Competing for Christ Podcast

If you are an athlete, more likely than not you will face mental barriers, mental hurdles, and mental warfare during your time in sports. As a Christian in the athletic world, how can we face these trials through Christ? What do we do to stop the stigma surrounding getting help for your mental health? How can we stop these things before they go too far? 

Founder of Athletic Fortitude and former Division 1 football player Colin Jonov joins the podcast today to talk about conquering mental hurdles that we face as athletes. As someone who struggled with this during and following his playing days, Colin brings a wealth of knowledge into this conversation that you are not going to want to miss!

Topics for today's discussion:

• Lessons he learned from his Division 1 and professional playing career
• How to break the stigma surrounding mental health in athletics
• What athletes can do in advance to not let mental hurdles get in the way
• How people should view athletes
• His vision for helping athletes through Athletic Fortitude

Check out Athletic Fortitude: https://www.athleticfortitude.com/

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

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When the Fall occurred in this world, everything in the past, present, and future was affected by that first sin. In sports, we usually don't think about this fact, even though sin affects sports every day. Throughout the history of sports, we have seen ways that God uses them to spread His Gospel, while Satan has tried anything to create hate, destruction, and hardships in them.

On today's episode, we discuss how God and Satan use athletics and the people in them. This unique and difficult topic should teach listeners ways in which they can appreciate how Christ uses sports, while also being on guard against Satan as he tries to harm our experiences. No matter if you're playing, watching, cheering, or coaching, you can see them played out in some way.

Listen to this episode to find out three ways that God uses sports to show His glory, and three ways that Satan uses athletics to cause harm (and how to combat that harm). Each of these are crucial to know in our time as Christian athletes.

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One of the age old questions in Christianity is how do you connect with Christ and maintain that relationship. Today, we discuss how we can do this in sports and how we as athletes can learn to prioritize that connection over everything that comes with being an athlete. 

Author, pastor, speaker, and former athlete Robert Bass joins the show today to talk about this interesting topic, and what he has learned from his time as an athlete. Robert has had a unique journey in becoming a pastor, and he explains his journey a little bit in our conversation today. We also get to talk about his new book, Hidden Fruit: Receive All That God Has For You. This book is not just for athletes, but is a great resource for everyone that wants to connect with Christ in this life.

Topics for this discussion:

• How to handle frustration and failure in sports
• What Robert would do differently as an athlete
• Feeling God while watching, playing, and practicing sports
• Are athletes made specifically to play sports
• Prioritizing peace and rest in Jesus
•  “You don’t need to sacrifice when Jesus has already done that for you”

Link for Robert's new book: https://hiddenfruitbook.com/

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

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As athletes, we love to win. It’s in our blood. Whenever we step onto the court or on the field, we should expect to win because that’s why we play. But after we’re finished, what happens to that winning mindset? Should we just not expect to win anymore?

Today we get to talk with Jason Palmisano, founder of Win Your Days, Certified High Performance Coach, and former UNC Football Player. In short, Jason helps men specifically get out of bad situations and get control of their lives by using many different helpful ways, including relating our lives to sports! During our discussion today, you will see two things right off the bat: how motivating Jason is, and how passionate he is about winning in this life. 

Topics for today's episode:

• How Jason prioritized his faith as a Division 1 athlete
• Why he started Win Your Days
• Incorporating sports in becoming leaders in life
• Getting out of hard circumstances in sports and in life
• Relating spiritual health to physical and mental health

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As an athlete growing up, he struggled with identity issues like so many of us do in sports. As a college football player, he suffered a serious injury that changed the course of his experience in college. Now as a pastor, he leads a congregation of believers close to Louisville, Kentucky, and has a passion for filmmaking. So much so that he directs Christian movies that thousands, if not millions of people have seen, as a way of sharing the Gospel as part of their church outreach. 

Today we talk with Tyler Sansom, lead pastor for First Capital Christian Church/Church Anywhere and a filmmaker for First Capital Films. As a former collegiate football player, he brings a great perspective on showing Christ through athletics and not letting sports overtake your identity. Throughout the conversation we discuss a variety of topics, including:

• His relationship with sports growing up
• The importance of a good coach in athletes' lives
• Why he started making Christian films
• The true story behind his new Christian sports film "I Can"
• How God has used sports to reach others around him

Go watch the "I Can" trailer: https://fb.watch/lfjmud53tm/

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

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Today we’re talking with Coach Braxton Harris, Head Football Coach at Houston Christian University. As the new head coach of the Huskies, Coach Harris brings a fresh perspective to this conversation and a new view of culture to the HCU program.

In this interview, we’re discussing what it means to protect Christ’s brand, even in a world full of individualism, NIL money, and getting to the top no matter what. How do we show Christ through our actions, through our words, and through our play? Can we turn away from things of this world for what Christ calls us to? We discuss these questions today, along with:

• How Coach Harris is changing the culture of the HCU football program
• What protecting the brand of Christ looks like
• How to show the love of Christ through sports
• Verses and mottos that Coach Harris lives by
• Winning as a Christian in sports

New Segment:

How do you see God in sports today? Send us an email or DM on social media describing how you see Christ in the sports you watch and play for a shoutout in the next episode!

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @competingforchristpodcast

Facebook: @Competing for Christ Podcast

Twitter: @cfchristpod

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

Make sure to subscribe and follow the show!

Sports has a special place in so many of our hearts. We love the competitiveness, adrenaline, and passion that comes out of sports, but something that is undermined is how sports can be used for outreach, for finding friends (even a family), and the good that comes from playing with people that you may never meet otherwise. 

Today, we’re talking about how we as Christian athletes can use the sports that we play and watch as a way of reaching out to people and using sports to relate with people within your community. Sports Ministry Enthusiast and Professional Speaker Duane Eger joins the show to talk about this intriguing, yet important topic, what he’s learned about friendship through playing sports, and being inviting and inclusive with all who play sports.

Listen as we discuss:

• Maintaining a Christian friendship mindset in the sports that we watch and play
• An inspirational story of friendship found in sports from Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes
• Why he has a passion for sports ministry and outreach
• Sports being a way of reaching others of different values or beliefs
• How athletes can step out of their comfort zone to be inclusive to anyone that they meet in sports

New Segment:

How do you see God in sports today? Send us an email or DM on social media describing how you see Christ in the sports you watch and play for a shoutout in the next episode!

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @competingforchristpodcast

Facebook: @Competing for Christ Podcast

Twitter: @cfchristpod

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

Make sure to subscribe and follow the show!

On this episode, Kelsey Lensman, entrepreneur, sports medicine specialist, sought-after speaker, and powerlifter joins the show to talk about empowering women and a special mission that she is about to embark on. She has a passion for physical fitness, highlighting what women can do, all while showing Christ through her actions.

This year, Kelsey is doing something called Mission48, in which she is completing 48 fitness competitions in 48 days in 48 states bringing awareness to Ruling Our Experiences (AKA ROX), a non-profit that develops confident girls who control their own relationships, experiences, decisions, and futures.

Today, we discuss:

• Why Kelsey founded EmpowHER Fitness
• Advice for women about staying true to who they are
• Her calling to serve women on Mission48
• Pushing through adversity when things look bleak
• Her passion for helping women and girls across the nation
• How she incorporates her mission as a Christian into her mission for women

Check out Ruling Our Experiences (ROX)!

Learn more about Kelsey and Mission48 here!

New Segment:

How do you see God in sports today? Send us an email or DM on social media describing how you see Christ in the sports you watch and play for a shoutout in the next episode!

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @competingforchristpodcast

Facebook: @Competing for Christ Podcast

Twitter: @cfchristpod

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

Make sure to subscribe and follow the show!

1 Timothy 4:12 says  “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” For Christian athletes and coaches, what can we learn from this verse? How can we apply this to everything that we do, no matter what age we are?

Matt Davis, Vice President of Sports at Christian Sports International, joins the show to talk about this verse and how we can apply this and related topics to the sports that we love. Matt has so much experience in sports outreach and reaching youth through sports, and it was apparent throughout our conversation how passionate he is about this topic and so much more.

Listen and learn as we discuss:

• How 1 Timothy 4:12 is the cornerstone of the work that CSI does
• Be a leader no matter your age, role, or status on a team
• Trusting in others around you
• How to not get discouraged in hard situations
• “Just because we know Jesus doesn’t mean we’re fine with losing.”

New Segment:

How do you see God in sports today? Send us an email or DM on social media describing how you see Christ in the sports you watch and play for a shoutout in the next episode!

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @competingforchristpodcast

Facebook: @Competing for Christ Podcast

Twitter: @cfchristpod

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

Make sure to subscribe and follow the show!

Failure is something that no one is good at. You aren't supposed to like it, you actually hate it when it happens, but in actuality, it may help you in the long run. No matter what sport you play, you're going to fail. The only dependency is how you react to it.

Former USC and professional track athlete and World Championship medalist Candice Davis-Price comes on today to talk about turning our failures into lessons, what she’s learned about failure in her life, and what she recommends to all athletes when it comes to failure. It's so clear throughout the conversation how motivating and driven Candice is, and our conversation touches on:

• How her biggest failure positively impacted her
• Turning defeat into learning moments
• Using failure to grow closer to God and those around you
• Her continued love for coaching and running
• Psalm 73: even though our flesh and hearts may fail, God always perseveres

New Segment:

How do you see God in sports today? Send us an email or DM on social media describing how you see Christ in the sports you watch and play for a shoutout in the next episode!

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @competingforchristpodcast

Facebook: @Competing for Christ Podcast

Twitter: @cfchristpod

https://www.competingforchristpodcast.com/

Make sure to subscribe/follow the show!