FCA's latest Sports Specific Ministry - Endurance
By Rick Weber

One morning in May 2005, marathoner Carl Rundell prayed and then headed out to Paint Creek Trail in Rochester Hills, Michigan, for a 15-mile training run. He had been there hundreds of times before and knew every subtle nuance of the crushed-limestone trail that winds along a trout stream through pastures, highlands and wetlands. And yet he had no idea what he was about to run into.

Two weeks earlier, he had left the world-renowned Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, an Olympic development program started by brothers Kevin and Keith Hanson. He gave up free shoes, apparel, travel stipends, gym membership, chiropractic treatment, physical therapy and the guidance of some of America’s best distance-running coaches. The question he had most heard in those two weeks: “Are you crazy?”

What they didn’t understand was that he wasn’t fulfilled. At age 36, he was almost old enough to be the father of the other 13 sponsored runners. He had launched a new business management company and wasn’t working in the Hansons’ running store like the other runners. The Project’s focus was purely on running, but Rundell had a longing inside to be more than just a runner.

“I was at a loss,” he says. “I was asking myself, ‘What am I going to do?’ I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing.”

Eight miles into his training run, he saw a woman emerge from the thick early-morning fog that enveloped the trail. As she approached—the first person he had seen all morning—he noticed she was wearing a shirt with an FCA logo.
It would be a stretch to equate this to Moses and the burning bush, but his heart raced and he started to have what he calls a “kaleidoscope moment”—a stunning vision in which various thoughts overlap and crystallize. His mind clicked back to Vanderbilt University and his involvement with FCA. He thought about how that had faded away when he graduated and embarked on his career. Was there a group in his area that he could hook up with?

When he got back to his house, he called FCA’s national office and reached Dan Britton, the senior VP of ministry programs. Britton was floored. He had just ended a phone conversation with Chris Anderson, a triathlete who two weeks earlier had hatched the idea of launching the FCA Endurance Ministry.

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Anderson’s plan was to minister to the endurance world, to unite Christian endurance athletes by forming a national team to strengthen each other spiritually and to spread the word about how FCA is changing lives. He figured he could use a few high-profile athletes to do it, and Rundell—who competed in the 2004 Olympic trials and was the eighth-fastest American at the 2005 Boston Marathon—had the resumé and the heart for it.

There’s my sign, Rundell thought. God has answered my prayers.
Funny, because Anderson was thinking the same thing.

“Carl had professional coaches working with him,” Anderson says, “and he basically said, ‘I’m going to switch my path. Rather than pursue it on this normal route, I want to do it for Christ. And I want to use my uniform to let people know that.’ That’s a pretty radical thing to do. That’s the kind of thing that can inspire people—to see someone who’s out there making a decision like that.”
 
In the weeks that followed, Britton fielded a call from Barb Lindquist, the world’s former No.1-ranked triathlete and a ninth-place finisher at the 2004 Olympics in Athens who had retired earlier in 2005. She wanted to know whether FCA had a ministry in endurance sports, and if so, how she could get involved.

At the end of an e-mail to Anderson, Britton wrote: “Oh, by the way, Barb Lindquist called and wanted to get involved.”
“I’m like, ‘What?’” Anderson says. “That would be like Michael Jordan writing you and saying, ‘I want to get involved if there’s a chance.’ What? God brought Barb in. It’s been one thing after another. It’s been pretty exciting.”

Says Rundell, “God has a plan that none of us could ever comprehend. I’m never not in awe of Him. It’s absolutely incredible. It just gives me goose bumps thinking about what else He might have in store. Just look at what has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. People have come together who really have passion.”

It became an official ministry on Dec. 1, 2005, and has since grown to include close to 200 people in 38 states. Within that national network, the ministry has formed Adult Huddles with an endurance theme. Instead of sitting down twice a week for Bible study, they go on training runs and rides and have fellowship and prayer. They also volunteer at local races to spread the love of Christ.

“Realistically, that’s where the ministry’s going to happen,” Anderson says. “If I run by somebody in a race and they see my jersey and their life is changed because of that, praise God. He can certainly work that way if He chooses to. More realistically, we know if someone is to turn their life around, it’s done through a relationship. And those relationships can only be built well locally. That’s where the local Huddle comes in.”

Rundell, who has been a leadership board member since the middle of last year, has run once in his FCA singlet, finishing second—nine seconds behind winner Ruben Garcia—among over 27,000 runners at the Marine Corps Marathon in October. He has qualified for the ’08 Olympic trials. He says the switch to FCA has taken his running to a “new level” because he feels stronger.

“Kevin and Keith Hanson really cultivated my running,” he says. “They instilled in me a belief in myself. But it also gave me a confirmation that I was showing a weakness in my faith. I should’ve been hearing it from God.
“People asked me, ‘How could you leave? You left money on the table, left the training group.’ I tell them, ‘Yeah, but you know what? It’s only good if it’s leading you in the right direction.’ I was thinking, ‘There’s more to this than me just out there pounding the pavement mile after mile.’ There are hard decisions we have to make in life. One of the hardest is deciding what’s going to motivate us in life. Sometimes your friends may be leading you down a different path. God is the one you should be looking toward to give you that direction.

“People ask me now, ‘Who are you running with?’ I’m like, ‘Gosh, you can’t get any bigger or better than running for God.’ ”

Rundell says he frequently speaks to students in the elementary, junior high and high schools around Birmingham, Mich. He tells them to avoid letting anyone dictate what they can or can’t do. He tells them God just wants them to give what they have. It’s not important what they don’t have. So go out and do it.

“You really need to ask yourself, ‘What is the measure of my life?’” he says. “For me, it’s trying to leave a legacy. It’s more than just about my own running.”

He gains inspiration from Philippians 1:6, which reads, “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (NIV).

“In 2008, I’ll be 40,” he says. “But you know what? He started something. He still has plans for me, so I’m just going to go with it and see where it takes me.” Above the desk in his office are these words:

When the goal is not right, God says, “No.”
When the time is not right, God says, “Slow.”
When I’m not right, God says, “Grow.”
When everything is right, God says, “Go!”