Keith Tyler (left) chats with Rotarian David Lanham (Lanham Odell & Company)

January 13, 2009

No prayer in the schools? Don't believe it! No religion in the classroom? Not true!

Public schools may not require worship and prayer, and that's the American way. But neither is religious activity restricted, just as long as it is initiated by srtudents, led by students and entirely supported by students.

Keith Tyler told Putnam Rotarians today that forty kids meet every Monday at Hurricane High School for prayer, scripture readings and open discussion in their Fellowhip of Christian Athletes "huddle."

The FCA conducts a student ministry through a four-point program of camps, coaches, community and campus, and a huddle is a local school club. A typical huddle meeting begins with a warm-up, moves into a work-out, and ends with a wrap-up.

In the huddle at Hurricane Middle School, 250 to 275 students meet every Wednesady. On Fridays at Winfield High some 120 students go into their huddle. About 70 students are in the FCA huddle at Poca, and the middle schools also have their FCA student-led groups.

Tyler is the director for the western area of West Virginia, and through the FCA huddles in 40 schools he ministers to 6,900 students every week.

Ten years ago, there were less than a dozen effective huddles.

"You don't have to be an athlete to be active in FCA," Tyler told his audience, "and there are more females than males in the huddles," both locally and nationally.

The ministry is non-profit and operated almost entirely by volunteers. The FCA started in 1954 but the first paid staff member in the state was hired only in 1989.

You may remember Keith Tyler from his basketball career at the University of Charleston. He was both All-Conference and All-Tournament for four years. A member of the UC Hall of Fame and All-Time Leading Scorer, his jersey number was retired after his graduation.

Keith went on to play professional basketball, but "sports did not make me happy," he says.

"There was a void in my life. I think everybody has a void."

Keith began attending church, and in 1996 he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

"I was shy," he says. "Now they can't get me to shut up.

"I played basketball because I loved the game."

Now Keith Tyler combines the game with his love of athletics to share his Christian witness with young people. "The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a ministry which works," he says.

Last year over 45,000 teenagers attended the FCA summer camp. And last year, nearly 34,000 young people made a "first time" confession of faith.