Having a safe place to encourage and talk about faith, no matter your beliefs, is an important part of any social community. There are churches and youth groups outside of school, but FHN hosts an organization called FCA, or Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which fits this ideal nearly to the point. FCA offers a welcoming environment to grow your faith, with kind leaders, group events—and even donuts. The club consists of the members, the leaders and the club sponsor Zachary Howard. A typical meeting would start early on Wednesday morning with a snack and heading over to the auditorium to be split into smaller groups. Then going through the lesson, which changes meeting to meeting but always includes spiritual and practical guidance for everybody and anybody.
“I know it’s called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but definitely we don’t keep it only for athletes,” senior Grace Gaghen, a current leader of FCA said. “So it’s people from all over the place. It could be anyone from people in all the three season sports to being a part of literally no clubs except FCA.”
FCA is nothing if not inclusive, another plus being its a low-commitment and walk-in club. If you want to invite people, they are free to just walk in and join. You can sign up, but nobody will pressure you about missing a meeting or coming late. FCA is also great at hosting events to bring people of different communities together such as bonfires or worship nights. All in all, many members have shared a positive experience from the first day they walked into a meeting, an activity or simply talking to a group member.
“Just being there and together, is a great thing because the body of Christ is not just a singular person, it’s the whole community,” Alumnus Alex Prudhomme, a past leader said. “It’s everyone as a body, not just a singular cell. So if anyone’s ever considering joining FCA, prepare for those early mornings, but prepare also to relate to people. Prepare to maybe be able to get a little bit vulnerable, talk about the little things and let those walls down.”
