Transcript for Hustle & Heat Episode 15

00:00:04
What’s up, guys, and welcome back to Episode 15 of Hustle and Heat Podcast, where we bring the community together one public official, one entrepreneur, and one business owner at a time.Today, I’d like to welcome a special guest — a nice guy, and somebody everybody knows around town. He’s part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and he’s also involved with The Back Nine. Without further ado, I’d like to welcome Mr. Tom Parker.

00:00:28
Thanks for inviting me, man. A lot of people don’t call me a nice guy — probably because I’m not from Jersey or New York.

Sometimes he’s nice. Sometimes you’ve got to brown nose a little bit.

Tell us about yourself, man. Thank you for coming on. Tell us what you do, who you are, and a little about Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

00:00:54
Honestly, all you had to say was, “Hey, do you want to come to Dubz?” You didn’t have to tell me anything about the podcast. I would have shown up just for the smell in here.

And then about 20 minutes ago, he brought out this fresh key lime pie they made here, and I’ve been waiting to eat it. He told me I had to wait until we started, so I’m taking my first bite now.

Oh my gosh.

It’s good, right?

It’s so good.

We hired a guy who moved here from Maryland. He’s got good experience, and he made this for us. This is my first time trying it today. It’s not bad. Pretty good.

Pretty good?

It’s pretty incredible. I’m not even really a dessert guy, but that crust is amazing. You can taste the butter in the bottom.

He made that crust himself.

Yeah, it’s really good stuff.

So we’re going to put that on the menu real soon. Shout out to Shiv.

00:01:43
So tell us about yourself, Tom. What do you do? Tell us about Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Absolutely. First, thanks again for letting me come be a part of this. It’s been a pleasure to be in this community for so long — close to 16 years now here in Charlotte County.

God has just been opening doors for us. I came here with another ministry years ago and spent about a dozen years with them. Then about four years ago, God opened the door for me to come on staff with Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Our mission is really to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes. The goal is to help them meet Jesus and then get plugged into local churches.

Right next to you guys here in North Port is one of our local churches, the North Port campus for New Day. Pastor Rusty is a great pastor. He’s been a huge influence on the Port Charlotte High School football team. He and his staff have been going there every week for maybe seven or eight years, pouring into the lives of those kids.

One of the really cool things that happened about four years ago when I started was that Port Charlotte came to our first FCA football camp. The kids got to learn football, spend time with their coaches, and grow together on the field. But when they came back, 26 kids had met Jesus.

Pastor Rusty, Coach Ingman, and some of the others were able to baptize those kids in front of their families. It was a really cool experience. Every year since then, they’ve continued to see things like that happen after going to FCA camp.

For us, we get to come alongside coaches and athletes and really share the Gospel with kids, which is where my heart is.

00:03:39
Do you mind if I read a verse?

Yeah, go ahead.

One of my favorite verses is found in 1 Thessalonians 2. It says, “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only the Gospel, but our lives as well.”

When I hear that verse, I think about how even though we may have great barbecue, great events, or great services, the heart of our ministry is spending our lives alongside coaches and athletes so they can meet our best friend, Jesus, through the way we live.

That’s what we do, and I’m super excited because we’ve got some really cool events coming up.

And putting you on the spot a little, I’d love for Dubz to be one of our sponsors for our NFL tournament coming up. You get to hang out with NFL players.

We’ll make it happen.

We’ll make it happen.

The sponsorship starts at $100,000.

How much?

I’m kidding, I’m kidding.

Get him out of here right now.

No, really, they start at $750 and up.

We’ll definitely be a sponsor, man.

00:05:04
If you’re not familiar with it, we have this great opportunity in April where we bring in NFL players. We’ve got about 25 NFL players involved. We’re talking with Quinn Ewers right now. He’s in Miami now as a backup quarterback and played out of Texas.

We’ve also had guys like Dave Wanstedt involved before. We’ve reached out to Danny Wuerffel again this year. Every year we try to get Danny, and one of these years we’ll make it happen.

There are a lot of great names connected to it — John Hall, who’s a local kicker from this area and played for the Jets. He still lives here and is coaching now at Port Charlotte High School.

We’ve also been in touch with Darren Perry, David Marshall, Ernest Graham, Greg Lloyd, Steve Avery, Jim Hart, Joe Odom, Kenny Shaw, and Burton Lawless.

Burton Lawless was an All-American here at Charlotte High School before going on to play for the Dallas Cowboys. A lot of people may not realize that. He was a standout lineman here before going to college and then on to the NFL.

We’re hoping to get him involved again. And Buddy Curry, who played linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, moved into the area about a year ago. You see him now and think he’s this loving, friendly guy — but he wasn’t exactly that on the field.

There are a lot of great guys we’re connected with.

00:07:40
Is there any way the public can get involved, or is this just private?

No, it’s for everybody. Anybody who wants to be part of it can come. It’s October 17th and 18th. Friday night is a big draft party, and we’re doing it at The Back Nine.

Which I’d love to talk about too. The Back Nine has been an incredible opportunity for us.

My friend Chris Schultz and I were sitting around talking about golf simulators in this area and whether it made sense to open another one. There’s another one in town, so we were trying to decide if it was feasible.

Eventually, we pulled our retirements together and said, “Let’s go after it.”

And I honestly believe it’s probably the best indoor golf facility from Naples to Tampa as far as the finished product goes. The Full Swing setup is fantastic. It’s a lot of fun.

For me, it’s been different because I’ve spent so much of my life investing time into ministries and building things up from the ground level. But I’ve never really put everything I own into something like this before. This was a whole different kind of investment.

00:09:31
That’s pretty cool, man. So what are your future goals with The Back Nine?

Hopefully by the end of this year, it will be not just financially stable, but successful enough that Chris and I can start looking at a second location.

Where would your ideal second location be?

If I tell you, somebody else might jump on it.

Well, tell us the city at least.

I’m kidding. We’re looking at Venice. We’ve kind of already put our name out there and said we want to be contacted first if somebody shows interest in that area because we think there’s real opportunity there.

If we can have one in Port Charlotte, maybe one in Venice, maybe one in Fort Myers or Sarasota, we’d love to get to two, three, maybe four locations within the next five years.

That’s a good goal, man.

00:10:24
What made you want to join Fellowship of Christian Athletes and pour your time and soul into these kids to help build a better future for them?

That’s a great question.

Honestly, I’m just the next guy around the corner. But I have a heart for athletes, and I love coaches.

Billy Graham once said that a coach will have more influence in one year than the average person will in their entire lifetime. A coach has 30 or 40 players — maybe 70 or 80 on a football team — and the way they live their life influences those kids, the parents, the other coaches, everybody around them.

That influence can be incredibly positive, but it can also be negative.

Think back through your childhood. Most people can remember a coach who was either really encouraging or really discouraging. Coaches leave a mark.

I remember years ago, my youngest son was playing on a flag football team, and after watching one season, I thought, “I don’t want my son subjected to that language or the way this coach talks to kids.” So I ended up coaching his team myself.

That’s how much influence coaches have.

00:12:57
So for FCA, if I have the opportunity to come alongside coaches, encourage them, mentor them, and walk with them through that journey, that matters deeply to me.

Being a coach today is one of the hardest jobs out there. Outside of being a referee, it may be one of the toughest positions in sports. You’re not just dealing with students anymore — you’re dealing with every parent too.

Every parent thinks their kid should be starting, getting more playing time, or getting more recognition. A lot of coaches are giving huge amounts of their time, and most people don’t realize how many of them aren’t paid.

If you go to a high school football game and see 10 coaches on the sidelines, maybe three of them are getting paid. The rest are volunteers.

So if a parent is yelling at a volunteer coach because their kid isn’t playing enough, that’s not exactly a fulfilling job.

We get to come alongside those coaches and ask, “Can we encourage you? Can we bring snacks? Can we give our time? Can we come talk to your team about character and integrity?”

Sometimes people say, “I don’t want the Bible talked to my kid.”

Okay, but what about truth, honesty, integrity, teamwork, and character? The Bible has so much wisdom in it, even if someone isn’t ready to receive it as Scripture. We can still bring those values to a team in a way that helps kids grow.

That’s really what we do — support coaches, support athletes, and share the Gospel along the way.

00:15:30
First and foremost, the reason I joined FCA is because I want every student, every athlete, and every person to meet my best friend, Jesus.

I wish more people really understood who He is. I think a lot of people have this view that church just wants something from them — money, change, rules, pressure.

But I can’t make anyone give, and I can’t make anyone change.

What I do know is the Savior of the world who died on a cross so we could have a relationship with Him. I just want my friends to meet my best friend, Jesus, because that relationship changes your life.

Secondly, who wouldn’t want to be around sports? Who wouldn’t want to go play with NFL players, go to a Rays game, watch local athletes grow, or cheer on high school teams making deep playoff runs?

Who wouldn’t want to be part of that journey?

00:18:16
So let’s do this. I’m a Christian. I was raised Orthodox Christian. Let’s say I wasn’t. Tell me about Jesus.

Yeah, absolutely. I’d probably start with this:

The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God created all things. In Genesis 1, we read that God created the heavens and the earth. Then in Genesis 3, man chose himself over God.

That’s really the issue — selfishness. We all know what it means to want what we want. Adam and Eve were given everything except one tree, and when they chose themselves over God, sin entered the world.

Sin is choosing ourselves over God. It creates a separation between us and Him — a chasm we can’t cross on our own.

So God sent His Son to fix that relationship.

John chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then later it says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

That means Jesus wasn’t a new idea. Jesus was there from the beginning. He has always been part of God.

Then He came here in human form — fully God and fully man — to live among us, walk among us, and experience life here on earth.

00:21:56
In the last three years of His life, He began His ministry, and when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you see miracle after miracle.

He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, helped the lame walk, restored people with leprosy, and changed lives everywhere He went.

The book of John even says that if everything Jesus did had been written down, there wouldn’t be enough room in the world to contain it all.

When you look at the people who followed Him, they didn’t give their lives for a lie. They gave their lives because they knew He was the Messiah.

I’ve been to Israel three times now, and every time I go, the Bible just comes alive. Places like the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the lame man, become real in a whole new way.

That same Jesus still asks us today, “Do you want to be healed?”

If someone wants something more out of life, I truly believe they won’t ever be completely whole without Jesus.

00:24:53
I feel the same. I think that’s why a lot of people struggle with anxiety and depression. They’re filling their lives with distractions instead of listening to what their soul really wants and needs. And what the soul wants and needs is Jesus.

He’s like breath. We need Him the way we need air.

The more I pray and the more I focus on religion, the more peace I have in my mind no matter how much noise is going on in my life.

There’s a lot of noise, a lot of stress, but at the end of the day I just sit there and think, everything is going to be fine. Everything’s going to work out. This is just God’s plan.

And sometimes it’s not the plan we want.

No, but it’s always a good plan because when it’s all said and done, we’re thankful for it no matter how much hell we go through.

James talks about that. “Consider it pure joy… when you face trials of many kinds,” because it produces perseverance and maturity.

A lot of times in American church culture, people want a version of faith that avoids hardship. But Jesus never promised that. In fact, He said there would be persecution, difficulty, and trials.

This world is temporary. Everything we build here means nothing compared to knowing Him and sharing Him with others.

00:27:08
I’ve been telling students for years that we really have two reasons we’re here on this earth.

First, to meet Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Second, to tell our friends and family about Him.

If we’ve missed either one of those, then we’ve missed why we’re here.

00:27:37
So let me ask you this. A lot of times people grow up religious, then something traumatic happens, or they go to church and feel judged or discouraged, and they distance themselves. Maybe they don’t stop believing, but they pull away from church and faith.

How do you guide those people back?

That’s a great question.

Let me ask it this way — have you ever had a regular customer have one bad meal here and never come back?

It depends on how mature they are.

Exactly. In church, because it involves people, it’s easy to get offended, frustrated, or upset. But don’t let people rob you of a really great God.

If someone has one bad meal somewhere, they usually give it another shot. But in church, people often say, “That person hurt me,” or “I didn’t like how they looked at me,” or “The music was too loud,” or “The pastor didn’t visit me,” and suddenly they say, “I’m done with God.”

There’s a difference between being truly hurt and simply being offended.

If you’ve been authentically hurt by the church, don’t leave God because of a person.

And if you’ve just been offended, don’t let that keep you from giving God another chance.

00:30:58
I agree. I think that’s one of the easy ways out. No one person should rob you of that.

Christianity is the most beautiful thing in the world to me. You love your neighbor, love your family, forgive people — that’s what life is about.

And that’s probably where it starts, isn’t it? Forgiveness.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me, “I’ll never talk to that person again.” And I ask them, “Have you forgiven them?”

They say, “They didn’t ask me to.”

But the Bible doesn’t say to wait until someone asks for forgiveness. It calls us to forgive anyway.

That’s how I was raised too. You forgive without being asked, because what’s the point of holding onto a grudge for the rest of your life?

It’s just negative energy.

We’re all human. We all make mistakes. We all upset people and get upset by people. There’s no point in holding onto it forever.

And ultimately, Jesus forgave us for all of our junk. He already paid the price for our sin. He just wants relationship with us.

00:32:38
Sometimes my mom tells me that when you distance yourself from the Lord, life gets harder and harder. Maybe it’s because Christ wants you to come back to Him.

I do think God uses circumstances around us to draw us back to Him.

People ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

I don’t believe God causes bad things to happen to good people. I think people make sinful choices, and sometimes others are affected by those choices.

God may allow circumstances, and He may use them, but that doesn’t mean He caused them.

He is a loving God, a caring God, and a just God — and He wants each of us to have a relationship with Him.

00:34:04
Well brother, I thank you so much for being here today. I’d love to have you back sometime to talk more about your best friend, Jesus. And we can talk golf too. I’ve seen your swing — I’d love to get you over to The Back Nine and hit some balls.

You say I need some work, huh?

That’s why I brought a PGA guy with me.

Well Tom, it was a pleasure having you on. Is there one last message you want to leave people with about your best friend, Jesus?

00:34:26
Absolutely.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to meet my best friend, Jesus, I’m not telling you to go to church. I’m asking you to pick up the Bible and open the book of John.

At the very beginning it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Just know that Word is Jesus.

Start there. Keep reading.

And if you have questions, reach out to George, reach out to me, reach out to another Christian you trust. We would love the opportunity to share more with you about who our best friend is.

Thanks, guys.

00:34:56
Well, thank you, Tom. And thank you to all of you watching and listening.

If you liked this episode, please comment, like, and subscribe for more. We appreciate you, and we’ll see you on Episode 16.