Anthony Johnson, MA ' 19享受了三个职业生涯-一个是成功的NFL跑卫, another as a longtime NFL team chaplain, and now, with the help of the Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine, as a counselor with a burgeoning practice in Florida.
“God transformed me through the Townsend Institute’s counseling program,” says the 11-year pro athlete. “When somebody comes into my office, no matter the issue or diagnosis, I have the capacity now of being present with them in whatever they’re experiencing. 这说明了我从康考迪亚·欧文那里学到的咨询方面的知识.”
As a mid-career professional, Johnson wasn’t eager to pivot to another assignment and go back to school — at least, not at first.
“我当时的想法是，‘不用了，谢谢，我已经做过了，’”他说. “尤其是在网络环境下回到学校. I thought, ‘There's no way.’” But he took the plunge with the Townsend Institute and found himself in a life-changing experience.
“It began with that first cohort,” he says. “We got in there and talked about real things, 你通常不会向初次见面的人透露的事情. The Institute’s professors did an awesome job in our cohort modeling that process. 他们也经历了同样的过程，并带领我们走过这段路... 你不能把别人带到你没去过的地方.”
But before he was a counselor or a team chaplain, Johnson played football at the highest level.
National Champion
约翰逊出生于印第安纳波利斯，在南本德长大. His father died when he was young. His mother remarried when he was 10 years old, 在这个混合家庭中，他是九个孩子中的老二. Johnson attended Notre Dame University on a scholarship and played running back and fullback for the Fighting Irish at a high point for the football program. He helped the team win a national championship, alongside future NFL stars Tony Rice, Raghib “Rocket” Ismail and Tim Brown. 约翰逊说:“作为爱尔兰人，那是一段有趣的时光。.
Though he had been brought up in a Reformed Presbyterian church and given his life to the Lord at age eight, Johnson had wandered from God and “floundered, big-time” until one particular day at training camp heading into his sophomore season.
他表示:“我的第一年还算不错，有一半的游戏是在后备状态下开始的. “We were up-and-coming, but I was miserable, not only because Lou Holtz ran a tough practice, but just life. I should have been at the top of the world, 但我记得走出训练场时，我真的告诉了上帝, ‘I’m done. I would like you to come and get me now.’ I was ready.”
上帝通过汤森德学院的咨询项目改变了我. I have the capacity now of being present...
God showed Johnson that he was living disconnected from a relationship with his heavenly Father. For Johnson, change came immediately: he began spending hours every morning reading the Bible and finding his way back to communion with God.
“It was real, without question,” he says. “当我被判有罪时，我会全力以赴.”
他又开始去教堂做礼拜，并在那里遇到了他未来的妻子谢莉. 他们在全国冠军赛之前结婚了. As a young man with a bright future, 约翰逊设定了自己的优先顺序:“先是上帝，现在是我的家人, and my profession. I was going to give it all I had,” he says.
1990年在第二轮被印第安纳波利斯小马队选中, Johnson “wasn’t going to mess around with this,” he says. “I wanted to be the best I could possibly be.”
He played with quarterback Jeff George, “probably the best thrower I played with, by far,” Johnson says. 但总的来说，他在小马队的日子令人沮丧. “这不是我所希望的进入联盟的机会，”他说. “就我个人而言，我在挣扎，用牙齿和指甲的皮肤来支撑. 如果我不是在第二轮被选中，我肯定会被裁掉.”
美国国家橄榄球联盟的系统与他们在圣母大学运行的系统非常不同. “When I got to the league, I had to learn a whole new game, and it was difficult,” Johnson says. “I struggled.”
到了第三年，事情开始好转，然后约翰逊“学会了如何跑步”.” “I didn’t run track, so I hired an athletic development guy in my fourth year and he taught me how to run,” Johnson says.
The training made him faster, and he ran a low 4.4 in the 40-yard-dash even later in his career.
“It was rewarding to feel like I could be a thousand-yard runner and feel like I could be faster,” he says.
也许他给球队带来的最有价值的东西是强大的心理游戏.
“I always knew what I was supposed to do, and when I was supposed to do it,” he says. “That’s partly what got me into the league and definitely what kept me in the league.”
These young guys had such needs… In some cases, they didn’t realize what they were missing. 他们会抓住对基督的追求，跳进去.
He spent a year with the New York Jets, another with the Chicago Bears, four years with the Carolina Panthers and one with the Jacksonville Jaguars — 11 years total, an eternity for a running back.
“那段时间我没有受到任何严重的伤害. I was really blessed,” he says.
In one game in 1997, he racked up 142 yards, feeling “as good as I’ve ever felt,” he says.
他职业生涯的高潮是1996年的NFC冠军赛, 黑豹队第一个赛季的对手是谁.
“We were one game away from the Super Bowl, 我们在兰博神圣的大厅里被包装工队打败了,” he remembers. “It was a magical year, a fun year. Chemistry made it work. It was a team experience.”
The team unity he experienced with the Panthers organization helped lead to his next career as a chaplain in the NFL.
“The core of our team that year was guys who had a strong faith in Christ,” he says. “他们不仅与个人紧密相连，而且与家人紧密相连. That was a core of that experience, and it compelled me to become a chaplain, 在每个人的生活中创造和培养这种精神.”
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From Player to Spiritual Coach
In 2000, 当他等待一个从来没有来自一支想让他上场的球队的电话时, 约翰逊每天早上都向上帝寻求他的职业前途. 在马太福音28章中，主把大使命引导到他的思想中.
“I knew he was calling me to make disciples. So I said, ‘God, I’m in.’” A few months later, the Panthers' long-time team chaplain, Mike Bunkley, invited Anthony to apprentice with him. “迈克不仅在我作为球员的经历中发挥了重要作用, 而是在指导和挑战我成为一名牧师,” Johnson says.
But soon, Johnson got a call from Jack Del Rio who was looking for a chaplain for the team he’d just been hired to coach: the Jacksonville Jaguars. “Without question, I heard God’s call, so we came down here and filled that role,”
Johnson says. He and Shelley did that for 15 seasons, serving essentially as “domestic missionaries,” he says.
“Someone told me the first couple of months I was there, ‘You’re like a pastor to the organization.’我说，哦，天哪，我想我是。”约翰逊说. “就圣经而言，有很多东西需要学习, how to communicate, how to give a sermon, how to do a Bible study. 所有这些事情，还有更多，我想，哦，天哪，我不知道我能不能做到. I’ve got to learn.”
然后他意识到他一直都在做门徒训练. “You’re a person who’s following Christ, following someone else who’s following Christ. 我惊喜地意识到我已经在这么做了，”他说. “I’d gotten a picture of that from the chaplains I’d been in contact within the league, especially Mike. It was a huge relief and a great motivation because then it was like, maybe I really can do this.”
For 15 years, 约翰逊“在球员们打球的时候把基督带到他们的经历中, and looked for opportunities within the rhythm of an in-season schedule and off-season schedule, to inject Christ and the things of Christ, a Bible study message, and an encouraging sit-down and conversation.”
他的工作不仅包括100多名球员, but twenty-plus coaches, 前台人员和许多体育场员工. 他的日程表上满是圣经研究和球员教堂, coaches, couples, 加上大量的个人互动-包括在比赛期间的场边.
“These young guys had such needs,” he says. “在某些情况下，他们没有意识到自己错过了什么. 他们会抓住对基督的追求，跳进去, say I’m all in, 尽他们最大的努力与旁边的人分享基督.”
Maurice Williams, 在美洲虎队做了九年的右截锋和右后卫, met Johnson at a critical time in his life.
“当我开始获得成功、金钱和一定程度的名声时, realizing those things didn’t complete me, 我越来越热爱的是我的信仰,” Williams says. “I didn’t grow up in the church and didn’t have the understanding of what it looks like to be a Christian, so Anthony was a pivotal relationship for me, especially spiritually. 有一个上帝的人，一个正直的人的榜样真的很强大. 他在那里回答我所有的问题，并鼓励我的礼物. 这是他的优点之一——理解他人并与之合作. 这是我需要的一个锚点，让我有正确的视角.”
后来，约翰逊邀请威廉姆斯参加一个运动员行动会议 John Townsend was speaking, and Williams decided to become the chaplain for the Jaguars when Johnson went into full-time counseling.
“作为牧师和兄弟，安东尼对我来说是一个巨大的祝福,” says Williams, who is also the pastor of a church.
Going Deeper to Help Others
但在约翰逊开始他的咨询事业之前, he sensed a need to acquire additional skills to help guys with real-world struggles. “They may know John 3:16 backwards and forwards, but they’re still wrestling with wounds and losses and life issues and experiences,” he says. “I found myself at a loss in some ways. 应该更像约翰福音第4章，耶稣在井边对女人说话. 我和男人一起走得够多了，但我需要更多的工具.”
他四处寻找资源，最终找到了汤森研究所.
“Shelley was the catalyst for this,” he recalls. “There was an opportunity that Townsend and [Henry] Cloud provided to be part of a one-week intensive. 我听说了一些事情，所以我鼓励谢莉去.”
Shelley came back raving about the experience. Eventually, Anthony took her advice and he and Shelley met with John Townsend at an NFL owners meeting.
“He touched on things in my life that for 46 years I did not realize how much that was impacting me, like losing my dad,” Anthony says. “I went to the one-week intensive the next month and had the same thing Shelley experienced: dramatic transformation. I call it excavating some things in me.”
He enrolled in the Townsend Institute and “saw God doing things in my life in a deeper way than even that meeting with John, that I didn’t know he could do,” he says. “It was really transforming.”
Every online class gave him “some type of connection that in some way encouraged or equipped me.这也帮助他照顾受伤的职业球员, cut days and other adverse life events.
“I loved being a salve to whatever degree I could when guys were cleaning out their lockers and walking out the door,” Johnson says. “Getting injuries is really difficult, particularly career-ending or season-ending injuries. I learned [in the Townsend Institute program] that it’s just being present even if you don’t have a word to say.”
约翰逊很快就觉得自己被召唤去做全职咨询. 2019年从汤森学院(Townsend Institute)毕业后，他敞开了心扉 Acacia Counseling 2020年初提供个人、夫妻、团体咨询服务. Today, he and Shelley have five children and six grandchildren — and Anthony is embarking on his third career.
“I’m so enjoying seeing people change,” he says. “我希望他们能像我所经历的那样发生深刻的变化. It’s about bringing the life of Christ to them.”