Every season, there is usually a team or two that acknowledges a “rebuilding” year. It can come with a transition of a new coach, an influx of several athletes, changes in management, or the loss of key individuals upon whom the organization was depending on. Rebuilding is never easy — especially after a devastating loss (like the California wildfires of 2025) where a whole community suffers or is destroyed. How does one rebuild in such times.

Today, on the podcast, as we begin the season of Lent and prepare for the start of Major League Soccer, rebuilding begins with a right heart posture. Isaiah 58 sets the stage as we consider what it looks like to get right with God so that He might be our help and our support. It isn’t about a false religiosity, rather it’s about how our Sunday-morning selves live out the rest of our faith walk throughout the week — whether in our jobs, our homes, our schools, or elsewhere.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

As we wrap up our series on temptation, we look at the fifth and final stage of temptation and sin — the stage of obsession. The progressive slide of temptation leading into sin and sin leading, eventually, to death. Stage five is the most hurtful and the most helpless that we can feel (for ourselves or for our loved ones). How do we get out of the spiral?

Today, on the podcast, it’s not to be glib or trite, but sometimes the only help, the only salvation has to come from Jesus. When the captivity stage leads to a neurotic obsession where self-destruction is the path, there is sometimes something that only Jesus can help to heal. We look at a few stories in scripture to see this example and to suggest that sometimes our best prayer is the simplest one — one that acknowledges our desire but our weakness.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

As we continue our series on temptation, we look at the fourth stage, today. A logismoi (Greek) is an obtrusive, invading thought that assaults our mind, that setups a temptation. There is a progressive nature to temptation in that it leads to sin and, eventually, to death.

Today, on the podcast, we look at stage 4 — captivity. The captivity stage is where we keep falling over and over to the same temptation. It’s a trap that we can’t seem to get out of. We may still battle, but we lose more than we win. We might even have stretches of victory or success in staving off the temptation and we might think we are safe or okay, but then it comes back in a voracious manner. Community is key to dealing with the captivity stage and we get into that in the podcast today.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

We’re in the midst of a series on how to handle temptation. Logismos (a Greek word describing those obtrusive, invading thoughts that assault our minds) has a number of stages that we go through, but ultimately, its path leads to destruction. James 1 has an excellent description of the nature of temptation — it’s source, how we often fall for it, and what it eventually leads to.

Today, on the podcast, we look at stage 3 — consent. This is when we make a willful decision to act. This is when we commit sin — the dialogue wrestling is over and we’ve given over and given in to what likely began as a subtle whisper. But just because we fail, just because we fall doesn’t mean that we give up. There’s a pathway toward still resisting and still trying to be in proximity with God. We look at a few different passages to help us realize what this stage looks like and how we need to respond.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Last week, we started to look at how to handle temptation — the nature of the logismos (those obtrusive, invading thoughts) that get into our minds, into our heads. Stage 1 was about seeing and recognizing that temptation is pretty common and the thought (the whisper, the suggestion) isn’t itself sin, but it can lead there pretty quickly if we aren’t ready and aren’t prepared or strong enough spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and even physically.

Today, on the podcast, we look at stage 2 — the dialogue. There tends to be this conversation that goes on in our head. It can be positive or negative depending on where we are at with things, but how to we best handle the inner dialogue and learn one of the best ways that God has given us a way to come out from underneath the attack? The answer is found in the Bible. Actually, the answer is the Bible, God’s Holy Word. We look at the temptation of Jesus as an exampeland template for how we ought to handle the dialogue phase and be ready for temptation when it comes.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

During the MLS preseason, a lot of physical, mental, and emotional preparations go on. But what about our spiritual preparations? What about preparing for some of the challenges that we face in life — whether we are at home or on a month-long trip for preseason on the road?

Today, on the podcast, I begin a series on temptation. Looking at the nature of it and way to combat it we get into the first stage of temptation, the assaultive thoughts that attack our minds. Are these attacks dramatic and loud? Is it a sin to be tempted? What’s God’s part in all of this? We dive into some of these questions and more.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Three King’s Day was yesterday, January 6. It is the time that marks the end of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. Many speak of the three kings — in song, story (some fable), and poem — but what we know is that there were three gifts that are mentioned in Matthew 2: gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. These three gifts hold multiple meanings — symbolic on different levels, but they also might be a point of introspection for us as we move into the new year.

Today, on the podcast, what gifts of wealth (gold), worship (incense), and weakness (myrrh) do you and I bring into 2026? Whether as an athlete, coach, staffer, or chaplain — and whether it is into our work spaces or into our homes or church communities each of us brings these gifts (given by God) and they are a beautiful part of who we are.

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Some of you know that I love my Scottish/English/Irish heritage (maybe a little too much). I have found much within Celtic Christianity, that I connect with and today on the podcast, I share about a Scottish tradition of ‘first-footing.’ Essentially, the first guest into someone’s home for the New Year carries symbolic and representative gifts that are to be a boon and blessing for the year to come.

My encouragement today is that we need to let Jesus Christ ‘first-foot’ into our hearts, homes, and lives. Whether as a professional footballer or coach, as a chaplain, or simply as a fan. We need to let Jesus be first in the door and to bring us the gift of himself to fulfill all our hopes and desires.

Praying that you and your loved ones have a blessed and wonderful 2026 as you let Jesus ‘first-foot’!

From the Touchline is a short-feature podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.