SPRINGFIELD – Sometimes God brings together all the right people, at the right time, in the right place for something unexpected but incredible to happen. The relationship between the Missouri State University football team and the BSU this fall is an example of just that.
Campus Missionary Chris Wilson had been praying about the next season of ministry for the BSU. He had recently hired David Stone, formerly the pastor of Discipleship and Families at FBC Springfield and a board member of the BSU, to serve as the BSU’s Director of Community Engagement.
Stone’s cousin, Ben Beck, is the longtime Baptist Collegiate Ministry director at Purdue University. Before Stone took the position at the BSU, his cousin had told him about a young coach named Tyler Howat who had come to faith during college at Purdue and had recently taken a position as the graduate assistant strengths and conditioning coach at Missouri State. Beck encouraged Stone to reach out to Howat and help him find a church in Springfield. Stone did, and Howat attended his church for a while.
The first week of the fall 2021 semester, Stone ran into Howat on campus. Stone shared that part of his new role is seeing how the BSU can reach out to different campus groups. He suggested doing something with the football team. Howat agreed to talk to the coaches. Half an hour later, Howat texted Stone asking him to meet them in the weight room. There Stone met David Consiglio, the Strengths and Conditioning Coach.
The happenstance meeting came at a time when ministry to his team was burning hot in Consiglio’s heart. Consiglio was saved at a young age, but his faith journey involved many ups and downs. Football, he admits, was often more central to his life than God was.
Prior to coming to Missouri State, Consiglio held several coaching positions across the country. As a young coach and husband, “I was really immature,” he says, “I put football first.” He experienced a big wakeup call at Western Kentucky, where he coached from 2014-2017. “When I got there, I remember asking God to just let me win football games and bowl games and I’d be happy.” His first year, they made a bowl game and won. It was an incredible high, but the moment he got back home, “depression hit me like a ton of bricks,” he says.
As a child of divorce shuffled between parents throughout childhood, Consiglio was no stranger to the feeling of sadness. But “this depression was different,” he says, “like a dark cloud came over me.” One particularly poignant night, God said to him, “I gave you everything you asked for, but you’re still missing Me.”
That night sparked Consiglio to dig deeper into his faith and return to church, but “it still didn’t really click for me. I still had football on a pedestal.” Gradually, though, as he went on from Western Kentucky to other coaching jobs, transformation took place. When he got to Missouri State in early 2020, “It hit me,” he says. “Football and my job used to be the cake. Now it’s not. It’s my faith, my family, sharing the gospel. Football and wins…that’s icing on the cake.” Now, when he looks back on that season of depression, he remembers it with gratitude. “I would never wish that kind of depression on anybody,” he says. “But I know the purpose and reason why.”
Since that time, Consiglio has come to see his job as a coach through a whole different lens. “I feel like I finally found my true purpose here [at MSU],” he says. “Not as the strengths coach; it’s bigger than that…I know exactly why I’m here for this moment in time—to try to be a light in a dark world.”
At a liberal university, there is no lack for darkness. But Consiglio has found a place to shine with the football team. He’s made a commitment that “we will not go a week without prayer as long as I’m here.” They pray on Mondays before every workout. They pray before and after games. His players and fellow coaches look to him for that initiative.
When Stone and Wilson reached out about the BSU partnering with them, it was an answer to prayer for all of them to bring their lights together. “Coach Consiglio is a Kingdom-minded man, loves the Lord,” says Wilson. Remembering their first meeting, Wilson says, “he didn’t just want to feed his players physically but also spiritually.”
Wilson, Stone, and the coaches mapped out a plan to feed the football players and the coaching staff dinner on Sundays, their recovery day, during the season. Each meal, which feeds the entire team of to 130 people, is provided by local churches including Ridgecrest Baptist, Second Baptist, and Sunshine Baptist. Stone and Wilson committed to cooking the first and last meal of the season themselves. The BSU was already doing dinners on Thursdays paired with their Bible study, so they invited the team to come to those, also.
Both the Sunday and Thursday dinners have provided a context to get to know and care for the football players. “We’re trying to minister to them and love on them and be present,” says Wilson. He, Stone, and one of their ministry leaders, Blake, each meet one-on-one with a couple football players. They hope to see these relationships grow and multiply. Some of the players attend the Thursday night Bible study along with the dinners.
Coach Consiglio has been getting tickets for Wilson and Stone so that they can show their support to the players at home games as well. “Some of these kids haven’t seen their families for months,” says Consiglio. “It’s been energizing and uplifting to know that they have a safe haven to go to and people who care about them not just as football players but as individuals.”
For Consiglio, one of the most powerful aspects of these dinners has been realizing how many people are praying for the football team. “This meal has really brought in prayers upon this team that I don’t think have been here before,” he says. Recently, some of the church ladies made masks for the team, praying over the football players as the sewed each mask by hand. When he handed out the masks, Consiglio wanted his players to know, “It’s more than a mask. It’s a keepsake. There’s a group of grandmas out there that made these for you and as they were doing it, they were praying for you.”
The timing of all of this couldn’t have been more God-ordained. Because of COVID, the football team hasn’t had a chaplain. Shortly after he arrived, Consiglio started a Bible study for the players based on a book called Uncommon by Tony Dungy. He and anywhere from 10-30 players would meet in the locker room discussing priorities, life skills, character, integrity, and faith. Between his initiative in prayer and leading these studies, Consiglio unofficially carried on the role of chaplain.
Over time, that study dwindled, but God put something else on Consiglio’s heart: a coaching podcast where he could tie in his job but keep it centered around faith. “I know I’m a strengths coach,” he says, “but I want to be a spiritual strengths coach. Whatever starts in your mind creeps in your heart and eventually into your body.” The aim of his podcast is to feed his players spiritually as he helps build their bodies physically. Through the partnership with the BSU, Consiglio is hosting his podcast on their app, another way to build the connection between the football team and the ministry.
Stone and Wilson also see themselves as playing a chaplain-type role to the football team. “My heart and Chris’s heart is how can we build relationships with these guys?” Stone says. “Kind of like we’re chaplains with them. They call Chris and I ‘Pastor.’”
As Wilson reflects on this unexpected trajectory for ministry this semester, he’s filled with gratitude at God’s faithfulness. “For the Lord to bring something of this magnitude to us is incredible; we’re thankful,” he says. The possibilities and potential in reaching the football team at a D-1 school are endless.
Revival has been on Consiglio’s mind lately, and he sees the pieces falling into place for God to move in big ways. “The faith around this building and this campus in Springfield…I feel like it’s about to explode,” he says.