Father Dave interviews Jonathan Evans, author, speaker, former NFL fullback, and chaplain to the Dallas Cowboys, and talks about his football career, what moved him to pursue ministry and help his community, and his new spoken word album.
Father Dave and his guest have a little bit in common, as Father Dave points out: “I was the chaplain to a college football team, the Colorado Buffaloes. … The Buffaloes won the national championship under [Bill McCartney], and he founded the Promise Keepers, [an Evangelical organization for men]. So, since he was around there was a very strong Christian tradition on the team. … That was one of the first couple of years of my ministry … and I find that there’s so much that we talk about as Christians about community. … On a [sports] team like that, you really live it.”
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“You have to,” Evans responds, “You definitely have to. That’s what unity is. It’s found in that team atmosphere, where you have all those parts fitting together for one common goal. Unity doesn’t mean sameness of person, it means sameness of purpose. And when you have all of these different people from different backgrounds with different mothers and fathers with different character traits and different skin color — all of that doesn’t matter because they’ve got one purpose. And so they’re able to take all of those parts and body parts and put them together to score a touchdown, hopefully.”
When it comes to his new album, which blends motivational spoken word and music, Evans says: “I wanted to give something that people could ride to, listen to, and meditate to, and encouraging men, which is what we need in our culture today.”
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Father Dave says: “Primarily the message we hear on the album, and a lot of the work that you do with your father, Dr. Tony Evans, is focused on men, but I was really fascinated by the distinction that I don’t think we hear a lot in either secular or in church circles, where you say, ‘Just because you’re a male, doesn’t mean you’re a man.’ So, what do you mean by that?”
Evans explains: “I have a T-shirt that says ‘Male by birth, Man by choice.’ You’re a male simply by your gender, but that doesn’t make you a man. [Being a] man comes with responsibilities. Men are defined as males who are willing to submit themselves to the authority of Jesus Christ and letting Jesus Christ and the Word of God define his manhood, and not simply trying to define your malehood. A lot of men today have defined manhood by just being a male, by what they can do and by how buff they are — by their external traits and really ignoring the internal spirituality that it takes to really become the men that God has called us to be, which is a man following in the likeness of Christ.” (Original Air 06-09-17)
