Today is a day celebrated around the world - the achievements of a man in bringing a message to an island are recognized at least in some part by the faithful and even faith-less. The man? Patrick - a kidnapped, slave who endured six years of forced labor before escaping. He later would return to share a message with those who had enslaved and mistreated him. The message? A Gospel of hope, Good News, of forgiveness offered by God for all who would listen and receive. Saint Patrick, and his celebrated day of March 17, has (as many prominent figures do)  elements of his story that are legendary (some say he and his disciples once were seen as a company

The recent blog posting by American forward Robbie Rogers, who has stepped back from football, announced that he was gay. In a moving post that has been tweeted and mentioned by many in the soccer world, Rogers wrote of the pain of the secrecy that he has had to live with and the difficulty of telling and explaining to his loved ones after 25 years. Soccer, for Rogers, became an escape and a way to hide his secret - but one can sense the pain with which Rogers wrote. He describes seemingly religious attitudes prevalent as he writes, "Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently." Whilst Rogers didn't state

I recently returned from the annual conference on sports chaplaincy, held by Sports Chaplaincy - United Kingdom (or SCUK). The two day conference centered on the growing issue of Mental Well-being in Sport and there was a tremendous amount of attention on the players and coaches with a view to how the pressure of sport is impacting to the social, spiritual, mental, and other aspects of life. Aside from the main conference, though, was an undercurrent, a subtext. Even from the beginning of the conference, the issue of chaplaincy standards and accountability was an issue that was brought to the table. In all other types of positions and places, there are standards of excellence that usually accompany and accredit one

No, the post title isn't a typo. For the past three seasons, Wells Thompson has played as a midfielder for the Colorado Rapids. But Thompson is not so much known for his on the field contributions (75 appearances, 40 starts, 5 goals, 4 assists), but for his work in the community and with fans. Vocal about his faith in Jesus Christ, Thompson was a player who was a regular at the team bible study (or CoreTraining) and also in living out his faith. He was the kind of person to take extra time to pack up team lunch leftovers and distribute it to the homeless living near the stadium. He made visits to the local rescue mission to play soccer

Throughout the years, one of the questions people ask about my role as team chaplain for the Colorado Rapids is, “Do you ever kick around with the guys?” Back in the days when I served the Colorado Rapids as a Public Relations Assistant, we used to have an annual event called the “Media Cup.” Here, there were sometimes an opportunity to play small sided games with the Rapids players, coaches, and media members to help promote awareness and build interest back in a day when soccer was trying to come into its own amongst the other professional sports like the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. There was a time, too, in team history, when the Rapids trained at a facility