• Josh Bailey has a pastors heart. Josh also is coach and enjoys sports — namely basketball and soccer. In his time as both coach and pastor he has for awhile now, been prayerfully considering ways to combine soccer and sharing about Jesus; being Jesus. He's had previous opportunities to do serve as a chaplain in the past. Josh served as a chaplain with a men's college basketball team before — traveling with athletes, attending practices, leading chapel services, and meeting with people one-on-one for spiritual and emotional support. It's from that experience that Josh knows the many opportunities that can come when investing in the lives of people and he has been sensing it's time to be more active doing that type

    Feb 21,
  • Jordan Rivera recently completed the process to being serving as a volunteer chaplain to New Mexico United, a team playing in the United Soccer League — Championship (USL-C) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. USL-C is part of the second division of professional soccer in the United States and New Mexico United has, historically, been one of the stronger and more exciting teams to play in the league independent of any Major League Soccer (MLS) club affiliations. Established in 2018, NMU is a constant contender in the Western Conference of what is USL-Championship Jordan, originally from Ecuador, was tabbed by current volunteer chaplain Clint Moore to help assist with Spanish-speaking needs throughout the organization — from the first team through the academy. Growing up,

    Feb 07,
  • While it wasn't on my radar, 2023 is starting with a slight feeling of being behind the proverbial 8-ball. As we near the end of the month of January there is a growing list of chaplain candidates waiting for interviews and processing for part of Soccer Chaplains United. For some chaplain candidates, they are already in place and in position and might simply be considered "transfers." The early encouragement from the Pro Soccer Chaplains Association is for independent and unaffiliated chaplains to align with a founding organization. For some of those chaplains, we are a better fit than others. But beyond what we might call "transfer growth" has been the numerical growth of the game as well as the increase

    Jan 24,
  • Tonight, I embark on something a little bit new and different — I will help facilitate an online course with Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary. The course, entitled, Soul Care in Sports, is developed by Professor Cindy White. She, along with husband John, helped to co-found the Faith and Sport Institute and teaches part-time with the university. The Soul Care in Sports class is part of the degree plan for the Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies. The course has a number of residential as well as online students participating in the class. Baylor's Truett Seminary is one of the few seminaries in the US offering a sports ministry and sports chaplaincy focus for learning. As I

    Jan 23,
  • TBH, when Billy Cerveny called and told me that he was going to need to move to Jacksonville, FL I was discouraged. It takes a tremendous amount of time, energy, and relational capital to discover, develop, and deploy a chaplain and the higher the level (especially within the elite, professional ranks) the more that seems to be at stake and the more things that could go wrong. So, fighting back the tears and fears (yes, I believe God is sovereign), Billy and I began searching earlier this year for candidates that might be able to be a fit with Nashville SC. A short list of names cropped up. "What about _______?" I asked. "No, I don't think that person will

    Nov 11,

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