From the Touchline

We are celebrating the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup being co-hosted by Australia and New Zeland. For the next five weeks, the podcast will feature a devotional reading from Soccer Chaplains United’s new devotional book, Five Women You Meet in Faith and Football. This five-week, daily devotional looks at the lives of five women who appear in Jesus’ lineage — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.

This week, we look at Tamar. And, specifically, we look at the side of her that displayed a brilliant tactician (Day 3). Have you ever thought about how crafty Tamar needed to be in order to see justice happen? Well, that’s just part of our consideration for today’s podcast. Listen to hear and reflect more.

Click here to get a copy of Five Women You Meet In Faith and Football.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in 1 week! We wanted to share about the new Soccer Chaplains United devotional book, Five Women You Meet in Faith and Football. This five-week, daily devotional looks at the lives of five women who appear in Jesus’ lineage — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. We encourage you to get a copy (ebook or print) of the book before the start of the tournament.

Click here to get a copy of Five Women You Meet In Faith and Football.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

In today’s Lesson from Lasso we watch AFC Richmond Owner, Rebecca, comforting and consoling Coach Ted Lasso outside of the karaoke bar where he’s having a panic attack. We know Rebecca has her own relationship pain and its from this pain that she’s able to help Ted “bear up” under the hurt of divorce.

Henri Nouwen, the Dutch Catholic priest, uses the term “Wounded Healer” in his book entitled, The Wounded Healer, of several years ago. In it he describes that the starting point for helping others comes from our own pain and loss. We are all called to be wounded healers. It’s something that the Apostle Paul writes about in II Corinthians 1:3-7. Listen to the podcast today, to hear a bit more on what it’s like to be a wounded healer.

Ted Lasso, the immensely popular streaming TV show is about to being its third season on Apple TV+ features the antics and quirky, Coach ‘Ted Lasso.’ Lasso first appeared a number of years ago as a comedic character as NBC purchased the broadcast rights to the English Premier League. Played by Jason Sudeikis, Lasso (as a coach) brings change to the difficult football (soccer) team that he has traveled overseas to coach.

In the ‘Lessons from Lasso’ series, I (Rev Brad) look at some of the different life learning points brought up in the show from a chaplain’s point of view.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in 2 weeks! We wanted to share about the new Soccer Chaplains United devotional book, Five Women You Meet in Faith and Football. This five-week, daily devotional looks at the lives of five women who appear in Jesus’ lineage — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. We encourage you to get a copy (ebook or print) of the book before the start of the tournament.

Click here to get a copy of Five Women You Meet In Faith and Football.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Today’s Lesson from Lasso is a bit of a milestone, Lesson 50 and it might sound familiar — truth-telling. We talked about it way back in lesson 27 (originally airing April 6, 2022). But that kind of truth-telling was the soft, gentle, and compassionate type. You know the moments — letting someone know they have food in their teeth or that their breath might need a little bit of freshening up.

Today, in this Lesson from Lasso, we watch as “Nate the Great” delivers the pre-game talk to the AFC Richmond team and calls out some of the players for their lack of drive and spirit (with some not so gentle speech). There are times when courageous truth-telling is called for! The in-your-face kind of confrontation when there isn’t going to be an easy way to handle things. We take a look at a moment back in the history of Israel when a Nathan also had to confront (King David, in this instance).

Ted Lasso, the immensely popular streaming TV show is about to being its third season on Apple TV+ features the antics and quirky, Coach ‘Ted Lasso.’ Lasso first appeared a number of years ago as a comedic character as NBC purchased the broadcast rights to the English Premier League. Played by Jason Sudeikis, Lasso (as a coach) brings change to the difficult football (soccer) team that he has traveled overseas to coach.

In the ‘Lessons from Lasso’ series, I (Rev Brad) look at some of the different life learning points brought up in the show from a chaplain’s point of view.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Today, we get into Episode 7, Season 1 and Lesson 49 in our Lessons from Lasso series. The scene fixates on Coach Lasso as he downs a couple of whiskies from the mini-bar in an effort to anesthetize himself from the emotional pain of taking the final steps in signing divorce papers — an ultimate sign of divorce. Lasso isn’t the only one in the episode who is numbing the dark parts of his soul — others use language, sex, and a whole host of other means to “cover” the deep pain that they feel.

Today, in this Lesson from Lasso, I reference a phrase written by contemporary therapist and author, Brené Brown. In her book, Gifts of Imperfection, she writes of her research and her own story that we cannot selectively choose which emotions to dull. When we dull the painful ones, we also dull the good ones. Brown comes to the conclusion that spirituality and connection are imperative for healing and resilience. I go one further and offer some language from the Apostle Peter that might help us in seeing how our faith might help us with our painful, dark emotions.

Ted Lasso, the immensely popular streaming TV show is about to being its third season on Apple TV+ features the antics and quirky, Coach ‘Ted Lasso.’ Lasso first appeared a number of years ago as a comedic character as NBC purchased the broadcast rights to the English Premier League. Played by Jason Sudeikis, Lasso (as a coach) brings change to the difficult football (soccer) team that he has traveled overseas to coach.

In the ‘Lessons from Lasso’ series, I (Rev Brad) look at some of the different life learning points brought up in the show from a chaplain’s point of view.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Lesson 48 in our Lessons from Lasso series and we’re talking about Jamie Tartt getting canceled. Coach Lasso and Beard have done a lot of work to try to reform the prima donna striker and get him to buy into the concept of “team,” but just when it seems like they’ve gotten through to the young man Owner Rebecca Welton undoes the work by agreeing to send Jamie back from his loan agreement to the chagrin of Ted.

Today, in this Lesson from Lasso, we look at what happens when we go from arrogance to humility and the different points in between as we look at the biblical life of Joseph. You might know him — he was the one with the “technicolor dream coat” and his journey had so many twists and turns, ups and downs — much like a footballer or manager that chases the dream to stay relevant in the beautiful game.

Ted Lasso, the immensely popular streaming TV show is about to being its third season on Apple TV+ features the antics and quirky, Coach ‘Ted Lasso.’ Lasso first appeared a number of years ago as a comedic character as NBC purchased the broadcast rights to the English Premier League. Played by Jason Sudeikis, Lasso (as a coach) brings change to the difficult football (soccer) team that he has traveled overseas to coach.

In the ‘Lessons from Lasso’ series, I (Rev Brad) look at some of the different life learning points brought up in the show from a chaplain’s point of view.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Jared Watts played professional soccer for the Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. His pathway of coming into pro soccer came through his time spent at IMG Academy and later at Wake Forest University. He had to endure a few injuries and needed to lean on the support of others doing key moments in life.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, is the finale in our three-part series with Jared. He shares more about the work that he is doing today and we get in a fun game of Crosses with Rev. Jared leaves us with a word for parents and grandparents on how they can encourage younger athletes and soccer players today with a poignant reminder about where their identity truly lies.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Jared Watts played professional soccer career for the Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. His pathway of coming into pro soccer came through his time spent at IMG Academy and later at Wake Forest University.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, is part two of three in our conversation with Jared. He shares about his ACL injury that happened while he was away from home at IMG and some of the helpful people that were part of his journey including the chaplain and his own grandfather.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Jared Watts, also known as “Wattsy,” is a corporate recruiter and he finished his professional soccer career a few years ago after playing for the Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. In a three-part series, he reflects on some of his journey and we hear about his story which includes time spent at IMG academy in Florida — which back in the day was a special training environment for top soccer players in the US.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, is part one of three in our conversation with Jared. We catch up a little bit and Jared gives us a little bit of insight into what it was like living at IMG — playing soccer and doing school in a very competitive and intense environment.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.