle toaccomplish that.
Because you know, I mean, let'sjust drop back to football for a
second.
On that team are a group ofpeople coming together to

(07:30):
achieve a common goal.
That's the very definition ofteam.
They're they're all differentshapes, sizes, colors, economic
backgrounds, church backgrounds.
I mean, there's just so muchdiversity, but they come
together for something biggerthan themselves.
Our community, and I don't meanour community as in
Jacksonville, but just our worldis really struggling with that.
We we we just seem to thrive andbeing divided for all kinds of

(07:52):
things, but the very mystery ofGod's will in Ephesians 1, 9,
and 10 is that everything wouldbe together in Christ.
So we get to do that, and thatthat's how I see this ministry
every single day that I get up.
That's the purpose that keeps mein it and sustains me from the
challenges sometimes.
I just want to quit.
Like it's too hard, you know,people are too difficult.
I mean, just all the things thatsometimes just make this thing
really hard, the things thatallow me to just push that stuff

(08:13):
aside, put my hands back in theplow and not be distracted, it's
it's the purpose.

SPEAKER_00 (08:18):
So you mentioned during that answer about
training.
The local leaders at FCA, thefolks with the boots on the
ground, they you guys have animmense task.
I mean, working with our youth,training and leadership
development.
So talk so talk about that fromyou know, you you guys have
national conferences.
I I was looking on your website,don't know if you went, but you
guys have internationalconferences, you know, that

(08:40):
provides, you know, obviouslygreat leadership.
Not everybody can go.
So you guys go to training,whoever goes.
Talk to me about some some ofthe key takeaways that you bring
back that you're able to toshare with, you know, with
staff, with you know, with theyouth, with coaches, you know,
with whomever.

SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
Yeah, yeah.
I I I'm pretty notoriously knownas somebody who thinks outside
the box quite a bit and and uhdoesn't always just go with
what's everybody else is doing.
And I get I get criticism forthat sometimes, but I I came
from a background that most nonobody else had.
You know, coming out of theMarine Corps for 21 years, I had
a real deep, extensivebackground with training and

(09:17):
styles of training and and howto you know just how to train
all that stuff.
And that's what really drew meto the talent advancement role,
even though talent advancementis part of being a director
anyway.
I uh FCA does a great job ofpouring into our hearts.
They really do uh raise up ourfaith game, if you will.
But what I saw as an opportunitywas to really do a better job of
the X's and O's stuff.

(09:38):
How to how to how to train staffbased on who they are, how
they're wired.
I mean, that that first has tostart with understanding who
your people are and how they'rewired, right?
You have to do some assessmentsand some research and and do
some things that have you betterunderstand who you got.
But then also what I wentthrough in this whole journey is
better understanding our beststaff and why they're the best.

(09:58):
So that what I would do then istry to recruit, attract, if you
will, those more of those kindof people.
Now, if you look at my team, weall look very, very different.
Young, old, men, women ofdifferent colors and different
ages, different seasons of life.
But as I as I assess these,these this teammate, these
teammates I have, I'm findingthat the things that we're
common in are the essentials tobeing successful in FCA based on

(10:21):
you know assessing those who arereally good at this.
So the training aspect for methen is just finding finding the
holes, finding the weak spots,finding the things that maybe
they're not so good at that Ican level up to bring that
alongside the things thatthey're just naturally really
good at.
And then that makes us a muchbetter team to do what the Lord
has called us to do.
You know, I mean, it yeah, it'ssuch a challenge, right?
I mean, you hear you there's somuch scripture that talks about

(10:44):
you you just give the Lord whatyou got and then he'll multiply
it and do more with it.
And that can really lend peoplea lot of times to sometimes just
be comfortable, rest in theirlaurels and not really strive to
get better and grow.
And, you know, it's that fivetalent, two talent thing in
scripture where like I might befive talent, but my role is to
give him back 10.
So I do need to grow.
I need to need to be able to dobetter than uh just simply what

(11:04):
he gave me.
But man, if you can givewhatever that is, if you give
that back to the Lord, yeah,what he's able to do and what he
has done through this ministrythrough us, in spite of our
weaknesses and struggles and andand challenges, like it's it's
been it's a fun journey.
We have this treasure in jars ofclay, scripture says, you know,
so we we do see that clearlythat we don't deserve this,
we're not worthy of it apartfrom him, we're we're not

(11:27):
capable to do the things we'vedone.

SPEAKER_00 (11:28):
Absolutely.
And I'm gonna come back to towhat to what you just talked
about about balancing the faithand the I mean, let's I mean it
it's a whether you want to it'sit's a business, but it's a
business with a purpose,obviously, and balancing the
faith aspect of that and thenthe organizational aspect of
that.
I'm gonna I'll come back tothat.

(11:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Again, off script.

SPEAKER_01 (11:50):
And if I could too, I think what's really important
to understand about training,what one of the things we focus
on probably more than anythingis our discipleship strategy.
Like that's what a lot of peoplemight not understand about FCA
is we are really in this for noother reason than discipleship.
It's making disciples who makedisciples, it's it's engaging
them with the good news ofChrist.
This is the training we do forour leaders, our volunteer
leaders especially, but yes, ourstaff as well, that we know how

(12:13):
to clearly and simply presentthe gospel, then equip that
decision for Christ with thetools and resources and things
to grow in your faith, all sothat eventually we get everyone,
these volunteers, these peoplewe reach, coaches and athletes,
we get them to a place wherethey're so empowered in their
faith that they want to pass iton to someone else.
They want to be leaders.
And and that's that's reallychallenging in the way we do

(12:35):
ministry in FCA because you knowit everyone graduates at some
point.
Coaches rotate, they leave, theyget new jobs, and then it's
starting all over.

SPEAKER_00 (12:42):
It's starting all over.

SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
And that's really challenging to get to get this
right person in the right seatonly to see them graduate.

SPEAKER_00 (12:48):
Yeah, because you're because you feel like you're
building building momentum andand and like you work with a kid
maybe when their freshman year,or maybe even in middle school
or whatever, and and and yousee, you know, you see this kid
growing, or you see, you know,here I don't know how many
volunteer military folks youhave, but you but again, you see
folks growing and you'rebuilding momentum, and the next

(13:08):
thing you know, Johnny'sgraduating, and but there's
another Johnny coming along.

SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
But that's what's really cool for our ministry to
be global uh it's for tworeasons.
One, just in the most localsense, is that these kids, a lot
of them do go to college.
And so we have staff that servecolleges or have areas with the
college in it that you know wewe're trying to hand them off
and and let them continue togrow as college leaders.
But then because of where welive, the Marine Corps will send
some of these leaders we have toother parts of the world.
And so we actually one of theinitiatives I've started with

(13:35):
FCA trying to get that get thisthing built, you know, in
strategy and concepts andwhatever is is how do we lead
our volunteer leaders on a DODbase?
So let's just say Okinawa,Japan, because they're in a
foreign country, but they're onessentially American soil
because of the DOD, right?
So where FCA is global and wehave Japanese citizens who are
FCA staff, or they might bethere's different terms for it

(13:57):
based on just funding and awhole litany of things with
foreign countries and how thatall works, but you know, they
might be our teammates overthere doing ministry, but that
doesn't mean they have baseaccess to come on base and
minister to American kids.
So when we had a leadershipfamily, really, I mean their
parents, his parents were allin, the kid was all in, they got
stationed in Okinawa.
We helped get the first FCAhuddle started, Okonus, you

(14:18):
know, outside the continentalUnited States in Okinawa, Japan,
at Kubisaki High School.
And that falls under myleadership here because FCA
didn't have a model for it yet.
So we just kind of said, well,like who better to steward these
these leaders in that othercountry than the ones who
trained them and grew them upover the last four, five, six
years.
Um, so that that's really coolwhat we get to do here that most
areas in the country don't is wesend our leaders to other

(14:39):
countries too.

SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
That's awesome.
So again, off script.

SPEAKER_01 (14:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
I didn't realize this.
I did, I did, but I didn't.
Talk to me about the book.
Yeah.
Game changer, an autobiographyof answering the call,
inspiration, and then someonereading it.
What's what's one takeaway?
I know there's there's a lot inthere, I'm sure, but one
takeaway you'd like somebody tocome away with after reading the

(15:04):
book.

SPEAKER_01 (15:05):
Yeah, I I think one, a very clear understanding of
calling.
So that's kind of the core ofthe book is what is calling, and
then I walk people through thejourney of mine.
I I I have discovered out of thetalent advancement roles that
the number one reason that someof our best veteran staff have
stayed in FCA as long as theyhave is because of calling.

(15:25):
And calling is one of thosethings that's so complex and so
difficult to understand.
Like if you uh sit down in aninterview and you ask somebody,
hey, are are you called to FCAand they and they say yes, it's
not just okay, and then you moveon.
It's really difficult to try toask the right questions and
unpack a person's heart so thatwe discover together, like,
yeah, this is indeed a callingon your life for this.

(15:45):
So that's the first thing.
And then the second thing reallyis just to walk through these
stories of adversity that I hadto go through that probably
would have made most peoplequit.
But if it weren't for calling,if it weren't for clarity of
purpose, then I would probablywouldn't have made it.
And so what I know to be trueabout all my teammates and not
just my FCA teammates, butreally just people in leadership

(16:05):
roles in every every sector, thechallenge is there, hard is
coming, and how you processthrough that is is really
important to whether or not youcan stay where God called you to
be.
And uh so that's what that bookis all about.
It's just walking somebodythrough people through my
journey.
There's some raw stories inthere that most people don't
know.

SPEAKER_00 (16:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (16:22):
Uh so you know, 10 years in this now, it's it's
sort of a look back.
That's what our banquet's gonnado this year, too.
It's 10 years for the next 10years.
It's kind of casting a it'stelling stories of the last 10,
but then casting a vision forthe next 10 as we have grown and
continue to grow.
We we want to kind of share witheverybody what we see coming.
Uh so that's it.
You know, I never really sawmyself as an author.
I certainly use the the the wordbook loosely.

(16:44):
It's but I think people willreally enjoy getting a true
behind the curtain look at whatthis last 10 years has been like
for me personally, and and andhopefully uh I really do believe
they'll walk away encouraged.
Can you get it on Amazon?
Not nothing yet.
No, so I've got a link on mysocial media for order it.
So the re what I'm doing throughjust a Google Doc is acquiring
everybody's requests.

(17:05):
So some companies say, I want Iwant 20 for my whole whole
business, then there's a lot ofindividuals ordering.
So once I get all thosepre-orders here on August 1st,
I'll get with the publisher andwe'll do the first ball.

SPEAKER_00 (17:15):
So okay, okay.
So it's coming out.
Okay, okay, good.
And we'll put and I'll get thatinfo from you and we'll put it
in in the show notes along withalong with some other stuff.
Your local board leadership, theyour advisory group.
Obviously involved in a lot ofthings, praying, serving,
giving, and and and just andhelping with fundraising, and
then of course, you know, ofcourse, discipleship.

(17:37):
Balancing those responsibilitieswith the board as well as
strength as as well asstrengthening the staff and
expanding the ministry.
Talk a little bit about that'stough, and that's kind of
getting in into the faith, butalso you gotta keep the lights
on.
You gotta be able to do this andthat.
Talk about that a little bit,man.

SPEAKER_01 (17:55):
Yeah, the board for me is is has been maybe the
hardest thing of the last 10years.
I've been on every end of thespectrum.
One end I've had a board thatactually was trying to fire me
and get rid of me.
That's in the book, you know,the stories about just what that
was like, and then and then onthe other end, I've had a board
that elevated me and lifted meup and and and and uh grew me
and challenged me and just askedall the right questions and

(18:17):
really helped grow thisministry.
So I've been on both ends of itthroughout the last 10 years,
and without question, one of thethings that makes it the hardest
thing to do, I think, and thisis shared by all my fellow
directors, our fellow leaders,is we talk about this board
lane.
So it's one of five lanes thatwe focus on as a director.
Board advancement is one ofthem.
It's one of the hardest thingsuh for us to do to try to find

(18:39):
one, the right people who lineup well with the expectations we
set for them.
And then in that sense, it'swell, what expectations do I
need to set for them?
And it really depends on who youare as the director.
Who do I need around me to dowhat based on who I am and based
on where we are as a ministry.
So there's those things.
But then lastly, what makes itso difficult is uh faithfulness.

(19:00):
And this is something I'll comeback to in another question I
think you're gonna ask.
And it's just how do I get thesepeople to stay faithful to the
thing they said they would do?
And when you're dealing withvolunteers, whether they're
board members or huddle coachesor whoever they are, there's a
lot of people that are kind ofenergetic up front to say, yeah,
I want to do this, but then fora variety of reasons, they just
kind of fade away.
And so my full-time job istrying to keep going, trying,

(19:24):
trying to uh keep myselfenthusiastic and passionate so
that I can pass that on to thepeople that I lead.

unknown (19:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (19:29):
Because they're volunteers.
And so what are what are thosereasonable expectations?
It doesn't demand too muchbecause they're business
leaders, they they're probablyserving and leading and
volunteering in their church,they got their own families,
they got their own hobbies, andnow I'm asking them to carve out
this little bit of time for FCA,trying to find those people that
are really sold out for this,they're gonna show up faithfully
and and really roll theirsleeves up and help us advance

(19:49):
this ministry is reallychallenging.

SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's tough.
I mean, even before COVID,volunteerism over the last 10,
15 years has seen a steadydecline.
It's simply because everybody isso busy and they look inward
first, which they should, andthey try to fill, you know, the
buckets of you know between workand family and faith and and

(20:15):
everything else, and thenwhatever they have left, then
they're gonna give, you know, tothe things that matter.
You made a great point, man.
You know, when someone decidesthey're gonna be a board member
for this or a board member forthat, they're on fire, you know,
first meeting, next meeting,next meeting, something
something comes up, and justgradually, no, like you said, no

(20:36):
fault of anybody, man.
It's just life, right?

SPEAKER_01 (20:38):
There's there's two things to that.
I love what you you said abouteverybody being busy.
I I've had people that arestruggling with the walk with
the Lord that I'll be sittingdown discipling, and and the
over and over and over againthey say, like, you know, I'm
just I'm trying to make time forthe Lord.
And I was like, well, that'sthat's the first problem we're
all making.
We're trying to, we're trying tomake time for him, like this
carved out block of time that Ijust put in this box over here.

(20:59):
And that's not how it's supposedto work.
You know, it's supposed he'ssupposed to, you know, there's
no other gods before him.
There's nothing else moreimportant to him.
He is part of everything that wedo.
And if you get that first partright, then the other problem I
think we have is 10% of thepeople doing 90% of the things.
So Roger and I talk about this alot.
You know, whether you're a boardmember, whether you're a donor,
it's the same small group ofpeople doing everything.

(21:21):
And that gets burdensome forpeople.
And and and I was just talkingto a guy this morning who's a
trainer at the gym I go to, andhe was just talking about just
trying to work on himself andwanting to just serve other
people.
And and and as he was kind ofunpacking that, I said, you
know, that that's the thingabout what we do as a man of
faith is narrow is the road thatleads to life, and few people
find it.

(21:42):
And so what I've discoveredabout myself, I hope this would
inspire somebody else, but it,you know, the things that are
right, the things that we shouldbe doing are not popular in a
lot of ways.
Most people aren't doing thosethings.
And so we can't look togravitate to the crowds.
You know, David taking down thegiant had to step in front of a
whole army that stood in theirin place for 40 days doing

(22:02):
nothing, just shaking at the inthe face of the opposition.
It took one person, and and overand over and over throughout
scripture, that's the story ofGod calling one to get out in
front of the many and set thestandard and inspire many.
And that is difficult if youdon't take care of yourself, you
know, because the task ofinspiring other people is is
draining.

SPEAKER_00 (22:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
You mentioned huddle groups andstudent leadership development.
So tell the listeners exactlywhat huddle groups are, and then
tell us what practices helpstudent-led teams flourish and
how do you support them?

SPEAKER_01 (22:36):
Yeah, so that is the thing that drives everything for
us.
It's the huddle.
So in the church world, it mightbe a Sunday school small group,
life group, whatever that smallgroup of people is.
But it's not so small on FCAsometimes.
We have some schools that willhave 150 to 200 kids every
single week faithfully showingup in the gym or library or
cafeteria, you know, to be apart of this, and it's all
inspiring.
So we have huddles.

(22:56):
That that's that's the placewhere coaches and athletes grow
in their walk with Christ.
Some schools, though, you know,they they struggle, and it's
it's it's a teacher in aclassroom with five kids.
And those are the things thatare really challenging to try to
figure out what is holding themback from getting to that place.
But what we what we try to do intraining up the leaders, what
we're trying to inspire them tois first, every school has to

(23:18):
have an adult, a school employeein most cases, that is sold out
for this in a way that they aregoing to faithfully make this
time and space available for thekids.
As much as we don't necessarilyneed that, meaning like legally
or anything like that, like kidscan form a club and meet
wherever they want as long as aschool employee supervises it.
What kids are telling us overand over and over again, you

(23:39):
know, I think of a situationlike at Richlands right now,
who, you know, this happensevery single year where we have
the right man or woman in theright seat at the right school,
and you know, Coach Bird leavesRichlands.
He was our FCA guy there for themulti-sport environment.
Again, 150, 200 kids everyFriday morning showing up
faithfully.
And and as we trained up thosestudent leaders this summer, uh,
just a couple weeks ago atleadership camp, you could see

(24:01):
the emotion in their facewondering who's gonna step up
for us now.

SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
When we go back to school, what's the deal?
Who's gonna be there for us?

SPEAKER_01 (24:08):
And there are some other people there, but you
know, without a doubt, CoachBird was the leader of that.
And and that was his calling.
I remember the journey fiveyears ago or so when he shared
that with me, and we werewalking that out about what that
looks like to step up for thesekids.
So that's number one, we have tohave an adult that recognizes
how important this is.
And then secondly, we want tomake sure that everyone, adult
and students, don't look at thehuddle as just a box to check,

(24:30):
like again, it's a Sundayexperience.
You just go get it done and thenyou move on with the rest of
your life, but that they reallysee this as the environment
where as individuals aretransformed, it sends them out
into the hallways and onto thefields and courts different, and
then those environments start tochange.
So we always like to ask them toreally consider how they can use
the word, the living word, toactually affect change in their

(24:52):
schools, not sit back andcomplain about it, not avoid it,
but step right into it with thegood news of the Lord and set
people free, right?
That's that's what FC does isyou know, you get a lot of these
people that complain and say,man, if we just let God back in
schools, we'd be okay.
And it's like, well, the God Iserve is not bound by brick and
mortar, and it's it's him and usas we walk wherever we go,
that's what starts to shine thelight where we are.

(25:13):
And so that that's what thehuddle is.
It's it's Christ in them andworking through them where they
are at school.
And so the multi-sport huddle isone environment, but the more
powerful one that we really seeis the teams.
So it's it's a coach that letsthat team, either before
practice or after practice, getinto the word and how we we uh
train our leaders up for this issay, hey coach, like what is one

(25:34):
thing about our team this weekjust driving you nuts?
Like, like literally, I mean,tell us tell us this one thing
that like above everything elseis this one thing that we could
get better at.
And it's it's nine times out often, little to do with the first
step running a route or how youblock or tackle or throw a ball
or whatever.
It's it's usually something todo with uh character,
resiliency, just losing controlof their emotions, whatever.

(25:57):
And so then the kids have thisability to say, awesome, hey
coach, thank you for that.
If you don't mind, we're gonnado a huddle this week on that.
And so they get into the wordand they'll go to Paul or Peter
or Christ or whoever and andsay, This is what the Lord
teaches, this is what scriptureteaches on this thing.
And then they get a chance tocome together and say, That's
the standard, that's what we areall gonna go for.
And as the coach starts to seethe team change through these

(26:18):
character changes, well, thenthe blocking and tackling gets
better because they're adifferent athlete.
That's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
That leads into the question.
So, what what approach, youknow, what what have you found
an effective way?
I mean, because it's it'sawesome to get students to step
up, man.
I mean, it I mean it is awesome.
And or volunteer coaches, butwhat what techniques, what
approaches have you found to bemost effective in helping these
folks develop their leadershippotential?

SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
Yeah, we we uh so our our strategy Because that's
tough.

SPEAKER_00 (26:49):
I mean, that's tough for a kid.
I mean, I'm just gonna tell you,man, a 15, 16-year-old you go to
these these huddle groups, andsometimes you may be going to
check the box.
Your girlfriend may be going toto say you go.
But you know, you're 15, 16years old, you're in school,
you're with your peers, and Imean just like going to a youth
group, you know, at church, ittakes it takes courage, man, to

(27:13):
step out and do that.
So you you know, talk to meabout what you guys do to do
that.
Because that's powerful.
That means I mean that'spowerful.

SPEAKER_01 (27:23):
That's a great question.
And we just just had kids askingus this at leadership campus.
We brought our whole areatogether in the side breakout
session, and and some of themwere asking, like, you know, how
can I get my classmates inspiredto show up?
Because so many of them arecoming for the wrong reasons.
They're coming because theirgirlfriend's there, or they're
coming for free food and thisand that.
And the short version is like, Ihave inspirational stories that
we share with our studentleaders of like, let me tell you

(27:45):
about a person who came to FCAfor the wrong reasons and then
found Christ and then wastransformed and what he or she
became.
So whatever gets them in theroom, we're fine with it.
Don't you know we're not?
You don't care why why they'rethere.
We're not purposely necessarilyjust trying to bait them with
things that are secular, but ifwe do offer free food or it or
it is a study hall hour thatgets them out of class, or or

(28:05):
there is a girl or boy thatthey're interested in, whatever
gets them there, so be it.

SPEAKER_00 (28:09):
Just put just just get them there.

SPEAKER_01 (28:10):
The Lord can work all things for the good of those
he's called, right?
So once we get them in the room,again, this goes back to what we
I spoke to earlier about myfull-time job is inspiring other
people to stay faithful to whatthe Lord has called them to do.
And oftentimes what he's calledthem to do is not always what
they said they would do.
It's it's it's a calling thatthey're feeling and there's some
resistance there.
Other times kids are reallyconfident and they step up and

(28:31):
they're just looking for a placelike FCA that allows them to do
what they know they're beingcalled to do out of the church.
So, what we do in our E3, thisis engage, equip, and power.
E3 is our little short phrase weuse to caps on what our
discipleship strategy is.
So, what we in the strategy,it's not a program that we plug
somebody in like week one, we'redoing this, week two, we're

(28:51):
doing that per se, but it'sabout equipping the leader with
the right mindset to have as youdisciple somebody else in a walk
with the Lord.
So, number one, there's likefour things per E that are
attached to it that guide how webehave.
I'll just give you one each,like one example with engage.
You know, when we're talkingabout engaging somebody with the
good news of Christ, what wewant our leaders to do is engage

(29:12):
God first.
We want them to be in the habitof talking to him before anybody
else.
So it really, the Lord knows theaudience, he knows their hearts,
he knows, he knows what's goingon, he knows why they're really
there, he knows all that stuff.
And man, over and over and overagain, what I have experienced
as one doing this, just like I'mcoaching kids and coaches to do
it, is that I'll show up havingseeked God first, talk to him

(29:36):
first about what that team needsto hear.
And I just got to go in by faiththat this message the Lord has
given me is what he needs themto hear.
And I'll get done with thosedevotionals over and over and
over and over again.
It'll be a kid or a coachthat'll come up and be like, You
don't know how bad I needed tohear that.
So that's the first principle.
Then when you get into equip andwe're talking about adding on to

(29:56):
that decision for Christ, whatwe do is equip them with prayer.
Equip them with how to readscripture, equip them with how
to surround themselves with likepeople, right?
You can't keep hanging out withthe same bad influences when you
when the Lord is calling you towalk a narrow road now.
So we we equip them with thosesort of spiritual disciplines,
biblical community, a clear planof where they're going.
And then again, also that theempower piece, the last phase of

(30:19):
it is what we want to do isempower their leadership first
by modeling.
So, you know, if it was you andI, Steve, I I would lead the
devotionally, but you'd be therewith me.
You'd see how I do it.
I would model for you a way todo it.
And then I'm gonna empower yourleadership by assisting.
So now you're gonna lead, butI'm gonna help you.

SPEAKER_00 (30:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
Right.
And then eventually you get toempower by watching where you're
gonna lead it.
I'm just gonna stand over hereand just just pray for you and
I'm gonna encourage youafterwards.
And and then eventually weempower by launching, like, you
got it.
I'm going over to this school soyou can lead this one here.

SPEAKER_00 (30:48):
Yeah, and when and when a kid sees another kid do
something, and that and that kiddoing that encourages the other
kid, yeah.
It not that it's easier, but hethey see, hey, he stepped out
and did it.

SPEAKER_01 (31:03):
Well, you talked earlier about courage.
If I could interrupt you, yeah,I know who knows.
This is this is a strategy Ikind of stumbled into that uh
Sue and I figured this out towhere this is what works.
And when you talk courage andgetting up in front of your
peers, if I stand in front of ateam and present the FCA huddle
and they're all unanimously inagreement that we want this, and
then I say, okay, who wants tolead it?
Crickets.

(31:25):
You might get a kid raise theirhand, but most of the time
nobody wants to step out as a16, 17-year-old raise their hand
out of fear of what the othersmight think.
So what we just stumbled into, Idon't even remember how, but how
we do this now is once the teamsays, Yeah, yeah, we we we want
this, sounds great.
I I can see the fruit that canbe born from this, then we say,
Okay, who do you all want tolead this?

(31:46):
They know who the Christian kidsare on the team, and without
question, you'll get thesegroups of kids that start four,
five, six of them in thesedifferent groups are pointing to
this one kid.
So then we look at that kid andbe like, your teammates just
affirmed you.
They they they think you can doit, and we're gonna make sure
you can.

SPEAKER_00 (32:02):
And what better affirmation or what better way
to confirm to be courageous thanby your peers who are very who
can be very judgmental, good,good or bad, yeah, saying, hey,
you're the dude or you're thegirl to lead this.
That's all man, that's allthat's a and some like you said,

(32:23):
sometimes the the best ideas,you say you you know you think
out of the box, but sometimesthe best ideas, man, just they
just happen.
I mean, they just happen.
That's man, that yeah, that'sawesome.
So let's talk aboutaccountability.
And this goes back to I told youI was gonna mention this.
How do you measure success andaccountability in ministry

(32:43):
leadership?
And then balancing thatspiritual growth with the
organizational health.
That's the piece that's keybecause you you you you have a
mission, obviously have a veryvital mission, but in the end
you've got a 5013 C organizationthat you've got to run.
Yeah, yeah.

(33:04):
So talk about that and and andtalk about how you measure
success.

SPEAKER_01 (33:07):
Yeah, no, it's really good.
We we talk a lot about how wellfirst I'll I'll touch on the
accountability piece.
Like I think that this issomething that is sadly avoided
too often in the church world.
And it happens a lot in FCA too,where we just like, oh, just do
what the Lord has called you todo, and you know, and and we
lack a little bit of thatleadership.
Like, I am the director, andthere are some things that the

(33:29):
Lord is speaking into my heartthat he wants us to do as a
team, and that doesn't alwaysget shared with the whole team
unless I share it.
And so there is a a degree of ofthat.
And so what I have found to beeffective actually is something
Sue on our team did one day.
Uh, she said something aboutthat she felt like we were each
other's sandpaper, that wetogether as teammates smooth out

(33:52):
those rough edges in each other.
And when she said that, it wasso great because now one of
them, one of my teammates, uhgave me permission for what I
would then use as an entry intouh moments of accountability.
So what I did is walked into ameeting one time where I felt
like my team was sliding in thewrong direction.
They were drifting a little bit.
And so I walked in and I hadactually went to Lowe's and got

(34:13):
some 10 grit sandpaper, a littlepack of it.
And I walked in and I just kindof stood up at the end of the
table and I handed each person alittle square of sandpaper.
And I was just kind of smilingas I did it.
And I said, you know, Suereminded us, you know, that we
are each other's sandpaper, sowe need to have a sandpaper
moment here for a minute.
And then I, you know, calledthem out on something they were
doing that that wasn't okay, itwasn't in line with the standard

(34:34):
that we operate with and askedthem to fix that.
And the meeting went great.
You know, that that is atechnique I learned.
Thank thankfully, the Lord usedSue to do that for me.
Because as a Marine, you know,if that was a room full of
Marines, I'd stand up and itwould just be a quick
conversation.

SPEAKER_00 (34:46):
Yeah, that's an easy one.

SPEAKER_01 (34:47):
I wouldn't belittle them, I wouldn't beat them, it
would be none of those things,but it would just be a quick,
firm, hey, this ain't what wedo, fix it today.
Good, good, and we'd move on.
Like it'd be so quick.
Ministry is a little bitdifferent, you're dealing with
different people.
And so I really love thattechnique that I have now with
my team over all these yearsthat when we got to have an
uncomfortable conversation, Ijust throw a piece of sandpaper
on the table and everybodyunderstands where we're going to
do that.

SPEAKER_00 (35:07):
Everybody knows, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (35:08):
So then on the success aspect and ministry,
especially, a lot of things wedo don't always show up on a
stat sheet.
And so what we really focus onis, and again, the thing that
drives everything is the huddle.
Are we starting huddles?
Are we discipling people inthose huddles?
Are we growing those things?
Is that where our focus ofeffort is?
If anything else comes up, I'malways asking the question,

(35:29):
well, what's the cost?
And I and I don't always reallyjust mean money, but what's the
cost to my team's focus on thatone thing that is most important
for us?
And so we we filter it throughthat, but then you know,
statistically speaking, if ifwe're focused on the right
stuff, as people aretransformed, and by focusing on
the right thing, I mean lovingpeople.
Yeah, genuinely loving coachesand athletes.

(35:51):
Like accountability is notjudgment, it's it's helping them
see what the Lord who the Lordhas called them to be.
It's it's it's calling thosethings out and drawing people,
inspiring people, modeling thatfor them.
There's a technique to that thatmatters.
And if we do that well, aspeople start to change, they
play the game differently.
And as that ripples out into thecommunity, well, then it's a lot
easier to get the statisticswhere more people want to be

(36:14):
board members, more people wantto give financially, more people
want to come on staff.
I mean, I had it was two of uswhen I got started, now we're
looking at nine.

SPEAKER_00 (36:20):
People want to be associated with success.

SPEAKER_01 (36:22):
Yeah, so so we're not we're not chasing the stats.
The stats will take care ofthemselves if we chase the right
things.
It's the input versus the outputfocus.

SPEAKER_00 (36:30):
And I would say a s success standpoint as well for
you guys, and I'm sure youthought about this.
I mean, because you see it everyday.
Well, you see it, I don't knowif you see it every day, you may
see it at camp or whatever.
Your success may not be today orbe tomorrow.
You may have a kid that wentthrough FCA ten years ago, and

(36:51):
he may be becoming a youthminister.
Or down, you know, down line.
I mean, you you could see whatwas going on with him, but the
true fruits of your labor andthe FCA's labor may not be seen
for a while down down the road.

SPEAKER_01 (37:05):
As a ministry, we are one of our four core values
is integrity, right?
And so I'll give you a greatexample of of chasing the right
things, reporting the rightthings, focus on the right
things.
When I when I took a team fromour area, it was actually
Swansboro.
There's no reason to hide thatdetail, but Swansboro went to
football camp for the first timein like 2017, 18, something like
that.
And an invitation was given tothe Lord one night at camp, and

(37:27):
a bunch of guys went forward andmade decisions for Christ to
receive him as Savior andpowerful moment.
We reported that back to thecommunity like we always do.
Like, hey, you know, praise God,10 kids from Swansboro, whatever
the number was, found salvationtonight.
And well, then the next year theteam goes back.
An invitation was given toreceive Christ as Savior, and
some of the same guys wentforward.
Now, this is pre-discipleshipfocus in our ministry.

(37:49):
This was really at the time wewere a ministry that was known
for, uh, you might remember fromhaving known me this long, is
that I was just all over theplace doing devotionals for a
living.
And that's what we used to be asa ministry is just go and
present the good news of Christ.
So we'd go and do devotionals,go and do devotionals, but then
I'd walk away.
What happened after that?
We just weren't there yet as aministry.
And so it really hit me in thatmoment that I could keep

(38:11):
reporting these stats about howmany kids received the Lord and
all these things and try to wowmy community with investing us
because look at all thesenumbers.
But the numbers had some contextto it that I wasn't particularly
uh proud of.
And so we went to work to fixthat and start really focusing
on discipleship so that coachesand athletes would be firm in
their faith, they wouldunderstand what it meant when
they made that decision.

(38:31):
And then the next year when theywould be given an invitation,
this was so cool.
The third year they go back tocamp and the invitation was
given, and I saw guys that hadmade the decision the year
before staying in their seats,putting their arms around each
other, praying for theirbrothers that just went forward
to make a decision.
That's when I knew we'restarting to focus on the right
things.
And now, you know, those are thestories you can tell, which I
love to tell stories.

(38:51):
We weren't we we shifted fromreally reporting stats to
telling stories.

SPEAKER_00 (38:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (38:55):
So if you're at one of our banquets, we're not
putting slides up to talk aboutjust how many huddles and how
much money and all these thingsare just numbers to try to wow
people with data.
Because it doesn't wow people,it's pretty boring, quite
frankly.
But we tell the stories behindsome of these numbers, and uh
those are the things thatinspire behavior.
And but again, that's myfull-time job.
Sometimes it's it's tiring tokeep that enthusiasm leading the

(39:17):
way.

SPEAKER_00 (39:18):
Got four questions left, and we got to and we can
move.
But anyway, real quick, yeah.
One leadership challenge youface regularly, and how do you
tackle it?

SPEAKER_01 (39:26):
Yeah, it it's it's a simple.

SPEAKER_00 (39:28):
Is it fundraising?

SPEAKER_01 (39:29):
Well, it it is, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (39:31):
I mean Well, I'll I mean I'm you answered a
question.
I don't want to bring yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (39:34):
Yeah, I mean, fundraising is for sure the
hardest thing we do.
Yeah, you know, I'm right now II lack about a thousand dollars
a month to be fully funded to dowhat I do, and that that happens
to each of us.
It ebbs and flows throughout ourtime at FCA.
And and but nobody will reallyknow that stuff because I'm not
gonna come out and say, Woe isme, will you support me?
Because that's not theinspiration inspired giving I
want.
I want you to be inspiredbecause of what we do, not the

(39:56):
you know, and there's scripturebehind that, so I won't preach
in the moment, but ultimatelythough, that that that's a
specific example, butoverarchingly, what in whatever
ministry advancement lane we'retalking about, whether it's
ministry or boards or donors ortalent, it's it's faithfulness
in other people.
It's me trying to inspire themto do what they said they would
do or do what the Lord calledthem to do.
That's the hardest thing I do.

SPEAKER_00 (40:16):
I I phrased it and I didn't want to, and that was one
of the others I had examples Ihad, helping maintain, helping
create maintain focus ormaintaining that spiritual
momentum that exists.
Yeah.
Reflecting on your journey, FCAjourney.
One lesson, just one.
I know you got a bunch.
Yeah.
One lesson that you've learnedthat you want others to hear.

SPEAKER_01 (40:38):
Yeah, I I think it's reasonable expectations up front
that we we have to understandthe new car smell will wear off.

SPEAKER_00 (40:45):
Okay.
That's yeah, that's whatever youdo, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (40:49):
It's gonna be the it's gonna be the most exciting
and fun early on, but that willwear off.
And then you what's gonna keepyou in it is is a purpose that's
greater than the pressures toquit.

SPEAKER_00 (41:01):
Vision in the future.
I know you've got a visionlooking ahead.
What you hope with the Lord'sblessing and the Lord's hand on
it, Coastal NCFCA is here infive years, ten years, or
whatever.

SPEAKER_01 (41:16):
Yeah, it it's just being involved in every coach
and athlete's life in this area.
And it takes a bigger team to dothat.
But wherever there's a coach oran athlete, whether you are an
outdoorsman, a martial artist, abasketball player, a little kid
in a rec league, wherever youare, my hope is that the Lord
would raise up faithful peoplein every single one of those
environments that would reachout to us and say, Will you help

(41:38):
us have an environment forChrist here?
Because I I don't know every oneof those environments, and
neither does my team.
It's gonna take people that feelthis calling on their life that
I hope would know FCA to be theorganization that loves them to
a degree that we're gonna cometo you where you are.
We're gonna give you everythingyou need to grow in your walk
with Christ and grow others aswell.
And and that's the vision.
Everything in our area togetherin Christ.

(41:58):
And and we're on our way there.
I mean, there's I'll get ChrisMiller from the Daily News will
tend me, send me pictures everyonce in a while when he's at a
random baseball game.
And before the game, both teamsare praying together around the
the mound because they found outyou know, the home team found
out the away team just had a kidwhose you know dad died in a car
accident or something.
You know, and so they they praytogether.
Yeah, like that's the sportsculture that I'm really trying

(42:19):
to drive for our community.
That you know, this is a notonly a developmental place in
sports, as we all know it is,but like this is the platform
where we show the world what itlooks like to come together in
Christ.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (42:29):
So I wanted to get through those because again, the
curveball.
You mentioned the banquet.
This is a two-parter, and I wantto give you as much time to talk
about this as possible.
I grew up with him and he's agreat guy.
I want you to talk about thebanquet.
It it's it it's moved around.
Is it this is it gonna be is itthis fall or when is the
banquet?
It'll be in November again.

(42:49):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (42:50):
So he only moved it once just because of bringing in
an NBA player and get him beforethe season.

SPEAKER_00 (42:54):
So I want you to talk about the banquet, but I
want you to talk about in detailas you can, but you can't take
35 minutes to do it, about yourrelationship with I know who's
who's a very important man toyou, Roger Carroll.

SPEAKER_01 (43:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks, man.
Where do I begin with that?
This is actually in my bookbecause I thought it was so
important to share with otherpeople just what the Lord can
do.
Number one is one of ourfinancial goals in FCA is to
have is to attract what we callTom Landry associates.
And so that's a name that we putto distinctively recognize
donors who will give$10,000 ormore in a single calendar year.

(43:34):
So these are major donors, wecall them, not somebody that's
just doing$25 a month, but theseare people who have greater
capacity who really, you know,if you look at Tom Landry, he
was a game changer.
He was the kind of guy thatwould bring in impact players
and was one of the mostsuccessful coaches of all time.
So as a ministry, I'm lookingfor impact players, people that
can enable us to do what weotherwise could not do without
them.

(43:54):
All that to be said, I met Rogerat a Jacksonville football game
when Southwest was there.
You know, everybody wouldunderstand Roger's background
growing up at Southwest.
So Southwest was atJacksonville.
This might have been 2016.
And somebody introduced me tohim.
I don't know if it's one of myboard members or who it was, but
he was on the sideline by thefence, and I met him, and he
didn't seem really interested inme at all.

SPEAKER_00 (44:16):
You know, so that's a Roger, man.

SPEAKER_01 (44:19):
And I think if you know him, like maybe he was
busy, maybe he was focused onsomething else.
Maybe it's because he got up attwo in the morning like usual
and he's just tired by that timeof day.
But that year he gave SouthwestOslo a thousand dollar check, I
think, or something like that,to uh fund them to have their
warm-up uniforms to come tofootball camp.
So the team comes to footballcamp, a bunch of guys made a
decision for the Lord.
We kind of reported that stuffback, and he started to see a

(44:41):
difference in that football teamas he would observe.
Uh the next year he gave somemoney to help scholarship like
uh, I don't know, we'll sayfive, six, ten guys to come to
camp.
I think it was like it was ten,if I remember right.
Some of those ten found Christfor the first time in their
life.
And so what I had those guys dois write a thank you card to
him, a little postcard,explaining their experience at

(45:02):
camp and thanking him forensuring they could be there.
I remember today that he spreadthose out on his desk, took a
picture of it, and threw it onFacebook, you know, to kind of
tell everybody what that meantto him.
Then the next year, you know, hegave greater for the football
team again.
And then that fall is when wehad the chance to bring Tony
Dungey in to our banquet.
And he reached out to me and hesaid, Hey, can I be the title

(45:24):
sponsor of your of your TonyDungey event?
I think is what he called it.
And I said, Man, I and at thispoint I kind of knew Roger now a
little bit, but I said, Man,we've never had a title sponsor
at a bank before.
I never even gave it a gave it athought.
And so we did we talked that outand he he made an investment, a
commitment to help us uh coverall the overhead that it would
take to get him here and put upbillboards and just all these
different things to draweveryone to that event.

(45:46):
And from that point forward, hehas been the title sponsor of
our event.
But the unique part of the storyis he asked me, he said, Do you
know how many like fundraisingbanquets I get invited to
throughout the year?
And of course I didn't, and buthe educated me on something is
that, and this goes back to whatwe said earlier about like 10%
of the people doing 90% of thework.
It's at least one every singleweek of the year.

(46:07):
Somebody's asking him for money.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Now I will tell you that if youknow Roger, he's one of the
absolutely most generous menI've ever met in my life.
He get his logo, his businesslogo is on anything and
everything around here that isnonprofits, you know, school
kids, like that.
His focus is to really providefor others.
And so he tries to make sure hiscompany understands that and

(46:28):
that people that do businesswith his company understand that
it's like when you do businesswith us, there's a large
percentage of what you're payingfor actually goes to sew back
into our community.
So as he talked to me aboutthat, it caused me to start
doing some praying and thinking.
And I went back to my team and Iwas like, I don't know as if I
really want to call this a quoteunquote FCA fundraising banquet
anymore, but rather that thisevent would be this night of the

(46:50):
year that you you mentionedearlier about you know vision
and you know, mission drift andstaying connected to who you
are.
Like, we are a means in thiscommunity to bring everything
together in Christ.
That's the core purpose of whatwe do through the influence of
coaches and athletes becausewe're in athletic ministry.
But so what I wanted to do waschange this banquet from a
quote-unquote fundraisingbanquet, even though it is a

(47:10):
fundraising banquet, but what wewould call it is a game
changer's banquet.
So a game changer is someone whoaffects a significant shift in
the current manner of doingthings.
And what we were able to startdoing because of Roger just
elevated that idea of gamechanger, that this event would
be that one night a year tobring everybody together from
our community, regardless ofwhere you go to church.
And I would work overtimethroughout the year to try to

(47:31):
find a way to inspire you sothat when you walk out of that
place, one, you are on Team FCA,you understand what you were a
part of, not that you just gaveto something and walked away,
but you are a part of this, andthis is what we, all of us
together are in this for becauseit's going to take us all to
reach them all.
And and that changed everything.
That we called it the GameChangers Banquet going forward,
and and Roger's been our titlesponsor ever since.

(47:52):
We brought in a variety of hostsand really special people to
bless our community with thatotherwise you probably would not
be able to have access to.
And and I'll tell you, it'sworth saying what the Lord has
done in a way to attract thosepeople here, because I don't
have those connections.
None of these people I know.
I don't know Tony Dungeypersonally, I don't know Tim

(48:12):
Tebow personally.
The way in which the Lordcreated connections for me to
have to pitch and ask, and theway the Lord allowed me to give
him what I got.
This is how I do an ask.
This is the best I got, Lord.
You take it.
And what he did with that in thehearts of these men and women
who have come to speak with us,and what I'm trying to get to
here is say that like it didn'tcost us anywhere near what
people might think it would costus to bring these people here.

(48:34):
Yeah.
The Lord has been faithful.
And and you know, and I get alot of that criticism.
I can't believe FC had spentthat much money.
It's like you don't have anyidea what I spend on it.
So don't make assumptions.
Yeah, don't, yeah, don't yeah,don't assume.
You know, that's this is part ofthe challenge I have sitting in
the seat as a director, butyeah, the Lord has been good.
He's used Roger to help us dowhat we otherwise couldn't do
without him.
I I love that man.
So thankful for him and and anduh and Shelby as well.

(48:56):
Uh that that team over there isuh got a special piece in my
heart about it.

SPEAKER_00 (49:00):
So so so tell everybody about this year's
banquet, the date, the time,location, details, as many
details, and if they you knowwant to sponsor tickets or do
whatever.

SPEAKER_01 (49:10):
Yeah, gosh, forgive me about the date.
It's gonna be first sometime inNovember.
Pretty sure it's first MondayNovember.
Yeah, you caught it caught me.
That was a curveball step.
Yeah, that was a curveball.
But we will be back in November.
First or second Monday ofNovember is is always our date.
Uh this year, what's uniquebecause of Roger, it'll be free
to the community.

SPEAKER_00 (49:28):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 (49:29):
And I uh it's worth me sharing just real quick that
I felt like what we had donethrough bringing all these big
names in is we had started tocreate ticket prices and things
like that that made the givingthat we were getting at the
banquet more transactional thanI wanted it to be.
And I wanted to get us back tobeing relational in the in the
in the way that we receivesupport from the community.

(49:50):
And uh so this year it's free.
Doesn't matter who you are, youyou're welcome to come join us
and and hear about the last 10years and cast a vision and
allow us to cast a vision foryou about what the next 10 years
look like.
Beyond that, we don't have thosedetails exactly what the meeting
is gonna look like, but it'll befree.
It's gonna be empowering.

SPEAKER_00 (50:05):
And they'll be able to find it on your website, all
over social media and website.

SPEAKER_01 (50:09):
Yeah, the date's out there.
I just didn't sadly don't have amessage.

SPEAKER_00 (50:12):
What's your website?
What's the URL?

SPEAKER_01 (50:14):
ncfca.org.

SPEAKER_00 (50:17):
And then follow you on follow you on social media.
Yes, sir.
Well, man, this has been great.
I mean, this is this has beenamazing, you know, powerful
message.
Ken, you know, what you're doingin the community with the youth,
what your volunteers are doing,what your staff is doing.

unknown (50:30):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (50:31):
You can tell when you talk, man, it comes from the
heart.
And you know, purpose-drivenorganization with a clear
mission, clear mission, faith,and just everything that you're
doing.
It's clear that leading, thatleading with a purpose means
never leading alone too.
Always in step with God'scalling and in and in the

(50:54):
community, you know, with othersand and and with great not only
your staff and and volunteersand obviously the you know the
youth, but then when you havefolks like Roger and other
organizations, obviously Iappreciate you coming on, man.

SPEAKER_01 (51:06):
Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00 (51:07):
Thank you so much.
And listen, thanks listeners forjoining us this episode for
consulting on the couch.
Be sure to follow us at BLCConsulting LLC.com and leave a
quick review or share it withsomeone and because it's all
about stories.
And we'll again we'll go back,we'll get the details about the
banquet, get get details aboutFCA on the show notes.

(51:28):
You may have her have listenedto this and you may feel the
calling to you know to pick upthe phone, to drop an email to
Ken and his folks, or hopefullyI'm gonna have folks listening
to this saying all over thecountry.
Maybe in in your community, youknow, FCA may not be rocking and
rolling as as well as it is herein Oslo County.
Yeah.
And you can do a quick search,you know, for your local FCA.

(51:49):
But whatever it is, you know, itif you feel something, if you
feel a little tug, then youprobably need to pick up the
phone or you probably need tosend an email.
So with that said, until nexttime, I'm Steve Goodson.
Talk soon.