BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The pastor of First Baptist Church in Keystone Heights has just as much of a presence on the sideline of a high school football game as in the pulpit.
Ryan Begue says he uses his lifelong passion for sports to connect with young people.
The Asbury Lake native, who started in ministry teaching 15-year-old boys in a Sunday School class, served in churches in the panhandle and the Orlando area before returning to Clay County and eventually settling at First Baptist.
“I think God wires us all in unique ways,” he said. “For me, I guess I’ve always been sort of a sports enthusiast. I played a lot of sports growing up and different things like that. And my boy was playing football here at Keystone Heights, and he was a weightlifter, and obviously, Keystone Heights weightlifting has had a great run for quite a while.”
Begue said he started coaching with the football team and then coached the golf team.
“My wife took a job at the school a few years ago,” he said, “and so she became one of the cheerleading coaches, the girls’ head tennis coach, and the girls’ golf coach.”
Begue’s connection with young people was displayed during a fifth-quarter event following the varsity football team’s game with Union County on August 30.
The church’s gym was filled with high school students.
First Baptist’s youth minister, Tom Rosier, said the event is designed to offer students an alternative to post-game partying.
“We open up the church, give them some snacks and drinks, and play basketball and volleyball and stuff like that,” he said.
Rosier said the youth ministry is comprised of seventh to 12th-graders, and around 50 students attend the ministry’s Wednesday night events.
“We have worship and a sermon,” he said. “We also are starting to do outreach programs, trying to get the youth engaged in their youth group.”
Rosier added that the youth ministry is expanding.
“We’ve got a worship team that’s starting,” he said. “We have a welcome team that’s starting. We have a media team that’s already started, so we’re just trying to get them more engaged in the gospel.”
Begue said the ministry is anchored in a love for teenagers and an appreciation for the Lake Region.
“We have a heart for teenagers,” he said. “We have a heart for this community. We love it. I can’t say how much of a blessing it is to be a part of a small community and to sort of be able to weave it all together. And I think that the Lord’s called us obviously to be salt and light and to be involved and to plant ourselves in a community.”
