Podcasts about Putz

Sometimes we give our all and still feel like the nets are coming up empty. But Jesus shows up, invites us to listen again, and calls us to cast the net where we hadn't thought to try. When we follow his lead—especially in unfamiliar ways—we experience power, joy, and real impact. And in the end, he's not just after the tasks… he's after relationship with us.

Fazakas Réka, Hóbor István. Két júniusi festménykiállítás a beszélgetés témája.

Változásban a WAMP, azaz a Vasárnapi Művészpiac. A nyári megjelenéskről és a tervezett őszi változásról beszélgetett Putz Attila Mengyán Anikóval, az egyik szervezővel.

Lévai Juli Angliában élő fiatal színházi rendező, aki a közelmúltban maximális értékelést kapott egy neves kritikai portáltól… Ennek apropóján beszélgetett Vele Putz Attila.

Wer war André Chaix? Der Name, der in den Putz der Außenwand eines Hauses geritzt ist, lässt Autor Hervé Le Tellier auf die Suche gehen.

Are you living the life you were made for—or just the life you stumbled into? So many of us are searching for purpose, but we're looking in the wrong place: within ourselves. What if the key to joy, freedom, and direction isn't found in chasing your own truth—but in responding to God's calling? This talk will help you rediscover what that calling looks like, and how to start walking in it.

Piaci beszélgetések - Bőség kosara Putz Attilával 2025. 05. 24. by MannaFM

Házastársas, Válótársas, Munkatársas és a többiek. Színpadi produkciók, amelyek igen erősen építenek a színészek improvizációs képességeire is… Az adás vendége Gönczi Dorka ötletgazda és Ficzere Béla színművész…

Fehér Csilla Franciaországban él, szőlőmunkásként dolgozik, de azon is dolgozik, hogy a franciák megismerjék a magyar savanyúságok zamatát is… Hab a tortán, hogy párkapcsolati dinamikával is foglalkozik…

10. alkalommal kerül megrendezésre Fülén a retró számítógépek fesztiválja. Orsovai Sándor főszervező volt a KANAPÉ vendége.

Ficzere Béla színművészt elkísértük a piacra és a vásárlási szokásairól faggattuk. Természetesen kóstolgattunk is ezt meg azt…

Hazaszeretet, magyarságtudat, hagyományőrzés. Ezekről is beszélhetünk Bakó Zoltánnal az Ormánságban működő Hétöles Egyesület elnökével. Még az is kiderül, hogy milyen állat Matyi…

Dr. Gyuris Márta egy szirénázó mentőautóban gondolta át az életét és arra jött rá, hogy változtatni kell a tempón. Így jött létre a „Pezsgés Mártival” közösség.

2025. május 25-én rendezik meg az I. Magyar Akvarell Fesztivált. Erről beszélgettünk vendégeinkkel, Jozifek-Szűcs Gitta festőművésszel és Szabó Sípos Barnabással, a fesztivál fővédnökével.

Siklósi Gábor egy új arc a budapesti stand up világában. Saját zsidóságát, annak történeteit viszi színpadra. A kérdés csak az, hogyan fogadják Őt a nézők. Erről is faggatta Őt Putz Attila.

Sok család életét megmozgatta az utóbbi napokban az érettségi. Putz Attila két végzős diákkal beszélgetett az írásbeli után és a szóbeli előtt.

Putz Attila, a rádió gasztroriportere a maszek hentes soron nézett szét két fővárosi piacon. Hajrá házi ízek!

Have you ever found yourself in a moment that completely knocked the wind out of you—grieving, confused, and unsure where to turn next? You're not alone. This talk explores how Jesus meets us in those moments—and why he never leaves us where he finds us. If you've ever wondered how to move forward when life doesn't make sense, this is for you.

Zuglói kenyérközösség - Bőség kosara Putz Attilával 2025. 05. 03. by MannaFM

Olasz Etelka vándor mesemondó - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 05. 04. by MannaFM

Szigligeti Nyári Színház, Nagy Szilárd programigazgató - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 05. 04. by MannaFM

Nényei Zoárd stand-up előadó - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 05. 04. by MannaFM

Changing the world starts with changing our hearts—and that's where following Jesus comes in. The real work of transformation begins when we turn away from our old ways, choose to live with Him at the center, and surrender our personal ambitions to His mission. Jesus invites us to follow Him into new life, a life that's focused on loving God and loving others. When we choose to follow Him, we become part of His mission to bring healing and hope to the world.

Boros Panna dokufilmrendező - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 27. by MannaFM

Magyarország színezve, Néprajzi Múzeum, Lakner Mónika kurátor - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 27 by MannaFM

A IV. Versíró és versmondó verseny győztesei - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 27. by MannaFM

Ever since Shakespeare wrote his tragedy on Richard III the world has thought of him as an evil king with a shriveled soul. But is that actually unjust?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever feel like faith should come faster or make more sense by now? You're not alone. For a lot of us, belief doesn't show up in a single moment—it rises slowly, like the sun breaking through fog. If you're in the middle of questions or waiting for clarity, this talk might be exactly what you need.

Húsvét

Helló Piac intergrált vásár Budapest - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 20. by MannaFM

Szimpla Kraft húsvéti vásár - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 20. by MannaFM

Börcsök Bálint, Dumaszínhát tehetségkutató nyertes - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 20. by MannaFM

As the president attacks free speech and makes a constitutional crisis worse, Harvard is standing up like no one else. Plus, an earthquake in San Diego and an attack on Ukraine. El Salvador's President Visits-via AP News, AP News, USA Today Columbia Student-via NY Times Attack on Ukraine -via ABC News Harvard Stands Up-via NY Times Earthquake in San Diego-via NBC7Take the pledge to be a voter at raisingvoters.org/beavoterdecember. - on AmazonSubscribe to the Substack: kimmoffat.substack.comAll episodes can be found at: kimmoffat.com/thenewsAs always, you can find me on Instagram/Twitter/Bluesky @kimmoffat and TikTok @kimmoffatishere

Jesus was humiliated and stripped of everything, yet lifted up as a King for the whole world to see. Even as he suffered, he showed love, fulfilled Scripture, and finished the work only he could do. Blood and water flowed from his side—the beginning of new life. And as he died, hearts were drawn to believe—including some who had followed him in secret until that very moment.

Szőke Dániel egy éve a Stand-up világában - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 13. by MannaFM

Longevity módszer, Pozsonyi Zsolt erőnléti edző - Kanapé Putz Attilával 2025. 04. 13. by MannaFM

In this conversation, Paul Putz discusses the intersection of faith and sports, exploring how sports can serve as a platform for Christian identity and community. He shares his personal journey from a small-town upbringing to leading the Faith and Sports Institute at Baylor University. The discussion delves into the history of the Christian athlete movement, the role of sports in American Christianity, and the opportunities and challenges that arise for Christians in the sports world. - Website: cfc.sebts.edu - Contact us: cfc.sebts.edu/about/contact-us/ - Support the work of the Center: cfc.sebts.edu/about/give/ All opinions and views expressed by guest speakers are solely their own. They do not speak for nor represent SEBTS. Read our expressed views and confessions: www.sebts.edu/about/what_we_believe.aspx

They mocked Jesus like a joke, judged him like a criminal, and rejected him like a threat. But through it all, he stayed steady—he wasn't reacting, he was reigning. He wore their insults like a crown, stood calm in the face of power, and gave himself up not as a victim but as the King stepping into his purpose. And the unexpected part? He did it for us.

Sometimes, we get it wrong—and even when we know it, we double down. We twist truth, hold onto control, and redefine grace to fit what we want. But what if there's a better way? In this talk, we look at one of the most famous trials in history to see how Jesus meets us in our mess and turns everything upside down.

As March Madness kicks off today, I thought I would post a podcast conversation with my friend Paul Putz. Paul is the author of "Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big Time Sports" and is the Director of the Faith and Sports Institute at Baylor University. In this podcast, we talk about Paul's high school coach, leadership lessons from the book, and make some picks for both Final Fours.

Have you ever felt betrayed, falsely accused, or failed when you needed to stand firm? This passage offers a powerful look at how Jesus responded when His closest friends betrayed, denied, and abandoned Him. In this message, we explore the profound lessons Jesus teaches us through His unwavering love, sovereignty, and boldness. How does Jesus respond when we fail? Discover the grace and strength He offers us, even in our weakest moments.

Featuring music from Putz, Soul Butchers, Captain Tom & The Hooligans, and The Living Braindead!

Featuring music from Putz, Soul Butchers, Captain Tom & The Hooligans, and The Living Braindead!

What if Jesus' final words weren't just for pastors or missionaries—but for you? His command to “go and make disciples” isn't a solo mission, and it's not just about personal growth. It's a call to be part of something bigger—leading people to Jesus, shaping new communities, and trusting that He is always with us. Join us as we unpack what this looks like in our lives, our church, and even the future of our city.

Life can feel like a sudden fog rolling in, making it hard to see what's ahead. The disciples felt that confusion, but Jesus pointed them toward something deeper—His resurrection would change everything. Because He rose, we can see God's plans more clearly, we can have direct fellowship with Him, and we can live with peace even in the middle of life's hardest struggles. Jesus never promised an easy road, but He did promise this: “Take heart! I have overcome the world!”

Do you ever feel stuck—like no matter how hard you try, you're not growing or moving forward? Jesus gives us a simple but powerful truth: real growth only happens when we stay connected to him. Without him, we wither, but with him, we thrive. What would it look like to stop striving on your own and start abiding in the life he offers?

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jon Eckert interviews Paul Putz, director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University, where he helps to lead and develop online programming and curriculum as well as assisting with communications and strategic planning. They discuss his journey from high school teacher and coach to historian, diving into insights from his new book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports. Putz reflects on the role of sports in K-12 education and the importance of of resilience, collaboration, and integrating faith into leadership in both education and sports. The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work. The Center for School Leadership and Faith & Sports Institute are partnering together for a summer professional event! Join us for the FIT (faith-integration-transformation) Sports Leadership Summit! We will gather at Baylor to empower and equip Christian sports leaders in K-12 schools to lead, serve, and educate well as they pursue competitive excellence. Be encouraged. Mentioned: The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports by Paul Putz Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss. Faith & Sports Institute Youth Sports Summit  Connect with us: Baylor MA in School Leadership EdD in K-12 Educational Leadership Jon Eckert LinkedIn X: @eckertjon Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl   Jon Eckert: All right, so we've got Paul Putz here in the podcast studio and we get to talk about a new book. We get to talk about coaching, we get to talk about teaching. So Paul, it's a huge blessing to have you here today. Can you just give us a little bit of your background about how you got to this office today, where you came through as a student and professionally? Paul Putz: Yeah. Well, I started, we'll start with I'm a teacher at heart and was a teacher, a high school teacher. So I grew up in small town Nebraska and playing all the sports thinking that I'm going to become a coach. So I went off and played small college basketball and then wanted to hang around sports. And so I got my secondary ed degree, was a social studies teacher. And as I started teaching in Omaha, Nebraska, I had a sense of how important sports were to me in terms of forming me. I was a pretty good student too, but sports mattered to me on a deeper level. And so I was really intrigued about learning more about sports. As I'm teaching social studies classes, I'm thinking about, man, how historically did we get to a place where sports are part of a school curriculum where sports are actually seen as educational or sports are seen as formative? I was just so curious about that. So instead of becoming a coach as a high school teacher, I get my master's in history and I start exploring these questions about the history of sports and as connections with Christianity. So those sort of questions I was wrestling with as a high school teacher lead me to applying to Baylor, coming to Baylor to get a PhD teaching at Messiah University for a year, and then coming back to Truett Seminary where I lead the Faith & Sports Institute and have been involved with FSI for the past five years. Jon Eckert: So love the work you do. I also understand from guys who still are able to play basketball with you, I have not been able to, as my knee no longer allows it, but you have a nice mid-range game still. Paul Putz: Old school. We keep it old school. Yeah. Jon Eckert: That's great. That makes Nebraska and Indiana boys proud. So love that. And I love the journey that you took. You go into education thinking you're going to coach and you're going to teach, and then you go down this history path, which then leads you to leading a Faith & Sports Institute. So it's kind of funny the way the Lord weaves us through these paths. And then to this book that's been published by Oxford University Press, really nice book by the way. Paul Putz: Thank you. Jon Eckert: Much nicer production than I typically get in the books that I write. So I'm impressed with what Oxford's done with it. The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports. It says it's this fascinating look at the overlap and the way Christianity and major college sports and professional sports have been woven together starting in the 1920s. So tell us how you got to this book from that journey you just described. Paul Putz: Yeah, I think so many authors say their book is in some sense autobiographical. You have a question that you want to think about and in the process of exploring your own questions, you kind of realize, hey, other people might be asking these questions too. So that's how it started for me. I mentioned I'm growing up in Nebraska, I was a pastor's kid, I was also loving sports. And so this idea of being a Christian and being an athlete were so central to how I saw myself. And so when I did pursue the PhD and became a historian exploring sports in Christianity, it was my desire to figure out where did I come from? How was my high school basketball coach, Joel Heeser, who's a friend of mine now still coaching high school basketball? How did he learn what it means to be a Christian athlete, a Christian coach? And so out of that kind of sense of curiosity and a sense of where's my own place in this story, I went and do what historians do. So we go back to the archives and we try to look at the origins and we look at the cultural context and we try to figure out cause and change over time and how did this happen and how did it influence culture and how did culture influence what was going on? And so that's what I got to spend five years doing. It started as a PhD doctoral project. I'm going to archives across the US and I'm looking at memos and documents, and going to the libraries and just trying to tease out how this space to bring together sports and faith developed and then how it evolved and advanced to the place where it shaped my life and shaped the lives of so many others in America. Jon Eckert: That's well said and a great setup to the book. And one of the things that kind of blew my mind, and it's just in the introduction to your book, you have this comment here, "Compared with 100 years ago, there are far more athletes and coaches today willing to publicly champion Christianity as a formative influence in their lives." So I think sometimes in the US we feel like we're in this post-Christian world. And in some ways it's a very different world, especially when you hear athletes as soon as they're interviewed after a game, immediately giving credit to God and giving glory to God and the Steph Currys of the world and any number of football players. And you see this over and over and over again. And that wasn't the case a hundred years ago, probably because sports weren't as, they didn't have the platform that they do now. But as you've written the book, what do you attribute that to the most? I know that's the point of the whole book, but can you distill that down to two or three points for the people listening and why you think that's the case? Paul Putz: Yeah, what I try to suggest in the book is the blending of sports and Christianity kind of happens in two phases. And so I start in the 1920s, but there's this era before the 1920s, we'll say goes from after the Civil War until the 1920s. And it's during this era there's a movement called, muscular Christianity. And what muscular Christianity does is it helps Christians see the value of the body, the value of physical activity to moral formation. And it's out of muscular Christianity, which is a movement that starts in England and then it comes to the United States. It's out of muscular Christianity that a lot of these ideas about character formation in sports are developed. And it's why sports become connected to schools and education because people and school leaders are trying to figure out how do we channel this interest that our students have in athletic activity into productive ways so we can use it to form and shape them as good citizens. So muscular Christianity is kind of the first stage, which again connects sports to Christian mission with this character building way. And it has a profound effect. I mean, some of the sports we play today are products of muscular Christianity. And the classic example is basketball, 1891, James Naismith enrolls at a Christian college in Springfield, part of the YMCA. And when he enrolls at the school, he said his desire was to win men for the master through the gym. So he has a Christian purpose, a Christian mission at a Christian school, and he creates basketball to advance these muscular Christian ideas. Jon Eckert: And I didn't realize this, but in the book you highlight, Naismith is the only coach in Kansas history that has a losing record. Paul Putz: Only coach with a losing record. Jon Eckert: Because he didn't care. Paul Putz: He didn't... And this is such an important point because in that first era there were some real idealistic people like Naysmith who thought sport legitimately as first and foremost for moral formation, it's about developing people. Win or lose doesn't matter. So that's the first era. 1920s comes along and it's pretty clear that sports has developed into something else. Sports is connected to commercialization, winning comes first. Even at colleges it was supposed to be educational, but it's clear that at the college level, if you're a coach, you might be a great molder of young men, but if you don't win games, you're getting fired. Jon Eckert: Right. Paul Putz: So there's this sense in the 1920s, this reality sets in that sport is now commercialized. It's big time. And even though it's still connected to say college, at the big time level, that muscular Christian mission isn't there. So what my book tries to do is say, okay, when muscular Christianity is sort of on the back burner because we now have this big time sports structure in the 1920s where it's all commercialized, it's all celebrity, how do Christians still engage in that? How do they wrestle with that tension of a, when at all cost atmosphere, a space where Christians don't determine the culture of sports they're guests in this culture and how do they create a space to still cultivate and nurture Christian athletes and coaches there? And that's where we see in the 1920s, very few Christians able to navigate that. There's just a handful of them who can be in major league baseball or can be in big time college athletics and still feel strong about their Christian commitments. But a hundred years later, we now see all sorts of Christian athletes and coaches who are comfortable in those spaces. And you kind of asked what drove that. What I would say drives that is the formation of a community that was embedded within sports institutions, that creates a sense of shared mission, shared purpose, and that over generations continue to invite more people in, continue to develop and just kind of under the radar, ministry of presence was just there and available to help athletes and coaches identify as Christians in that space. So it really comes down to the creation of these networks and organizations like the Fellowship of Christian athletes, like athletes in action, like Pro Athletes Outreach, like Baseball Chapel, people starting something new and then sustaining it over time and seeing the ripple effects years later. Jon Eckert: The beautiful example and what I had just finished this summer, this, Path Lit by Lightning, it's the Jim Thorpe book. Have you read this? Paul Putz: Yes, I have. Fantastic book. Jon Eckert: Such a fascinating read, because it's in this, leading up to the 1920s, his career is this amateur versus professional, which he gets caught and just treated so poorly and Pop Warner, the king of amateur child sports that we have Pop Warner leagues all over, kind of a horrific human being in the way they exploited people and they did it through sports. But he started his career at the Carlisle Indian School, which was one of the horrific experiments in US history when we took students off from their families off of reservations to try to quote, unquote civilize them into these things. And sports were a major part of it. So in our conversation, I'd love to pivot a little bit, well maybe not even pivot, but integrate sports into what K-12 education has been because still most places other than maybe Friday night lights in Texas football, most K-12 sports are not big time sports yet that most of the athletes playing sports there. You would make the case that the extracurricular there is to support the moral development. It's not a huge money sport until you get into the AAU stuff and some of those things where you have revenue, but K-12 systems, it's still more about that and it's been used for a lot of good things. And then in some cases, in Jim Thorpe's example, it was good kind of. So could you integrate those a little bit and how you see K-12 sports still having an influence and where Christian coaches and Christian athletes have a spot in that? Paul Putz: Yeah, yeah, you're right. There is a difference. And that muscular Christian ideal still continues in some ways, certainly even at the big time sports level. There's elements of it, but especially I think when we get into K-12 or if we get into division three small colleges. Jon Eckert: Yes. Paul Putz: There's a better chance to I think fully integrate the sports experience with the mission of the school. And at the same time, I would say the trends that we see at the highest levels of sports, your professional leagues, those do filter down because kids are looking to athletes as celebrities and heroes. So they're emulating them in some ways. So even though at the K-12 level and the small college level, there's a difference structurally and financially, you still have people who are formed and shaped by what they're seeing in these images in this culture. Now at the same time, I do think in terms of the growth of sports in what we've seen, I think we saw really a century from the 1920s until the last 10 years of continual development of sports as a central part of education in the United States. And this was done intentionally through organizations and networks like coaches associations, high school athletic associations. These develop in the 1920s and after the 1940s and 1950s, they sort of take on this professional identity. There was a period in time where to be a coach at a high school, you were seen as like, well, you're not really part of what's going on at the school. And so it took time for coaches to establish a professional identity linking it with education. And that evolved over the course of, again, a hundred years from the 1920s into the present. But these coaches and athletic directors, I have a quote in my book where I mentioned this, they intentionally had this vision for cultivating in young people a love of sports, because they thought through sports we can instill good values for American citizens or if you're at a Christian school you can instill Christian values. And so at the K-12 level, sports were always connected with some sort of vision beyond just the game. It was more than a game. It was about who you're becoming as a person. It was about learning life lessons and it sounds like a platitude. We've all heard this and we've also, I'm sure seen hypocrisy where we know of a coach who says this, but it doesn't seem like it plays out that way. But there's also some deep truth to that. I think anyone listening to this, if you've played a sport at the high school level that formed and shaped you, maybe in some bad ways, but in some good ways too. And so I think there is a power to sports that continues to have relevance and resonance today. I will say in more recent years we're seeing some really big shifts with K-12 school. With club sports, with travel sports. And there's some ways that that sense of community identity that was tied into the school level, it doesn't exist everywhere. There's pockets where it does. But in some places, some of the best athletes are now not connected to their school. And so for the future, I worry about what will it look like in 40, 50, 60 years where sports could be such an important part of a community and neighborhood identity at a school level. Will that go away as more and more athletes maybe turn to different models to pursue their dreams and goals? Some people in education might say that's healthy. They might say we need to separate education from sports. For me, and maybe I'm naive, but I think there's something important and beautiful about linking sports to education. But we do have to have guard rails and we do have to have people fighting to do it the right way. Jon Eckert: I completely agree. I want to see sports, I want to see all extracurriculars integrated well into what's going on in the classroom. I think that provides more holistic place for kids to learn is where kids can be more engaged and kids can flourish in areas where they may not flourish in one classroom, but they might flourish with an instrument they might flourish in a club or with sports. And I think sports are a powerful place for that. I do know with some states moving to NIL deals for high school athletes, that completely changes the dynamic and is really disconcerting for me because in that case, unlike colleges where that athlete is generating revenue for the school, it's hard to argue that the gate attendance at the high school game is really that much impacted by an individual athlete. But that's coming and that is the world we're living in. And that's some of that trickle-down effect that you described. I never want to be the sky is falling person. I'm thrilled that we have a 12 team playoff system in college football. I'm also not ignorant of the fact that, that completely changes the dynamics of the economics of the sport. So what I'd like to say is Christian leaders, because our set in the Interfaith Sports Institute and the Center, we overlap in some really good ways. What I'd like to see is what you described about the athletes in the twenties and thirties, creating these associations and these communities that fly under the radar of just inviting people in because I think that's what as Christians we should be doing in whatever we're called to. So do you see overlap for Christian administrators and teachers for how we can represent Christ well in the platforms big or small that we have? Do you see any lessons that we can take away as educators from what you found from your athletes in the book? Paul Putz: I think so. I think probably one of the most important, or I guess if I were to highlight two things. One is I would say there's lots of different ways to do it. Jon Eckert: Yes. Paul Putz: I think sometimes a certain person or a certain organization, they come up with a way that works really well for them and then they hold fast to that as if this is the way, this is the biblical way, this is the Christian way. And what I would want to say is it's a part of a conversation. Different contexts need different resources, different methods. And the way God made us as a community talks about the diversity of strengths we have in giftings and callings. And so I think one thing to learn is you can learn from other people who have methods and approaches when it comes to integrating faith in sports. And you probably also have something to offer to that conversation too. So if we can hold what we do loosely, but also not in a way that shies away from the calling to step up as Christian leaders and to say there is a way to engage in sports that reflects my convictions, but then also in a way where there's a sense of humility that I can learn from others. I don't have it all figured out. A bunch of Christians before me have messed up as they're trying to do this, but they've also done some good stuff along the way. And I think that can give us freedom to try, probably to fail, but to maybe advance the conversation forward. So that's one piece. And the other piece is I think it's simply expect tension, expect that there's not an easy overlap between the culture of sports and Christianity. I think there are certain elements to sports that I'm really drawn to. I'm competitive. I love the competitiveness of sports. I want to have the winner. For me, there's a drive for all of that. Jon Eckert: You're not James Naismith, is that what you're saying? Paul Putz: I'm not. I love James Naismith, but for me, boy, I want to, I'm kind of like, I want to win. Jon Eckert: You can be John Wooden. He wanted win too. Paul Putz: There you go. That's right. He did it. The quiet winner. But biblically, there are all sorts of messages, passages, commands from Jesus that tell us that his kingdom is upside down. It's different than the way the world works. And sports culture so often has a certain way where we prioritize the winner. We maybe give our attention to the star athlete. And that type of culture, it's really difficult to fully, fully integrate that into this full-fledged view of Christian faith. And especially because sports is also a pluralistic space where you're going to have people of all different faith, traditions, race, ethnicity, backgrounds, which is beautiful. But it also means let's just have some realistic expectations for what we can accomplish in sports, realizing tension's going to exist. It's the already not yet tension. We live after Jesus's life, death and resurrection before he comes to make it fully complete. And so in the midst of that, we can witness to Christ's way right now and point to glimpses of his coming kingdom. But let's not have this sense of maybe an idealistic perfectionist bent that insists or expects that we're going to round out all the sharp edges of sports. There's going to be tension there. Jon Eckert: And so as educators, the beautiful thing, I got to teach coach for years and what I loved about it was I love basketball, but it wasn't going over the same play for the fourth year in a row. And the 50th practice that I've done it was seeing how individuals came to that and what skills you had and how you could put them in place to be successful. And so when I taught a science lab the 16th time I taught the science lab, I knew what was going to happen with the chemical reaction, but it was fun to see through the eyes of the kids that were there. So the more diverse and pluralistic the classroom of the team is, the more interesting it is to see that through all those different perspectives. And I think that's really how God sees us anyway. And so there's beauty in that and it's not a challenge to be overcome. It's the beauty of being in the world that every person is made in the image of God, whether they're the guy on the end of the bench or the best player on the team, or the kid that struggles in the science lab and flourishes in the art classroom. That kid is fascinating. And then you can't give up on that kid. And so the great coaches don't give up on players. It's why I'm super curious to see how Bill Belichick does at University of North Carolina, having been a pro coach for so many years where it is like, yeah, you've got to recruit well, but you also have to build a culture where your team, and that's harder to do now than ever because of what's going on in the transfer portal. And I don't like this, so I'm going to leave. And at least in the classroom, for the most part, we get a kid for the year and we get to be with them. We get to walk alongside them for a time and help them become more of who they're created to be and then pass them off to the next person. So I know in the Faith and Sports Institute, this is a lot of what you're trying to do through sports and how you integrate faith well. So talk a little bit about any events you have coming up or what you hope to do through that. Paul Putz: Yeah, well one thing we are excited about is the stuff we get to do with you, the Center for School Leadership. I think just over the past couple of years we've connected and collaborated. We've hung out and [inaudible 00:22:43] Jon Eckert: Board, you're on our advisory board board. Paul Putz: I often tell people, CSL think is one of the best things Baylor has going for it. And that's because I was a high school teacher and I see the sort of leaders that are developed through CSL. And so I immediately wanted to get connected and to see some overlap. I also knew sports is so central to education, and I know you have many coaches and athletic directors who come through your degree programs. And so it's been fun just to explore together some of the ways we can partner. So we do have, in June, we're actually going to be putting on at Baylor in conjunction with Baylor Athletics Center for School Leadership, faith and Sports Institute. We're going to have a little Christian Leadership Summit event. We're going to gather people together who are interested in these questions of faith and sport integration and how do you compete with excellence, but with Christian values and perspective. And so we're real excited about that. We have other events that we're doing in February, we're hosting a youth sports event, thinking about how the church navigates youth sports issues. And that's going to be February 7th and eighth here at Truett Seminary in Waco. And then in next summer, July, late July, we're hosting the Global Congress on Sport and Christianity. This is more of an academic gathering. We're bringing in scholars who do research on sports and Christianity, but we're also bringing in some thoughtful practitioners, some chaplains, some coaches, some athletic directors, people who have thought deeply about sports and faith. And it's a shared conversation. So a lot of what we try to do with the Faith and Sports Institute, convene people, have conversations, collaborate, bring people together. And we do have some grad programs and online certificate programs. So we have some educational pieces that are foundational to what we do, but also we have these just public facing programs and collaboration opportunities that I'm real excited about. Jon Eckert: Love that. And I love being at a place like Baylor where there's so many good things going on. As a center, we get to partner with you, we get to partner with Baylor Athletics. Anything Coach Drew does, I will happily support. Paul Putz: 100%. Jon Eckert: So we have so many great people like that. So that's a blessing. And I know we're almost out of time, so I'm going to do our lightning round because we really need to do the lightning round. But I want to start with this. What's the biggest challenge you see facing Christian coaches and educators right now? Paul Putz: I think it's margin and time, and the demands of the job. It seems there's more and more responsibility, and for good reasons. It's because there's these issues. It's mental health. We want to care for the kids. And there's all these challenges kids face now you need to figure that out, because if you're going to teach the kid, you better know what you're doing. And it just seems like I was last a high school teacher 11 years ago. I don't know that that world exists now 10 years later. It's totally different when I hear what educators are going through. I think for coaches as well, you've talked about it with NIL, it feels so new. I would just say some margin, some grace, some space, some sense of community. And then through that, maybe we can figure out some healthier rhythms because it's unsustainable with the way it is now. So that's one thing I see just with the people I've been around, and I know we've talked a little bit about this too, it's something... We need each other. At the end of the day, we need each other for this. Jon Eckert: Yeah. Best advice you've ever received? Paul Putz: I would say, I'm going to, boy, here's what I'll go with. John Wilson said this, "Let a thousand flowers bloom," was what he said. And he was talking about in the context of academics who kind of try to claim their territory, their space, and kind of own it. And his perspective was, let's encourage it all. Let's let it all grow. Don't try to cultivate your little space, a little thousand flowers bloom. It's going to look more beautiful and let's encourage one another along the way. And so that's the first thing that to mind. If I were to think more, I might have something else, but that's something I've been continually reminded of is how much we need each other and how much we need to encourage one another. And how much there is when we look out from ourselves and see the other work that's being accomplished. There's so much to support and encourage. Jon Eckert: That's good. I always like what comes to mind first. So that's good. Worst advice you've ever received? Paul Putz: Worst advice... Jon Eckert: Or given? Paul Putz: Or given? I've probably given some bad advice. I cannot think of... There's nothing specific that's coming to mind. That's for worst advice probably because sort of just went in one ear and out the other. Jon Eckert: That's good. Paul Putz: Gosh, I've run a total blank. You stumped me. [inaudible 00:27:39] Yeah. I'll circle back. I'm going to email you, if I can think of one after. Jon Eckert: You have to have gotten bad advice from a coach or from about coaching. That's where some of the worst advice I've ever received about coaching. Paul Putz: Well, I'll tell you. So this isn't necessarily advice, but I have heard a coach say, and this is about being a Christian, basically it was, "Hey, when you're a Christian, when you step onto that field, you're someone else. You're totally someone else. You can become whatever you want to be there." So there you go. That's some bad advice. Jon Eckert: Yeah. That's good. Paul Putz: As Christians, sports are part of life. So we don't separate who we are as Christians, we don't compartmentalize. So there you go. Worst advice is that you can separate who you are in the field to play. Jon Eckert: So if you had to distill down into a sentence your one takeaway piece of advice for somebody who wants to write a book, I talk to a lot of educators who run to write a book, you've now written a book. Any nugget that as an encouragement or as a discouragement, like, "Hey, think about this." What would you say? Paul Putz: I would say you got to write it for yourself. You got to care about it. And it's got to be important for you that you put this out because there's a ton of great books out there. You're not going to get rich off writing books. It's got to be because you're passionate about it. For yourself, not in the sense of to glorify yourself, for yourself in the sense that I have these words that I think could be helpful if I get it out. And the other thing is resilience. You got to be willing to sit down in that chair and write when you don't feel like it. Get that draft out, edit, revise. So it's resilience. And it's also a real calling that these words need to be out there. Jon Eckert: Yeah. Well, you said you were not going to make money on this. I've heard you refer to yourself as the John Grisham of sports historians. Paul Putz: There's only... Yeah, of sports and Christianity in America. Historians. There's like two of us. Jon Eckert: That's good. No, no, that's good. It's so true about the books and not getting rich, and you do have to have something that you feel so deeply that you need to get out there that it's going to drive you on those days you don't want to do it. So that's good advice. Last question, what makes you most hopeful as you look ahead, as an educator, as somebody who's interested in sports, what makes you most encouraged? Paul Putz: I think it's being around people who we're in this with, it's about the people we're in it with. There's a lot that I can get discouraged about when I see the news and it feels like there's so much that's changing. But then I'm around people who are saying, "You know what? This is a time we lived in. We didn't choose this time, but here we are, and what are we going to give up? We're going to say, oh, it's hopeless." No, it's the people. It's looking for people who want to find solutions and who realize young people are growing up. They're being shaped and formed right now. And if we're not in that work, what are we doing to shape the future? So that's more than anything. It's just being around people who are willing to put in the work, even in the face of the struggles. Jon Eckert: Well, until wrap up, I'm grateful that you decided not to take your talents to the NBA, but you brought them into academia and you brought those loves together. So I really appreciate your partnership and you being here today. Paul Putz: Thanks so much. Really appreciate you and the work you do.

Biesler, Jörg www.deutschlandfunk.de, Kultur heute