Arlington pastor’s book will help fund outdoor sports ministry

One day, not long after the Trinity United Methodist Church moved to its new location at the corner of Green Oaks Boulevard and Pioneer Parkway, associate pastor and youth minister Scott Heusel, a former trainer for the San Diego Padres, gazed out at the land and saw …

Kids.

All kinds of kids. All colors of kids. All sizes of kids.

Kids playing soccer, kids playing football, playing baseball, playing softball.

Kids running and laughing.

And the germ of an idea came to life.

What if Trinity used all the empty land surrounding the church to create a sports ministry that could reach out to under-privileged kids, kids who might otherwise not have a chance to experience the joy of teamwork, or learn the life lessons that competitive sports can impart?

Heusel shared his vision with senior pastor Dean Posey and other key leaders in the church of about 3,000 members. It didn’t take long for Posey and his wife, Diane, to realize that the sports ministry was just the opportunity they’d been looking for to tie into a book that had been in the works for almost 30 years, had finally been completed and might actually be published.

“A few months earlier, Diana and I were taking our regular walk and we said, we don’t know what’s going to happen, or where this is going, but let’s just decide now, before it’s ever published, that if there’s any money from this, it needs to go back to good, for something special,” Posey said.

After Heusel described his vision, the Poseys decided to donate every penny of any proceeds from the sale of the book, 12 Gifts We Can’t Afford to Lose, toward making Trinity’s sports ministry a reality.

The foundation, of course, was already having the land.

“Land is expensive and fewer and fewer churches actually have an outdoor sports ministry,” Posey said. “A lot of them have gyms and basketball and things like that, but they don’t have the space for outdoor sports. We do, thanks be to God. We think we are building something that will be unique for our community and bless thousands of kids.”

‘It’s been humbling’

The book delves deeply into the Noah’s Ark story to discover “what Noah can teach us about surviving the storms of life and living well,” Posey said.

Trinity members were blessed with an early release of the book from Billion Soul Publishing and responded by snatching up copies. An official local release will come in Arlington this summer, complete with celebration party.

Book sales and donations to the sports ministry have already raised close to $50,000.

“It has been humbling to see the support Trinity has given this,” Posey said.

The idea for a book based on the lessons to be learned from the Noah’s Ark story came to Posey after he was invited to speak at a revival in another state in the mid-1980s. He was scheduled to preach for four or five evenings and knew he needed divine direction on what topic he should speak about.

Time and again, prayer kept pointing him back toward Noah.

“That’s an unusual topic for a revival because it’s in the Old Testament, obviously, and normally you think about revival messages coming from the New Testament,” Posey said. “I kept praying about it and kept getting the same answers as I started getting into that story and researching it.

“I realized two things I’d never really thought about much before: one, it’s one of the greatest miracle stories in the Bible, and two, there’s a great gospel message contained in the story of Noah and the Ark, even way back in the book of Genesis.”

‘Trying to build something like Noah’

Posey wrote four sermons for the revival, each of which would eventually become a chapter in the book. Over the years, as he had chances to speak at other revivals, Posey continued to add chapters and the book itself began to take form.

In the Posey household, the debate between his children and Diana was what would be completed first, his long-term renovation of a 1955 Ford F-100 pickup or his book.

He actually completed refurbishing the pickup first. The book was finished about five years ago and sat there, waiting. In January of last year Posey took three-ring binder copies of the book to a conference in Orlando, where it generated enough interest to wind up with a publisher.

Now, with luck, Noah and 12 Gifts will be the spark that ignites a flame in Arlington and launches a unique sports opportunity for kids all over the city. The vision is no small one: Posey is hoping that big-time sports entities like the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, as well as other businesses in the city, will eventually step forward to become partners in making this sports ministry a reality.

Trinity is already seeking a permit from the city to do the necessary dirt work and build fencing to have at least two to four soccer fields in operation by this fall. Heusel’s vision of kids playing on the fields outside Trinity is just months away from actually happening.

And what would Noah think of all this?

“Hey, Noah was a big dream guy, a big vision guy,” Posey pointed out. “God used him to bless people, even though they chose not to receive the blessing, not to join him.

“But God wanted everyone to go. What we’re trying to do is bless an entire community and we hope everyone gets aboard. We’re trying to build something like Noah did. I think he’d be smiling.”

Just like those kids soon will be.

Jim Reeves is a former Star-Telegram sports columnist and a longtime member of Trinity UMC. He can be reached at revo1964@hotmail.com.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Arlington pastor’s book will help fund outdoor sports ministry."