Youth News
Brought to you by: Community Partner Aho Architects, LLC, www.ahoarch.com
On Thursday, November 15, the Hoover Met filled with athletes, students, and coaches together to hear a message of hope from former NFL quarterback, professional baseball player and SEC announcer Tim Tebow. This crowd came from all over Alabama and even as far away as Mississippi.
This night of sharing the Gospel with students began over a year ago when Birmingham Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Metro Director Coach Bill Gray had two crucial conversations that helped to birth “A Night with Tim Tebow.” The conversation that began this vision was with Louisiana FCA State Director Terry Slack. Slack shared with Coach Gray that having Tim Tebow come and speak to their students was the best event that they had ever done for the students in their community. In surveying coaches in metro Birmingham, Coach Gray asked Ramsay High School Coach Reuben Nelson what FCA could do for him. Coach Nelson shared that Birmingham needed a large rally where teams could unite under something that was bigger than their own mascots in order to hear a message of hope. Coach Gray shared these conversations with the FCA staff and board, and they began to pray that God would lead them and open the doors that He desired. Eight weeks prior to “A Night with Tim Tebow,” God answered Coach Gray’s and the FCA team’s prayers and provided the funding for this rally of hope to happen.
From his own faith journey, Tebow shared with students from Ephesians 2:10 that they were “God’s masterpiece” and He was writing a story with their lives. Tebow encouraged students that “walking by faith doesn’t mean that we know the next step, but that God knows the next step.” Coach Josh Whitt from Berry Middle School commented, “Tim did a great job tonight of reminding us on a ‘cold night’ not to have a ‘cold heart’ when it comes to Kingdom work in showing and sharing the love of Christ.” Though the impact of “A Night with Tim Tebow” will continue beyond the rally, there were hundreds of students that made decisions to follow after Jesus at the event. FCA is continuing to partner with athletes and coaches to fulfill their vision of seeing “the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.” For more information about FCA Birmingham and their ministry in our community, visit www.fcabirmingham.org.
-Rev. Ben Birdsong, Minister of Students, Meadow Brook Baptist, www.meadowbrookbaptist.org
Article brought to you by: Community Partner, www.ahoarch.com, a member of www.convenenow.com
