I'm leaving the gym. After multiple divine appointments and playing basketball with a basketball missionary, I what is it about these basketball missionaries? I think you guys have a little crazy in you. Brent. Hoops of hope.
Fuque. Brother, is it good to get back on the court or what? It is good. It is good. I need to be living in North Carolina so I can just play all the time with my good friends, too.
I just can't get enough shots up. I just don't like to shoot. I'm more of a disher kind of post-pick and pass away and layup. I think more of a defender. Really, just lock down.
If you need a lock-down guy, go with Stu Epperson. Yeah, but you were stroking a day, too. But, you know, the best part is what happened at the end. huddle around and tell everyone what happened. I was looking for a place to go take a shower.
He calls me and says, Where are you? Come up here. We're talking to the guys, witness to them.
So we got to share the Lord a little bit with them, pray with them. And then we met a fine young man named Maurice who's getting ready to be a first year law school student. Great time.
So, Brent, tell a little bit about your journey into basketball, your journey into the Lord, because even though. We both grew up in church. You were a little ahead of me, and you were always a big brother and mentor to me growing up. You taught me a lot about the game and just about the Lord, but It wasn't always like that. You weren't always spinning balls and leading kids to Christ at camp and stuff.
No, I was kind of the rebellious kid, kind of doing my own thing. Even though I, you know, had all the Bible verses memorized, went to church, did all this stuff. About high school time, I started giving. My life more to sports and basketball. was my one love and ended up getting cut in college.
And so, after that, that's when I gave my life to the Lord at the age of 19, gave him basketball, gave him everything. And since then, I've traveled all over the world, 15 countries in about 35 states, just spreading the gospel through basketball. You know, great ministries that you've connected with directly, indirectly: Athletes in Action, FCA, Crossfire, our friend Randy Shepherd's in heaven. Jamie Johnson's still growing strong. He's a regular on this show, but something basketball-that's another big one.
I used to be one of their featured entertainers, can juggle and spend basketballs and. Yeah, God has done a lot of things. You've been in my driveway many times when my kids were younger, teaching them tricks, basketball, ball handling stuff, and fundamentals: the beef, the shooting, the dribbling, the defense. Brit. Tell me a little bit about my favorite line of yours that I have.
I've plagiarized you all over the world. Awesome. I try to give you credit when I have enough time. You don't need to. No, but it's all.
I know you say it's all for the Lord, but the thing you say that's so encouraging. That's really the narrative of a lot of Ball players, football, pro-basketball, pro-swimmers, you know, pro-athletes, college athletes, people that are competitive, they're saying this a lot. In a different way about their sport, but Something about Something's a terrible God, or a great sport, you're what I've got to say that part, you see, because you know how to say it. You're the one that taught me that whole line and that whole witnessing.
So, when I would go to a gym, that became my church, and when I would swish it, that was my praise music, and that basketball was my idol. It was a God to me with a little G. But basketball is a great sport, but it's a terrible God. It's a terrible thing to put all your hopes and dreams into something that can't give you anything back. And if you think about it, you know, ten years from now we won't remember How many shots we hit?
In that Pickup game we just played in. But we might remember touching Maurice. You know, got to pray with him. Maurice, Maurice was cool. And then several other guys that hung around that weren't in a hurry to go.
Thanks to Lord. And you got to share a little gospel message with them about the importance of trusting. He's the damn high jumper in the world.
Well, I didn't even, I mean, I knew he was a good basketball player, and Stu told me he was a track coach. And one time he missed the Olympics by one spot, and it was only because he was at the USA, strongest team in the world. He was like top 10 in the world, high jumper, seven foot four. And the crazy thing about God using you in so many ways, in so many arenas, platforms, on stages in front of thousands and thousands of people from the Philippines to all these other countries. Is you were cut from your college team.
I mean, what does that say about God's grace, His power in our weakness?
Well, I share that with kids all the time. You know, if I came and I was a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or Sach O'Neal, and I was good at basketball, you'd say, Well, sure, you're that famous basketball player on TV, NBA. I'm like, Well, look, guys, I'm not any better than you. I didn't even make the college team, but yeah, God has decided for some crazy reason, He took the weak things of this world to confound the strong. And what is it like when you see these kids, little youngsters, four years old, five years old, 10 years old, 13 years old, you're teaching them how to dribble for the first time at one of your camps, Colorado Springs, you know, wherever you're hosting camps all over the country, all over the world.
What's it like when you see a kid? Raise their hand and say, I want to receive Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow the Jesus that Brent Hoops of Hope is talking about. What's that like? And talk about the power of that.
For everyone out there listening, why we need to be about that part. Yeah, it's a great thing to see them. Hey, look, look, look, Coach Hoops, I can send the ball on my finger like you did, or I can do this trick shot or whatever. But then when I hear more about they've come to the Lord, they know the Lord, they want to talk about the Bible, because every one of our camps, we always make devotionals an important part. And during the weekly camps, we always have a showtime where I'll do a ball handling show.
At the end of that, I share the gospel to them, and they get an opportunity to pray and receive Christ.
So that's the most exciting thing to me.
Well, and I appreciate you encouraging me to do it. And you have maybe the best website for basketball on the planet. Tell everyone what that is, and tell everyone how they can support your ministry. Because when we send you gifts from time to time, not enough, need to do more. But when we do, when we do, it helps you put fuel in the tank.
It helps you buy basketballs. It helps you go out to these places and share the gospel through the sport of basketball.
So give that website and give some information to how listeners can pray. For you, support you, what we can do to help your ministry hoops of hope. Yep, so I think that we have had that website for over 25 years. It's hoops.org, www.hoops.org. And you can email me at hoops at hoops.org.
My nickname's hoops for around all the kids. And it's been a blessing to have that. And sure, we'd love people to come alongside any way they can, but we'd also love you to bring us in. If you have a church that has some basketball hoops or a gym, contact us. Let's see if we can do a show or a camp for you.
We'd love to do that. And we always try to do a little pickup game when you come to town, and we always try to. Not leave the court, the gym, the premises without sharing Jesus with one person. And sometimes it's hard if you had a bad game. Or if you miss three in a row, like I'm not saying who did, but yours truly did there at the end.
But it's always redeeming and it's always worth it all when you get to tell someone, hey, God loves you, God's pursuing you, listen to the Lord, open the Bible, and learn about a Savior who came and died for you. That's what makes it worth it all, right, Brent? That's awesome stuff, Stu. And you encourage me with that because, you know, I eat, drank, slept basketball for many, many years, many, many years, decades. But now I'm to the point where I just know that the Lord's more important than any game, anything in my life.
I need to have Him as the number one thing. And you've been through some tough things in the family with relatives that have gone to heaven that you got to minister at the funeral. We got to have a nice breakfast with Ashley Bell, one of our other ball players. He's been balling and shooting that three for many years. You lived three houses up from me when I grew up on Limeback Drive.
And you were that big brother to him. I mean, pouring you just into him. And I find myself saying things and sharing the Lord from mentors like you, Mike McKee, other, you know, Jamie Johnson, Randy Shepard.
So many have poured into. Me, and that's kind of what I'm now thinking about.
Well, who am I pouring Jesus into? My grandkids, my son-in-law, others playing ball, baller nation. You know, I take that guy, you know, Pastor Jay Boyce, who's a basketball missionary, left-handed. Assassin, amazing player, but just the whole goal ultimately is the hashtag that we put on all of our videos. In His Name, We Play, and get us out of here with.
The High priority of everything is worship, and the king is returning. How do we need to be about sharing the gospel, sharing the truth right now? I was just thinking about this. It's funny you said that a day or two ago, and I forget which. It's one of the biggest organizations you probably know, and I can't remember who it is, but to know him, to make him known.
Who's the motto of one of the big ones? And that just hit me because that's our two-fold thing to do in our life. Our motto should be that: to know him, and then through that, make him known. All right. That's Hoops himself, Brent Hoops, Fuquay, Hoops of Hope, and the website hoops.org.
And I'm going to post a couple of our little clips and maybe a couple pictures of us where we got to share the gospel and we got to pray with some people and some things we didn't. This was not on the counter. This game was on the counter. It was like a well, and I got invited.
Someone gracious said, come play. And they said, you have room for one more? And next thing you know, I said, Well, I got a ringer. This guy can fill it up. This guy can drop buckets.
This guy, I mean, I tell you right now, you must have hit one from 40 feet.
Now, that was in warm-ups, but it was still a good shot. Thank you very much, Stu. And Stu couldn't hit more. He's very humble because he didn't miss any until that very last game. He won every game till then.
So he did awesome. It was so fun to watch him play.
Well, praise the Lord. And we got to win in terms of. Sharing the good news of Jesus.
So, some guys heard about Christ today. It's in their court. We can't save anybody, but we can introduce them. It's not our job to save anybody. It's God's job.
All we need to do is be like Johnny Appleseed. We're spreading the seeds of the gospel, and it's up to the Holy Spirit to do whatever. And I've also heard, too, this evangelism scale from zero to 100. Atheists are zero. Believers are 10.
Sorry, 0 to 10. And if we move them one spot from 3 to 4 to be a little bit closer to knowing the Lord, then we've done our job. Praise the Lord. And we're just leaving the gym. It's a little loud out here.
We're walking to the car in a college campus, but. The gospel's going out wherever you are, whoever you are. Wherever you are. Share the good news of Christ, whether it's through spinning a basketball. This guy can spin many balls at once, he still can, or whether you're in the workplace or you're at home or whatever, God's got you where you are for a reason, and that is to make much of Him.
because he's coming back. And we have the privilege of sharing this good news everywhere we go. Awesome. Praise God, brother. True top line
