Today we’d like to introduce you to LaMorris + Megan Crawford.
LaMorris + Megan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We met in college! LaMorris is African American and Megan is Caucasian. To put it gently, neither of our families were excited about the thought of us marrying outside of our race. After 3 1/2 years of loving one another, Megan’s dad telling LaMorris no he couldn’t date Megan, because of his skin color, and having many, many conversations later, LaMorris finally received a “yes” from Megan’s dad! Megan’s parents had some major heart transformations and asked LaMorris to forgive them for being racist, and gave them permission to date Megan. A few, short months later, LaMorris proposed. 17 years, happily married, and a lot of life later, we have 4 beautiful children and have been serving in professional sports’ ministry for over 11 years, 8 full time to the Cincinnati Bengals, and we begin our newest journey this season as the full time chaplains to the Carolina Panthers! We are the founders of Covenant Culture Ministries, a marriage and family ministry, where we travel the world speaking! Our podcast, Covenant Culture, has allowed us to stay connected with the churches, schools, teams, athletes, etc that we humbly have the privilege of serving. We do it all for Jesus, and are so grateful for what He has done in our lives! We will continue to serve the Lord through professional sports, women’s conferences, men’s conferences, our retreats, that we host right here in Greenville, and through our podcast, because we have a desire to help bring change to marriages and families around the world!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly, the Lord clearly set out a path for us in pro ministry. We didn’t even know professional teams had team chaplains! This was nothing we pursued, but instead, teams/coaches have come to us. We have had 4 different NFL teams offer us a position with them, and we pray about each opportunity! When we moved from Cinci to Greenville, we just assumed we were done in the pro space, because as a chaplain, you don’t leave a team, unless you are moving into another role, and have no intention of being in that space any longer; we just wanted to be obedient to where the Lord was calling us, and had NO idea how close we were to Charlotte! So, here we are again… back at it! Our podcast was birthed out of our “in between” season! We knew the Lord called us to it, but we had NO idea how to do it! We began asking our, now, producer questions about the equipment we were purchasing, and he immediately knew he wanted to help us produce Covenant Culture, not only because he believed in our vision, but he was also very aware we had no idea what we were doing with the expensive equipment he was telling us to purchase! Ha – thank God for Kev! Megan never listened to podcasts, and we both knew it was unfamiliar territory. Neither of us were interested in “having that type of platform”, and didn’t want to promote ourselves, but it became very clear that we were being disobedient to what the Lord was calling us to do! We started our podcast and have consistently produced content for almost 2 years! As we previously mentioned, we have the opportunity to speak around the world. LaMorris does men’s conferences, youth conferences, speaks on Sunday mornings, while Megan does women’s conferences and we do marriage conferences together. However, our most favorite speaking engagements are when we host Covenant Culture retreats, both marriage and separately, women’s and men’s! We are so honored to do this necessary work, and we know that lives are being changed because Jesus is doing His thing!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We have shared a lot in previous responses, but we are so grateful to be in this space! There are 32 teams in the National Football League; we don’t take this opportunity for granted! To hold 1 of 32 positions, we understand the impact that can take place here, influencing the influencers. Most people don’t know our position even exists… we definitely didn’t know when we began our journey with the Bengals! Although chaplains go through the process of hiring within the teams, these are not paid positions by most NFL teams. This is ministry, and chaplains understand what that means when we are hired.
We consider our position as a duo, because it is far more effective to have both husband and wife involved with the men on these teams, and their significant others. We see their lives as more important than their productivity on the field, while we also deeply know that their performance is greatly enhanced when their hearts are aligned with their Creator, when their marriages/intimate relationships are strong and healthy, and when their families are loving one another well. When they have peace off the field, they are free to use their God-given gifts to their fullest potential on the field!
This ministry truly isn’t about us! Anything we’ve done “well” at this point, is because God has shown up, and He is in the life changing business! We want to create a safe space of love, discipleship, and do a new thing, that has never been done before! Through team chapel services, player’s wives/significant others’ Bible studies, players’ studies, coaches’ studies, coach’s wives’ studies, one on one’s, baby showers, etc… there is a LOT to do in this space, and we are just grateful the Lord sees fit to have us here to do it!
Creatively speaking, our podcast was a different “yes”, that works in tandem with our position with Carolina. We are just now about to begin interviews with different couples, in all different spaces, pro sports and entrepreneurs, in ministry, and in business. We will continue our podcast, to love and encourage this world, one podcast at a time.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
LaMorris didn’t leave the basketball court. I was raised on the Southside of Chicago, in the projects. Basketball was a way of life, and my meal ticket out of the hood, so I stayed on the courts. I had multiple scholarships and opportunities to play in college, but my SAT scores landed me at a community college. I later transferred to a four year university, worked my way through college and graduated with a masters’ degree in Organizational Leadership, with my undergrad in Sports Recreation. I grew up without a father present in my life, and still have never met him to this day, and my mom was shot and killed in a gang fight when I was a baby, just 10 months old. My grandmother raised me, and did the best she could on welfare, while she raised 8 of my other cousins! She had 9 kids herself, and then ended up raising 9 grandkids, due to multiple deaths and unfortunate circumstances that took place in my family. I was always the class clown, but that was my best cover for my brokenness. Then, I turned 19 years old and I just realized, there had to be more to life! At the end of my popularity, being one of the best in my school to play basketball, voted most athletic out of my class, voted turnabout king, prom court, doing whatever I wanted with whoever I wanted, year after year; this couldn’t be all there was in life! And then I met Jesus! He changed my life. He took a broken kid from the hood and gave me hope. He took an orphaned kid and gave me a Good Father. He took an abandoned kid and gave me love and life! To this day, no one can ever tell me what happened in my heart, and in my life, was because of me! It was a supernatural experience, and I know I’m only here today because of Jesus. No way a kid from the streets serves millionaires. I just couldn’t have done this for myself; He did it for me!
Megan grew up completely opposite. While LaMorris had a very large graduating class, Megan had only 94 kids in her little country senior class. I grew up in the middle of cornfields, in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. I became a Christian when I was 5 years old, and brought everybody to church with me! I was the glue in friendships, because I have always had a support system, and I don’t take that for granted. I was born to a father and mother, who just recently celebrated 50 years of marriage! LaMorris and Megan’s upbringings, relationship, and physique are quite literally black and white. Until we met in college! Our lives align so beautifully, and LaMorris stepped into a family that he never had. God restores, and this redemptive story is something only He could do! We are grateful God took two opposite people, and gave us eachother! We never imagined this would be our life, but we are so happy that it is!
Pricing:
- $125 an hour Couples Biblical Counseling
- $1800 Couples Retreats
- $3000 3-Day Marriage Intensive, travel excluded
- $75 an hour One on One Biblical Counseling
- $2000 Small Group Curriculum
Contact Info:
- Website: https://covenantcultureministries.com
- Instagram: Covenant Culture Podcast : https://www.instagram.com/covenantculturepodcast
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1GfVdeAHw4/
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LjbrQ_4OMT4&pp=ygUYQ292ZW5hbnQgQ3VsdHVyZSBQb2RjYXN0
- Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/covenant-culture-podcast/id1709908484
- Other: https://spotify.link/28jR8EPLzDb
