121 Stories - Coaching with a Purpose
A football coach shares what servant leadership looks like in action.
Mike Alexander
Apr 4, 2020 5m
In this message a football coach talks his own spiritual growth. He then shares examples of what servant leadership looks like in action when coaching his team. Video recorded at Grapevine, Texas.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Mike Alexander: 00:01 My story is probably not uncommon for a lot of kids that grew up in the church. You know, my dad was my youth pastor, my dad was a traveling evangelist prior to that. And my mom was a stay at home mom, she loved Jesus, taught my brother and I, you know, biblical truths from the time we were little, and, you know, that's how I grew up.
Mike Alexander: 00:33 I would say like many kids in my shoes growing up in the church, there were periods of my life in high school where, you know, I was walking closely with Christ, and there were times where I wasn't. And then I'll never forget the two big turning points in my life. After high school, once I left the nest, you know, and had to make decisions for myself. I was in college playing football, and I was at an FCA event and the guy leading the event at the end of the service said that there's somebody here that you feel like doesn't know Christ, you need to get him down here to the front right now. And one of our offensive lineman came up and put his arm around me and man, you talk about gut punched. I felt like how in the world have I known this guy for two years and he thinks that I don't know Christ. That was a real low point in my life.
Mike Alexander: 01:40 And that night, you know, I'd just started dating my wife. And from that point, you know, I told her, I said, man, I've got to make some changes in my life. And so we committed right then, you know, as a dating couple that we're going to get involved in church, and we were going to start doing the things that we were taught to do when we were growing up.
Mike Alexander: 02:03 We get out of school, get married, and start to have kids. And we're out in Abilene, Texas, coaching
football, and Mandy is staying at home. And a lady in our Bible study class that was friends with us, invited Mandy to a group called BSF. And Mandy goes, and, you know, she starts going to this Bible study. And next thing I know she's always studying her Bible and she's working on it constantly, she's got study notes and she's answering questions, and I saw how it was transforming her and changing her, just studying the word of God. And so the next semester she talked to me about it, and I agreed to get involved in the BSF class. It became more real, and looking at and learning how to study verse by verse was a revolutionary thing in my eyes. So that was the beginning of it. And then fast forward, a couple later, I get a chance to go back to my hometown in Rockwall and a guy hired me by the name of Scott Smith. And Coach Smith became my spiritual mentor in many, many ways. He showed me what it looked like to have a daily quiet time.
Mike Alexander: 03:13 Those events of Mandy, my wife's joining BSF and encouraging me to start learning how to study the Bible, and then Coach Smith, one of my former supervisors, show me what it looks like to have a daily quiet time. Those two things have gotten me where I am today in terms of my spiritual development and my walk with Christ.
Mike Alexander: 03:34 Life is life. You know, as an educator, you have to be who you are. and I am who I am. And I'm fortunate to work in a place where I'm allowed to be who I am. You know, I don't believe in forcing faith down anybody's throat, but also believe that God created us all to serve others and serve him. And in doing so, I think you gotta be yourself. We just talk about love in our field house a lot, and loves tough. And so we tell our kids that, "For there's no greater love than this, than for a man to lay down his life for his friends.", and that was Christ talking in the Book of John. And that helps us and our team understand that, you know, the ultimate act of love was given by Christ. And then we can demonstrate that love by how we serve others, and how we care for each other in our locker room. And you know, we don't miss the chance to tell our kids that we love them. We say that love's a tough word, there's nothing soft about it, there's no tougher man that walked the face earth than Jesus Christ. We just do life, it is what it is.
Mike Alexander: 04:48 Serving is extremely important in our family, we're constantly talking to our kids about where are you serving now? What's next? Okay, you finished this, now what's the next opportunity that you can find to serve. And that's one thing we definitely love about 121, and we're encouraging our kids to grab a corner. We stood out there last weekend and just stared at all the many opportunities, and we didn't leave until all the kids had a place where they could serve next year. And that's one of the beautiful things about 121, it's a community, and they afford us the opportunity to come in and join hands with each other and make a difference.
Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.
Mike Alexander: 00:33 I would say like many kids in my shoes growing up in the church, there were periods of my life in high school where, you know, I was walking closely with Christ, and there were times where I wasn't. And then I'll never forget the two big turning points in my life. After high school, once I left the nest, you know, and had to make decisions for myself. I was in college playing football, and I was at an FCA event and the guy leading the event at the end of the service said that there's somebody here that you feel like doesn't know Christ, you need to get him down here to the front right now. And one of our offensive lineman came up and put his arm around me and man, you talk about gut punched. I felt like how in the world have I known this guy for two years and he thinks that I don't know Christ. That was a real low point in my life.
Mike Alexander: 01:40 And that night, you know, I'd just started dating my wife. And from that point, you know, I told her, I said, man, I've got to make some changes in my life. And so we committed right then, you know, as a dating couple that we're going to get involved in church, and we were going to start doing the things that we were taught to do when we were growing up.
Mike Alexander: 02:03 We get out of school, get married, and start to have kids. And we're out in Abilene, Texas, coaching
football, and Mandy is staying at home. And a lady in our Bible study class that was friends with us, invited Mandy to a group called BSF. And Mandy goes, and, you know, she starts going to this Bible study. And next thing I know she's always studying her Bible and she's working on it constantly, she's got study notes and she's answering questions, and I saw how it was transforming her and changing her, just studying the word of God. And so the next semester she talked to me about it, and I agreed to get involved in the BSF class. It became more real, and looking at and learning how to study verse by verse was a revolutionary thing in my eyes. So that was the beginning of it. And then fast forward, a couple later, I get a chance to go back to my hometown in Rockwall and a guy hired me by the name of Scott Smith. And Coach Smith became my spiritual mentor in many, many ways. He showed me what it looked like to have a daily quiet time.
Mike Alexander: 03:13 Those events of Mandy, my wife's joining BSF and encouraging me to start learning how to study the Bible, and then Coach Smith, one of my former supervisors, show me what it looks like to have a daily quiet time. Those two things have gotten me where I am today in terms of my spiritual development and my walk with Christ.
Mike Alexander: 03:34 Life is life. You know, as an educator, you have to be who you are. and I am who I am. And I'm fortunate to work in a place where I'm allowed to be who I am. You know, I don't believe in forcing faith down anybody's throat, but also believe that God created us all to serve others and serve him. And in doing so, I think you gotta be yourself. We just talk about love in our field house a lot, and loves tough. And so we tell our kids that, "For there's no greater love than this, than for a man to lay down his life for his friends.", and that was Christ talking in the Book of John. And that helps us and our team understand that, you know, the ultimate act of love was given by Christ. And then we can demonstrate that love by how we serve others, and how we care for each other in our locker room. And you know, we don't miss the chance to tell our kids that we love them. We say that love's a tough word, there's nothing soft about it, there's no tougher man that walked the face earth than Jesus Christ. We just do life, it is what it is.
Mike Alexander: 04:48 Serving is extremely important in our family, we're constantly talking to our kids about where are you serving now? What's next? Okay, you finished this, now what's the next opportunity that you can find to serve. And that's one thing we definitely love about 121, and we're encouraging our kids to grab a corner. We stood out there last weekend and just stared at all the many opportunities, and we didn't leave until all the kids had a place where they could serve next year. And that's one of the beautiful things about 121, it's a community, and they afford us the opportunity to come in and join hands with each other and make a difference.
Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.
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