|
Pastor Steve
Hopkins of Calvary Chapel in Salem, Oregon is a friend of mine that
I have spent time with on blogs, Facebook, and email the past year
or so. He knew about my writing articles for SportsFaith that are
designed to impact people’s lives for Christ, and one day a couple
of months back we were talking and he asked where I came up with the
people and stories for my articles. I told him that they come from
anywhere we can find them. Then, he just briefly told me his story
of how a coach had impacted his life. I was very moved by his
story, and then I told him that I wanted to tell his story for a
SportsFaith article. He was reluctant at first, but I insisted. I
hope you will see why to me his story is exactly the kind that I
desire to write about. I hope that someone will be motivated to do
for another young kid what Steve’s coach did for him. Steve
originally began his story by telling me that his high school coach
saved his life.
In 1968, America
was fighting a very unpopular war in Viet Nam, thousands of our
young men were dying fighting in the jungles there. Our military
were killing and using Napalm bombs on villagers when we thought
they might be the communist Viet Cong, and daily the images of dead
men, women, and children were displayed on our television sets by
the news networks. Most youth in America had almost completely lost
all faith in the government, and all those who were derogatorily
called “the establishment.” Drug use among kids was almost a given
as kids were disillusioned with America and what we as a nation had
become. The kids were listening to what was called “Acid Rock” as
it was created to portray the distorted reality that hallucinogens
brought. The churches were viewed as part of “the establishment”
and they had long before lost any kind of inroads with the youth in
their communities.
At this time, in
his home town of Medford Oregon, Steve was a shy and confused
sixteen year old high school student and in his sophomore year. He
was raised in a Lutheran home, and had great parents who took him
and his brother to church every Sunday. But, he did not know Christ
as his personal Lord and Savior. As the nation was in turmoil, he
was in turmoil. His life was going nowhere and he could easily have
gotten sucked into the destructive lifestyles that most of the kids
fell into. Many of his friends ended up on drugs or in jail, and he
even experimented with LSD a couple of times in high school. Steve
had ADHD before it was discovered and struggled in school and had to
take remedial classes as a result. He was known as a good starter
but a bad finisher, and this was mainly because he was so insecure
in himself. He desired friends and basically would be friends with
anyone who would have him.
Ah, but there was
another side to Steve. He had some athleticism and was a fairly
tall kid (he’s 6’3” today). He had been recruited by the Medford
High School football coaches to be a running back or a wide
receiver, but he was really too shy for those positions. He had
played some baseball before this and was mediocre at that. One day,
he got a call from the school’s cross country coach, Jim Crumpton,
who asked him if he would try out for the track team. Steve made
the team and ran that year winning just one race.
But, here is the
point in Steve’s story that really grabbed me and made me want to
tell it. As so often happens with coaches, Steve’s coach saw his
potential as an athlete and a person. But, not only did the coach
see that potential he was able to inspire Steve to achieve it.
After the season was over coach Crumpton pulled Steve aside one day
and told him that he would win the state championship if he’d do what the
coach told him to do.
That off season
before his junior year, Steve trained hard. All winter he ran every
day, and he ran between sixty and seventy-five miles a week. Another thing
inspired Steve, seeing his name in print in the newspaper. In the
newspaper one day they were discussing the coming track season for
Medford High School, and his coach had them put this blurb in, “and
a guy to watch out for is junior Steve Hopkins.” Oh, how important
to the encouragement of young athletes it is to have their names and
accomplishments put in their local newspapers.
Well, that next
year (his junior season), Steve took second in the district in the
880 yd dash (precursor to the 800 meters), and then he went on to
take sixth place in the state championship. (At the state cross
country meet and a couple of other track meets Steve ran against the
famous Steve Prefontaine who inspired running in the 70’s before
being tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 24).
After the season as
Steve was again doing his rigorous off season preparation in
preparation for his senior year of track, coach Crumpton told him
one day that he was transferring to a private Christian school
called Canyonville Bible Academy (called Canyonville Christian
Academy now). Steve went home and told his parents that he wanted
to transfer to the new school along with his coach, but it was 100
miles away. His parents finally agreed, and off he went to train
with his coach and compete for the new school.
After his off
season training, his senior year Steve was the district and regional
champ in cross country. Then, he ran the 500 at the Portland
invitational track meet and won and set the state record in the 880
in his qualifying race. The next day, he won the state
championship, just as his coach told him two years before that he
would. The school and state record stood for 7 years before it was
broken by another CBA student. But to this day, forty-nine years
later, Steve still holds the school record for the 440 yd dash at
49.9 seconds.
But, more
importantly than those accomplishments, that senior year when the
team would travel around to their various meets coach Crumpton would
talk with Steve about his relationship with Christ. Finally, one
day in October of 1969, the school held a revival service and Steve
prayed to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. They brought him
forward to the applause of the crowd, and when they asked him now
what he wanted to do with his life, he suddenly declared that
someday he wanted to be in the ministry. Today, he looks back
on that declaration as being prophetic, especially coming from a boy
from a Lutheran home.
After high school,
Steve attended a community college where he competed in track.
Then, when his high school coach transferred to a southern
California Christian college called Southern California College (now
called Vanguard University), he transferred there. Steve had now
filled out quite a bit, and so his body type was not as conducive to
the same types of running events as he had had success with in high
school, so he was resigned to be more of a utility runner. His
roommate was Mike Singletary (not the famous football player), who
was the fourth fastest man in the world in the 440, and in 1974
together they ran a relay race once with Mike as the anchor runner,
and they beat USC
at the
Santa Barbara relays.
Steve didn’t have
great success in track in college but he began to have confidence in
himself and to achieve in the area of academics. In college, he
also met and married Debbie, his wife still after all of these
years.
Due to the
challenges of life, and having his new wife, Steve didn’t finish out college
and moved back to Medford and went to work as a police officer, and,
for a time he fell away from the Lord. Then, five years into his
service as a police officer he and his partner got involved in a big
shoot out, and his partner was shot a few times. Finally, Steve
found himself face to face with the man who had just shot his
partner and in anger put his gun against the man’s head and was
preparing to shoot him. It was then that the Lord revealed to him
how he far he had fallen away from the Christian life that he had
learned from his coach. At that moment he recommitted his life to Christ and
subdued the man without using deadly force. Steve continued serving
the Lord and his work as a cop lasted a total of fourteen years.
Finally, one day
Steve left police work and went on staff as a pastor for a large
church in southern Oregon. After serving there for several
years, he planted Calvary Chapel in Salem, Oregon where he has now
served as senior pastor for 20 years. Today, he is also both finishing the last
of his bachelor’s degree and also completing studies for a master’s
degree from Western Seminary.
Steve’s coach did
for him what he could not do for himself. Coach let him
know he believed in him and his ability to do great things, and in
so doing he inspired Steve to attempt great things. Coach helped Steve realize
the potential he had as an athlete, and even more importantly he was
that Christian example that God used to lead him into a personal
relationship with Christ. Steve’s dad passed away thirty years ago,
and since that time coach Crumpton has been like a
dad to him. They are still close and Steve has told coach Crumpton on many
occasions that he couldn’t do any of the things he has done in life,
including be a pastor, if it were not for his coach. Oh, how badly
our world needs Christian men and women like coach Crumpton who will
enter into a young person’s life and help them to realize their
potential, and also lead them to the Savior of mankind. |
