FCA for the win: How did the athletes score their own ministry?
Casey Burton, Sports Editor
After a long week of 8 a.m. classes and long practices, FCA gives athletes some Jesus to refuel them at the end of the week, every Friday morning.
FCA is a university affiliated organization that mainly targets athletes but is open to all students and staff of North Greenville University. FCA stands for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The athletic led ministry was not made to leave people out, but to make the door wider for athletes to grow their faith. Since athletes may not have much time to go to extra chapels or even have the time to find or become a member of a local church, FCA is time coaches purposely set aside for them.
Contrary to what some may believe, not every student that attends NGU is a Christian or agrees with the school’s Christian values. This is especially true for athletes. As athletes apply for colleges, the scholarships for the sport by each school is the main deciding factor for whether they attend a school or not. This means most athletes agree to attend NGU for the scholarship for the sport they play, not because they are a Christian.
Because of this, FCA was set in place. To give these athletes a chance to take a break from their studies and sports to spend some time getting to know Jesus. FCA meets every Friday morning, but once a month it is mandatory for all teams; called, “The big FCA”.
The FCA service is not the exact same as the normal Chapel service. FCA starts with a prayer, then followed by a game. The game is different every week and it is some kind of contest amongst members of each team to get everyone involved.
After the game, a speaker then shares God’s word. Some FCA services even count as a chapel credit, which is another good reason the non-believer athletes have to attend, other than it being mandatory.
“FCA started a few years ago and it was decided at a coaches’ meeting. They all decided that it would benefit the athletes in many different ways. It would help with team bonding, holding them all accountable and keep them motivated on and off the field. When other schools started doing FCA, it just made sense that NGU did FCA for our athletes too.” Vice President of the Athletic Department, Micah Sepko said.
FCA meetings started as a small gathering in a conference room as nobody knew how many people would attend. When more and more people would show up and the FCA meetings would grow, the location of FCA moved into the Chapel to hold everyone and all the athletic teams.
FCA has now grown into a bigger ministry, pulling in athletes to serve in their community at school, their community back home and even serve on mission trips along with other ministry groups at NGU.
Each sports team has an assigned staff member on the FCA team to serve as their “FCA mentor”. And the mentor puts together team bonding activities for the team and allows them to get closer with the mentor, leading them towards a Christ-like relationship and example for the teams.
