Blog

I just wanted to share some personal reflections as the new Major League Soccer season is now underway. After 11 seasons as team chaplain for the Colorado Rapids, there has been a lot of things (as I look back) that have happened over the years – from injuries to players, to coaching changes, to championships, and everything in between. This week, CrossTraining will change a bit too – though mainly superficial, I can sense more change coming. We will, of course, change the website look and feel, but there is more – as I read back through the couple of years of stories and shared concerns, there is something that seems to be missing, and for me it is huge.

For many years, we have tried to share the stories of what God is doing in the work amongst the professional players, coaches and staff of the soccer teams that we have served. Much of it has been in a formal way, a “professional” way. Interviews, press-release like stories, and so on have been the make-up for most of our communication to our supporters. But recently, a question was posed around hearing “the heart” of the matter, hearing how this call of God to serve these people has radically gripped my own heart and the (now) hearts of others.

While there is an important boundary to be maintained with confidentiality and trust – as I look back on the stories I have shared, I wonder, “Is there enough of my heart, and really God’s heart, shared in the lines of text and the pictures?” I think that I have felt so – but, in truth, I live out the story in a daily fashion. I know the blood, sweat, and tears that have been poured into the years of ministry. But do you see it? Do you know it?

I continue to find out how important it is to be in community – and have been blessed to, at a young age, realize how much I miss when it’s just me and my ideas. I’m not very good, to tell the truth. And while I may not know what the future looks like – from non-profit status to sharing the compelling stories – for CrossTraining, I know that with every new beginning we should look for the opportunities to change and improve. And I think there are many ways for myself and this thing that God has called me to, this ‘CrossTraining,’ which is really just a clever way to talk about serving people to do just that.

So in looking forward to the fresh change and the new beginnings, I hope that you will continue on this journey, and invite others to do the same, because while one may go quickly, with many we will go far; or, in other words, one can be easily overwhelmed, but two are good for fighting for each other, and a cord of three strands cannot easily be broken. So join me, join CrossTraining on this journey, and together with God let’s us become the three that cannot be easily broken.

Blessings,

 

 

 

Rev. Brad Kenney