The amazing story of our Minister's call to chaplaincy at Leicester City Football Club

“A whole series of what I believe to be God-incidences and Divine appointments occurred that would make my call to chaplaincy at the football club very clear.”

Early in 2005, the church was visited by John Boyers (Chaplain of Manchester United Football Club and National Coordinator for SCORE, the Sports Chaplaincy Charity). He informed us about the work of SCORE and made us aware that Leicester was the only large City in England where none of the professional sports clubs had any SCORE chaplaincy.

John had been given my name by Peter Grange (Regional Minister for the Baptist Union in the East Midlands) as someone with the potential to become a sports chaplain. He invited the church to pray for openings for SCORE at all the major Sports Clubs in Leicester, and for the church to consider whether it was something it could release me to do if an opportunity materialised.

At the time, I knew this was something that I could do, but was unsure whether or not it was something I should do. Leading a growing church is an awesome responsibility and privilege. I knew that I couldn’t do anything that might risk the work that God had clearly called me to at the church. At the same time I believed that God had brought the work of SCORE and the need for sports chaplaincy in Leicester to our attention for a reason. Maybe the reason was to pray that doors would open for others? Maybe this was something I should be doing, maybe it wasn’t? To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure.

Following John’s visit I read his book, ‘Beyond the final whistle – A life of football and faith’. It’s not possible to read this book without acknowledging the supernatural way in which God has opened the doors for John and the work of SCORE. I came away from the book with a clear request to God, “I’m not doing this unless you open doors for me as clearly as you have opened doors for John. If this is something you want me and the church to be involved in, you are going to have to make it crystal clear”.

Through February and March things went quiet. The Lord had not closed the door, however. A whole series of what I believe to be ‘God-incidences’ and Divine appointments occurred that would make my call to chaplaincy at the football club very clear.

On April 1st I received a call from the Foxes Trust that turned out to be no April Fool. The Foxes Trust is a supporters group set up in 2002 when Leicester City Football Club went into administration and nearly out of existence! Their aim was to help save the club and encourage supporter representation in the new regime.

The Trust phoned me to invite me to be their guest at the forthcoming fixture against Cardiff City. Apparently the Trust has two seats in the Director’s Box for every home game - one is taken by a Trust Board member, and the other by a Trust member whose name has been pulled ‘randomly’ out of the hat. Given that City have no more than 25 home games per season, I worked out that there was a one in sixty year ‘chance’ of my name being pulled out of the hat. Now as a Christian I don’t believe in ‘chance’. I believe the Lord had purposed this. I believed that I was gaining access to the Director’s Box for a reason!

On Tuesday April 19th, Leicester City are due to play Cardiff City at the Walkers Stadium – Kick Off 7.45 p.m. I was met at the ground by Steve Smith (a member of the Foxes Trust) at 7.00 p.m. We went up to the Director’s reception area prior to kick-off and got chatting. I started talking to him about the work of SCORE and how I felt a chaplain could help people working at the football club. Steve was incredibly positive about what I shared, and promised to introduce me to Tim Davies (Leicester City’s Chief Executive) after the game.

Following a disappointing 1-1 draw, Tim wandered over and we began chatting. After a few minutes relaxed conversation, Steve mentioned to Tim that I was a Baptist Minister. What followed was truly remarkable. I told Tim about SCORE and how I felt a relationship with the organisation might benefit the club. He informed me that he knew about SCORE and that he was wanting to find a suitable person to become club chaplain. He gave me his card and askjed me to contact him the next day.

This was not the end our conversation, however. Tim was walking away when he quickly turned round and said, “One final thing. I was in church on Sunday”. “Where at?” I asked. “In Somerset”, he replied. He continued, “At the end of the service I was talking to the Minister who asked me if there was anything he and the church could pray for in relation to my work and the football club. I told him that we needed to appoint a new club chaplain and here you are 48 hours later standing in the Boardroom of this football club. Isn’t that how God works?” He promptly strode off after getting my assurance that I would phone him the next day.

The story doesn’t end there. The very next morning I had arranged to meet my Spiritual Advisor (a retired Baptist Minister, who acts a bit like a mentor) for our quarterly meeting. He knew nothing about the previous nights events or that I had been in the Director’s Box at all. He informed that in his prayers that morning, he had been led to two passages of scripture, which he felt the Lord wanted him to share with me. He couldn’t understand what direct relevance they had, but he would share them anyway. The first was from Esther 4: 16, “Who knows but that you have come to Royal position for such a time as this?”. The second was Hebrews 11, often referred to by me as the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’. My spiritual advisor pointed out that those listed were commended not primarily for what they believed, but for what they did in response to the clear call and command of God. He then asked me, “What is God calling you to do right now?”

I then proceeded to tell him about the unfolding events. I ended by asking whether he thought God was telling me something. He replied, “I think you already know the answer to that!”

On Monday May 16th 2005 the club invited me to become its new chaplain and following a church meeting in June I duly accepted. God had used the power of prayer, had arranged an amazing set of ‘co-incidences, and His Word to make my call clear. This was no longer something I felt I could do, this was something I had to do.

Bruce Nadin

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"I had lost the plot, but I found a family."

The 1st eight months of 2000 were an absolute nightmare for me. In June my daughter Georgina, now aged four, contracted meningitis, a terrible illness. Thankfully she recovered quickly and is now restored to full health.

My father, who was in remission with cancer, was not so fortunate. In July he was diagnosed as having secondary and terminal cancer and died shortly afterwards.

Added to this I found myself, at the age of 36, in a very demanding job as General Manager of a Joint Finance Venture Company, which involved long hours and a great deal of stress. The job took over my life at the expense of everything and everyone.

Another minor tension was that my wife, Jane, had started going to church. She had completed a Y Course (an introductory course to the Christian faith) in the spring at Sutton Elms Baptist Church, Broughton Astley, Leicestershire, and began to attend the church, near to where we live, regularly.

One evening she returned from the church excited by an invitation to join the minister, the Bruce Nadin, his wife Louise and some friends from the Y Course, for an evening meal but she was also apprehensive because partners were invited and she knew that I would refuse to go. She was right. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend an evening with 'churchy' people talking about Jesus. However, as with most of our arguments, Jane won and off we went.
I knocked on the door and was greeted by this tall guy with a big grin dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He quickly poured me a drink and we talked about football and music. As the room filled I looked around for the minister - I thought he would be obvious to spot as I expected him to be wearing a dog collar.

It was then I realised that this tall guy I was talking to was him. But how could it be? He hadn't mentioned Jesus all night. For a leader within a church to be what I would describe as normal was something I hadn't come across before.

Whenever I had previously visited a church I had felt under personal attack from the ministers. To me churches were cold and unfriendly places. I felt I was neither welcome nor wanted.
Having met the minister and some of the people from the church and found them 'normal', I felt able to come to the church to support Jane at her baptism on April 23, Easter Day. During her testimony she said how moody and miserable she had been. I distinctly remember sitting in the congregation fiercely nodding my head in agreement, as I did when she said that through opening her heart to Jesus she had changed.

I could certainly see changes. She was calm, friendly, caring, loving - all the qualities I fell in love with and married her for nine years ago. In the short term, as the summer progressed, our own relationship was so much better, but soon I was aggravating her, and when she was unable to deal with me I cruelly questioned her faith saying she hadn't really changed. She had, but I hadn't. At this point I realised I needed to change. I was hard, arrogant, stubborn, uncaring and had a real attitude. Apart from that I was fine!

Importantly, I knew I could not change on my own. It was at this point that I went upstairs to be alone, sat on my bed and said a prayer to Jesus asking him into my life.

Looking back I can see that my parents gave me the perfect example, but I had lost the plot. I had become lost in the modern world, in work, in money. I had a great wife who gave me a deep and committed love, but I could have lost it all. Jesus made me realise this and I made the commitment to Jesus knowing that only he could sort me out.

I now believe I have a second chance at life. I still have those basic values from my parents, but now I have Jesus to lead me to the future he has planned for me. Having this new belief and trust in Jesus I started to go to Sutton Elms Baptist Church. Suddenly every sermon, songs or prayer challenged me - but nothing more than Communion. It started out as a normal Sunday. We arrived at the church, took our seats and started to rejoice in Jesus. I had been present at Communion services before, but to be honest they had never moved me, nor had I felt the inclination to take part. But this time I received a personal invitation from Jesus to join him at the table and to share his bread and wine. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Instantly I felt part of his family, part of the Church. I cried tears of joy, tears of belonging. What had been an eight month nightmare has turned into a wondrous eight months, one of the highlights being my baptism on December 3 2000.

Since opening my life to Jesus I have changed so much. I have made a giant leap, moving quickly from a non-believer to a believer. However I know in reality I have only made a small step in living with Jesus, but I am determined to spend the rest of my life with him.

Paul Blyth

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