CXT Board Chair Cliff Burton shows off his archery skills.
Three years, nearly to the day, CrossTraining held its annual retreat just before the Colorado Rapids home opening match against the Portland Timbers. CrossTraining team members and board advisors gathered in the mountains to pray and discuss the future of the ministry as the 2011 Major League Soccer season was about to get underway. The time together wrapped up with the game in which the Rapids beat the Timbers 3-1.
Deshorn Brown scored in the Rapids 2-0 defeat of the Timbers.
Last night, driving home after the Rapids won 2-0 against the same Timbers, I reflected on the game, the 2014 retreat that had just wrapped up and the ministry of CrossTraining, with an overwhelming sense of deja vu. In some ways, I wondered just how far CrossTraining had come and whether the last few years had been just a blur for the ministry. Let me share some of my thoughts:
First, I was sad that Ben Dudley (chaplain with the Portland Timbers) wasn’t still with CrossTraining. I recall the neat time we shared together in the same retreat house, the energy that we felt from partnering together and sharing vision and passion around providing care for the athletes and coaches that we served. The retreat was a time of bonding and building.
But while Ben wasn’t with us this year – there were other, new faces; relationships being formed – Cody Baker, Hugo Venegas, Bob Grizzle. So in the moment of sadness, I found a sense of joy and comfort, and thanks. God, you’ve brought other people into my life, to share in the ministry and the work – thank you.
Second, the beauty of the place – if you have seen the pictures, then you know that we enjoyed some of the finest views of God’s creation. Each and every year that I have been at the Columbine Ranch and the Kenosha House, I have been awed by the views of the mountains and the beauty of Colorado as well as the history of the house and South Park.
As I sat by the fireplace reflecting on the beauty of the place, this song came to my mind. The words are a powerful expression of some of the feelings that come during times of rest and retreat. We definitely need mountain-top experiences, but the truth is that we live and dwell in the valleys. And we come back home and to the ministry to the Rapids, I asked, Lord, what things; what difficult things will you be leading me and others through in the valley?
Finally, in looking back to 2011, there was a different kind of energy and excitement – the Rapids had just won the 2010 MLS Cup, we had an expanding team, there were a couple of board advisors present with us. This year – there was not the same feeling of success on the field to speak of, but there was a sense of momentum as an organization: three team members (out of four) and three board members (out of four). We prayed together, shared together, grew together in our understanding of one another and our commitment to the ministry.
Sometimes God calls us to walk in ancient paths that seem familiar to us – in fact, he tells us to look for those ancient ways and to walk in them (Jeremiah 6:16). And even though this past weekend carried a sense of the familiar, it’s familiarity has more to do with seeking God. For CrossTraining to carry on and continue, we need to lean heavily into what his will and the work that he is doing. And, God willing, he will bless it as we look to him.
Blessings,
Rev. Brad Kenney
Firsts. This season, the Colorado Rapids will encounter many firsts – moments where the team and organization find themselves as never before. For example, 2014 is the first season that the team is being coached by a former player (
As a chaplain, much of my role is to remind people of 
After a Houston Chronicle article in 2009 declared the city of Juarez, Mexico the “most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones”1 most Americans and many Christian mission organizations stopped travel and efforts to help the poor of the estimated 1.5 million people who call the city home. The violence spawning from the drug cartel wars has claimed many lives and mission work in the city was deemed too risky. But there were a few organizations that still dared to carry on the work – meet 
Recently, Steve McConaghie, a pastor at Cherry Hills Community Church was invited to sit on 
I had the privilege of attending portions of the recent ID camp held for Colorado high school student athletes at Valor Christian High School this past week. The camp was put on to give students and college coaches an opportunity to be observed in hopes of receiving scholarships or invitations for possible openings on college teams. Of the 100-some students and 25- some college coaches participating in the event, there was an air of anticipation and hope – perhaps this might be an opportunity to receive an offer from a college to study and play the sport that they had come to love.
As I reflected further, I was reminded of the life of Jesus and his own ID’ing that took place as he set out to begin ministry. We read in Luke 6:12 that Jesus spent some intentional time praying to God before he chose the twelve men that would walk closest with him while he was here on earth (maybe you are thinking about the 11 true apostles – but I am not trying to make soccer team parallels here, honest). From history, scholars surmise that these apostles and disciples that Jesus called were probably young men – maybe even teenagers, who having not made the grade for further religious instruction were settling into life as tradesmen (fishermen, tax collectors and more).
Of course, as team chaplain, I see similar moments when professional athletes and coaches and staff face decisions that are seemingly monumental – choices about career, family, retirement, contractual negotiations, and other life issues can be difficult to discern and choose the correct path. These are moments – moments when we are looking toward the future – that we ought to seek God. We need to find mountain top moments and spend nights praying to God about what we ought to do. And in those spaces, we need to listen and hear the voice of God so that we might make wise choices, wise decisions because we cannot accurately ID the future on our own.
If you know anything of the Greek word uses for love – there were four: 
Part of my personal experience with this was when the Colorado Rapids won the Major League Soccer Championship game in 2010. I was there, on the field, as the players and coaches their families and the fans celebrated the first championship in team history (still one of only two championships to come to Colorado since those ’98 Broncos – National Hockey League Av’s in 2000-1 being the other). It wasn’t 45 minutes after leaving the field that coaches were having to determine which players on the roster would be unprotected for the MLS expansion draft – players didn’t even get to celebrate the championship before being told that they might be traded or waived.
Recently, the Colorado Rapids cleaned house – boxes of used team gear were simply taking up too much space in the confines of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and after the annual “garage sale” for Rapids fans, there was still plenty left over. That’s when team staff contacted Rapids Chaplain Brad Kenney. The text message read:
Chaplain Venegas sprang into action – putting some messages out to contacts in Costa Rica. Is there anyone who could use some team gear and equipment for their church or a local team? Pretty soon, Chaplain Venegas had 4 different project requests coming out of Costa Rica – a player training with a team in hopes of getting a contact in Major League Soccer, a church group praying for new team uniforms, and a couple of reservations with poor, indigenous people. As Chaplain Kenney opened the boxes, it was almost too overwhelming…Do you have an idea of sizes? (read a text message to Venegas).
I just remember looking at all the boxes in my living room, my children were trying to help me sort and count, and I panicked – what were we gong to do with all of the gear? Will we have enough? Too much?