High School Football

The High School Football season starts this Friday and with it comes one of the greatest ministry opportunities that I have been able to be a part of. Every game day we get the opportunity to have all the football players and cheerleaders at the church to feed them breakfast.

We feed the team a variety of breakfast foods, each week being a different, but equally tasty meal. We usually have pancakes, french toast, breakfast burritos, and of course the now famous Burkette Biscuits and Gravy.

The breakfast is hosted by our church, but it is not just our church that makes the breakfast for the football players. The Pastor of the local Southern Baptist church helps out, the photographer for the local newspaper helps, and even the coaches for the football team get up extra early to come and assist in making breakfast for the football players.

I say this is one of the greatest ministry opportunities that I have been able to be a part of because really it is just that. Through this ministry we get the chance to show many of the High School students that we care about them. We get to take a moment every Friday morning to invest a little into their lives. We get to begin to build relationships with the football players, the cheerleaders and the coaches.

Because the only "church" type of thing we do is pray for the meal, some may say - well you aren't giving them the gospel or you are not telling them about Christ. It may be true that through our mouth we are not preaching to them, but through our lives and through the fact that we love and care for these kids - we are preaching to them.

Along with the breakfast, the football season also allows me the opportunity to pray with the team before they take the field on every home game. I have become the unofficial team chaplain. I greatly enjoy this opportunity as I get to lead the team in the Lord's Prayer and then offer up a prayer for them before they go out and play.

It is my hope that through these somewhat small, but significant ministries seeds will be planted in these kids lives and we will see the fruit of our labor when these kids remember what the church did for them later in life.