CSU Holds First FCA Rally Of The Year

CHARLESTON S.C. : Charleston Southern University held its first FCA rally event of the 2011 school year. Student-Athletes and coaches met in the Gold Room of the cafeteria for a night of fellowship, hearing a sermon by Jon Davis, CSU Team Chaplin and spiritual mentor.

The event started with a push-up contest, pitting Head women’s basketball coach Julie Goodenough against assistant football coach Gabe Giardina. Although coach Gairdina had an impressive showing with 61, it was not match for coach Goodenough’s 70.

After the contests were through, assistant football coach Marcus Woodson grabbed the microphone and said a prayer to lead into Pastor Davis’s sermon.

Davis opened with a question, “what makes what you do worth wild?” He described the pain, suffering, and hardships that each athlete goes through everyday, but asked why they do it. The crowd shouted out that winning was the ultimate goal for all of the pain.Pastor Davis then asked the question again, but cited Corinthians 1 for the answer, “everything we do we do for the Lord.”

A video clip with New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady brought up the sentiment that even with everything in the world, there is always something more out there, something missing. This led into Pastor Davis’s message, the message of perspective.

Pastor Davis went back to his original point of why we do what we do, and described that most people do things with a temporal perspective (to win a championship, MVP award etc.) This perspective will leave a person feeling empty, and in order to fill the void we must start looking and acting with an eternal perspective. He went on to describe an eternal perspective as doing what you do in order to glorify God. Pastor Davis said it is important to live this way so that when a person passes away, all of their hardships will be looked at like Heaven because they were glorifying the Lords name. “Win, lose or draw we must play for an eternal end,” Pastor Davis commented.

The sermon ended with a description of the four steps in knowing God. First was encountering Christ, and then growing in Christ, being close to Christ, and finally being centered in Christ.  Pastor Davis then asked each athlete to put down what stage they were in, and gave an opportunity to each of them to learn more.

The ceremony ended with CSU tight end and recently saved Christian-Carson Leshin leading the room in prayer.

The event was a success, “it was really cool to have all the athletes in here to hear Pastor Davis’s message, it gives us the ability to explore our faith,” volleyball player Carley Reiter said.