Christian Connections: The Fellowship of Christian Athletes aims to strengthen the bonds between East students

Build the community. The number one goal of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The East FCA has the goal of giving student-athletes a place to build a strong Christian community with other athletes —  not just people they see at church. They plan to do this with weekly meetings, group prayers and religious testimonies.

Sophomore Christian Tippie is one of the founding members of the FCA at East, and has been a dedicated christian all his life.

“It’s to show people that they don’t have to be alone,” sophomore and FCA leader Christian Tippie said. “So they can know that [God] loves them.”

According to Sophomore and FCA leader Jacob Lien, one of the things that makes the FCA so convenient for athletes is that their meetings are in the mornings, as opposed to most other clubs — including East’s other religious club, Club of Christ, which is held after school.

“The problem with [Club of Christ] is that is happens during practices,” Lien said “So not a lot of people can attend. This is way more athlete oriented.”

Meetings start with reading a bible passage and then students share what that passage means to them or how it applies to their life. The meeting concludes with a prayer.

The first FCA meeting is scheduled for Tuesday Oct. 8 at 7 a.m. in the East weight room. 

The FCA is still in its early stages, as it’s still finalizing all of the paperwork necessary to be a club at East. However once they get started, Lien and Tippie hope that they will be able to bring more people together in the following weeks, months and even years and even beyond their graduation.

“The hope is that [FCA] grows in numbers and more [in]depth of discussion,” Tippie said. “To bring out a unity among believers and non-believers to really just deepen the relationship with God and other people as well.”

They also hope that students who attend the first meeting will invite their friends as well, as that’s their main way of growing, according to Lien.

However, in terms of short term goals, the FCA just intends to make the club more popular as it starts up.

“We want to get more people coming,” Lien said “Not just by people telling their friends about it but also through posters, advertisements and our Instagram page.”

Simply stated, the goal of the FCA is to show students of East that God is always there for students who feel alone.

“We want to show people that who are lost that there’s a god out there who loves them,” Tippie said.