When it comes to football in the south — high school and college football — it can often times be treated as a religion, especially in Alabama. An upcoming conference in Destin will combine the two — football and religion —and will have a local speaker speaking at the event.
The first annual Faith and Football Conference, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Palms of Destin Resort, will feature Brewton’s First Baptist Church youth pastor Randy Winton at the event. Winton is also a Christian author.
Joining Winton at the event will be: Fletcher Law, a Christian author and evangelist from Gainesville, Ga. Law has a new book coming out that Ole Miss fans will love called “Finding Grace in the Grove.”
Another speaker is Auburn fan Chad Gibbs. Gibbs is a Christian author and evangelist from Alabama. Chad Goss, a former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver and evangelist from Alabama will also be on hand as will Wayne Asprodites who is the student ministry pastor at Destin Worship Center in Destin. Asprodites is an LSU fan.
Scott McKinney is the host of the popular college football sports talk radio show “Southern Sports Tonight” and is the one spearheading the event. McKinney is also an Ole Miss fan.
“I am in sports radio, but my other job is marketing sports events,” McKinney said. “The Lord put it on my heart to look at doing an event, with everyone getting excited about football, to do an event with a faith theme and get everyone as excited about their faith as they are about the football season. I fought it for a few days, but it just kept coming to me. The Lord put it on my heart to call Randy because we have been friends for a long time. He gave me some names of some speakers who have ties to college football through a player or a coach or a reporter or an author who has written some books with football ties. It is just amazing how everything started to come together.”
“Locally, Randy Winton will take part in the conference.
“Scott and I have been friends for a long time and one day he called me up and said he had something eating him up that he wanted to pass along to me,” Winton said. “He said God had put something on his heart and I told him to go with it. Just for him to ask me is awesome. I love the opportunity to go speak to people. Like everyone, I am passionate about college football, so to tie it in with college football will be fun.”
Winton said he feels this is an opportunity God has given him to speak at this event.
The format of the day will start with praise and worship and then some “pregame exercises.” The speakers are expected to speak anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes.
A limited number of tickets are available and can be acquired by emailing sstradioshow@gmail.com. Tickets are free, but you must have a ticket for admittance into the conference.