The Faith Christian School athletic department desires to honor God and create a memorable experience for all involved in sporting events.

When I arrived at Faith Christian School in July 2022, all I knew was God was calling me there so I could spend time with coaches and athletes. Better yet, I wanted to break bread with them and (if invited in) disciple them. I wanted to honor God through athletics. I believed God would give me the platform to build what He wanted at Faith Christian School if I prayed and was patient. Here are the biblical precepts for our athletic department: 

Create a Christ-Centered Athletic Program through discipleship and serving all who cross your path. If Jesus were an athletic director today, He would serve everyone who entered his gym, ran on his track, or played on his field. Create an athletic program that walks out the school's mission statement through sports, shows hospitality to all, and tells everyone that our identity is in Christ.

The following are the 5 building blocks to build on our athletic program at Faith Christian School:

1. Identity in Christ – We start with a proper foundation and communicate that sports will not become an idol on our watch.
2. Safety – Now that Christ is the center of our programs, we must create a safe atmosphere and a safe program.
3. Recruit Dynamic Coaches – We must recruit men and women who understand the importance of discipleship, for, we have been given an incredible opportunity to model and develop disciples for Jesus through sports. 
4. Develop our Athletes – We will walk with our athletes and help them grow in mind, body, and spirit.
5. Impact culture – We want to positively impact the four walls within the school and outside the four walls of the school for Christ.

You see, I am an ordained minister within the Church of God denomination. I am a pastor who is privileged to be the Athletic Director at Faith Christian School. I strive to show the love of Jesus Christ to everyone I encounter at our sporting events. I want to serve, show hospitality, and ensure everyone knows that they are valuable and seen. At FCS, I emphasize to our student-athletes and coaches that their identity is in Jesus Christ above all else. They are valuable to me, but more importantly, they are invaluable to God.

As a community, we at FCS seek to welcome the fans, athletes, coaches, and officials to our sporting events. We remind them to reflect on the nature of Christ by urging them to use words of affirmation, love, and respect toward one another. The aim is that by the end of the night, we have honored God with our words, nonverbals, and actions. In doing so, we create an atmosphere of community, sportsmanship, and safety. We want them to walk away from their experience at FCS wanting to come back.

I recently received this email from an opposing team's athletic director: "Our basketball teams said that coming to FCS was the best experience they have had with sportsmanship, attitudes, and organization. They had a horrible experience the night before with dirty play and negative attitudes, so they bragged on you guys. Wow, thank you."

At Faith Christian School, one of our Basic Understandings is that competition plays a critical role in helping us to understand the Gospel and to honor God with our efforts.

Competition provides the opportunity to test ourselves with others and ourselves. Success is in the willingness to engage, the courage to compete, win or lose, and to offer one’s very best as enough. Competition can be an appropriate means of encouraging improvement and moving toward (not necessarily arriving at) excellence. To risk our ability in any area stretches us and often exposes motives driven by selfishness and pride. 

We strive to move beyond competition to deepen our students' biblical understanding of its purpose, pitfalls, and rewards. Education is not just limited to the classroom. No, coaches are educators, too, and must pour into our student-athletes. Teaching cannot occur apart from relationships. True education occurs when the teacher understands that his or her students are fellow image-bearers. Whose image should we bear? The One who created us. 

In his book Epic, John Eldredge writes: 

For when we were born, we were born into the midst of a great story begun before the dawn of time. A story of adventure, of risk and loss, heroism, . . . and betrayal. A story where good is warring against evil, danger lurks around every corner, and glorious deeds wait to be done. Think of all those stories you’ve ever loved. There’s a reason they stirred your heart. They’ve been trying to tell you about the true Epic ever since you were young. There is a larger story, and you have a crucial role to play.  

The Faith Christian School athletic department desires to honor God and create a memorable experience for all involved in sporting events. To Him be the glory!

-Greg Miller, Atheltic Director