Charlie Joiner

Charlie Joiner, the NFL Hall of Fame former wide receiver of the San Diego Chargers (1978-86), accepted Christ into his life at an early age in Lake Charles, Louisiana. "If you didn't go to church," says the soft-spoken Joiner, "the pastor was knocking at your door. Those black pastors have a way of convincing you to do things."

Joiner's Faith has always been his ultimate source of strength.

"All the problems in the world, you look in the good book, the Bible, and you find all the answers" In college, at Grambling, Joiner fell a bit away from Jesus, but "once I became an adult and realized all the problems you're gonna face when you're out in the world on your own, you gotta have something to lean on, and believe me, I know you can lean on God."

Joiner's college experience is something he thinks many young people go through when they get away from home for the first time, meeting kids from different backgrounds and parents. Says Joiner: "In college there was peer pressure to do other things. Instead of reading the scriptures, there's dominoes or dice or Nintendo. I wasn't going to church on Sunday and I wasn't saying my prayers at night. You gotta make time for the Bible. It takes 15 or 20 minutes to read a chapter of scripture, then you can go play dominoes."

Being a Christian athlete helped Joiner keep his work ethic up and pay attention to the details of the job. The challenge at times was from the teammates who didn't believe in Christ, he says, which is why Christian athletes tend to stay to themselves. Adds Joiner: "They really don't want to upset the apple cart. They're afraid if they preach the Christian way they may think the coaches may have something against them."

Joiner, says his biggest challenge as a player was "being a parent, being away from home so much. When your kids are young, you have to spend time with them otherwise they'll never know your beliefs . . . and they could go off and do you don't know what. Peer pressure is the worst thing kids have to face as they're growing up. I tell them to believe in their hearts."