E20 Elliot Johnson - A Career of Service and Perseverance

Greg Scott: Hello and welcome to 315 Voices. I'm your host, Greg Scott. 1 Peter 315 reminds us to always be prepared to give an account when someone asks for the reason for the hope that's in us. And today's guest is Elliot Johnson. In the 1990s and 2000s, Elliot was a staple in NAIA dugouts as head baseball coach at several different spots. 900 wins and a Hall of Fame coaching career later, it would be easy to just have a seat and enjoy retirement for most of us. But today you can find Elliot publishing faith based devotionals and magazines or speaking on the trail about his faith to groups of coaches or cowboys. Today's conversation was a joy to hear how life can be lived well even when God keeps us on the move, and to hear someone that clearly wants to be put in the game by the Father until the very end. I'm so glad you joined the podcast today to hear our conversation with Elliot Johnson. Well, Elliot, welcome to the podcast. I'm so so excited and looking forward to our conversation today. Yep. I I'm a big believer in divine appointments and sometimes a divine appointment you see right away. And you and I, as we just talked about, sat at the same breakfast table at an FCA breakfast at the baseball coaches convention a few years ago and you were kind enough to gift me a devotional book that you had written and we'll talk about your writing here later on. But I've actually used some some snippets out of that book a couple of times. over the last few years as I'm doing devotions for teams or for some other groups and I just knew I wanted to reach out to you and so excited that you said yes to to this conversation. God can certainly use every avenue to honor himself and and you you just said that for baseball and western culture, but we could insert any culture into that and God could certainly use passions to as a vehicle for the gospel and you do that. and you've done that your whole life and people say, Well, he is he retired, but we never really retire in the faith, do we? Well, talk about Elliot growing up. You grew up in the Midwest and some of those early influences that that kind of shaped your faith. Do you remember that that the story where your were your baseball and horsemanship and western interest intertwined with a faith story? Maybe as you said your dad was not an influence of your of your walk growing up. what did the Lord use to lead you closer to him as a young man? Right. You know, I I agree with you. It's when the Holy Spirit calls you to himself, it's you know, people describe a feeling, but it's not an emotional decision. It's a it's a relationship that gets started, whether you're at seven or seventeen or seventy seven, it's a relationship that really the start of something. And we talk about that a lot. or I s I say that a lot. If if your if your moment of salvation was the penultimate of your faith walk, it's it might need a double check. It really is the starting pistol to a life lived in service. you talked about growing up and and your faith in your mom and and coming to life in Christ as a young man and then you go to college, at what point did you really feel the Lord saying, Yeah, coaching is gonna be in your future? I know you talked about once your playing career was over, you thought that might be next, but you've got a Hall of Fame career literally, in the N AI Hall of Fame, over nine hundred wins in your career. How did that get started for you and you really knew that you were following what the Lord had for you? You had your hands full. That's that can't be a great idea in South Dakota in January and February. you spent that time in Middle Tennessee and and and Coach don't let me skip a stop, but all of these schools I'm familiar with, I've if you've listened to the podcast long, my listeners will know that I'm a I'm an NAI guy. I played at an NAIA school and I believe a lot in in what those schools can do. But all of it Nazarene, Treveka Nazarene. Southern Nas, out in the Midwest, Latorno and Taylor, is that is that the rundown of your head jobs? I got all. Yeah, true. Yeah. And and I'd say that pendulum has swung back a little. I would agree with you if you'd have gauged it maybe ten years ago. But if you go out to Lewiston to the World Series now, there's some there's some regulars, Tennessee Wesleyan and Georgia Gwinnett, of course Lewis Clark State, some of these schools that are just year after year showing up at the NAI World Series. It's top notch baseball and and other sports that we kind of you and I fixate on baseball a little bit, but it yeah, it does have my heart as well. Well you know, a question that I wanted to to ask you is, you know, a coach, you didn't you didn't bounce. That sounds like a lot of stops, but that's over a forty year career. You didn't bounce, but you did transition from school to school at times. How do you how do you discern the Lord is leading me away and to another opportunity versus hey, I d I don't I don't really want to leave here or Talk a little bit about how that played out between stops over your career. Yeah, that's tough. Well, and like we said earlier, over time, couple of World Series appearances at Olivet as you mentioned, and but nothing to sneeze at. So people say, Well, this guy bounced around, he didn't get asked back at Trevecca didn't find a job immediately. But coach, if you'd have hung around two more years, you would have you would have likely won your one thousandth game and you won sixty percent of your ball games and like I said, an NAI Hall of Fame coach. So Clearly God gifted you in coaching. You said I knew I could coach and there was that passion that that God laid in your heart for that. What is there a season that sticks out as this was probably my favorite and you really as you look back and and that's not to say the rest of them were not your favorite, but one or two that stick out to you? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Just a reminder, coach, we talk a lot about those those moments are endorphins. They hit you and and they're they're awful fun to be a part of, but it's about the relationships. And you said I stood back and watched. It's because the relationships you built up with your players, no doubt, was let me just enjoy them enjoying this moment, because of the relationship you built with them. Mm. All the time. Yeah. Long before the portal. It does. And both of you look like a genius. The rest is history, yeah. You know what you wear should reflect who you are. That's why every design at Kingdom and Country carries a message of hope, grit, and unwavering truth. So if you're looking to up your wearable witness game, log on today at Kingdom A N D Country dot CO. That's kingdom and country dot CO and see the latest gear that Jen and Mark have out there. Just like this shirt I'm wearing today, Kingdom and Country Gear is built to move with you. So go visit them. Kingdom and Country dot CO. And add our podcast name three one five Voices as a discount code to save you a little on today's order. This is gear built to remind you who you are. So go visit kingdomandcountry dot co today. And before we get out of baseball, just one more question there of you had a long standing relationship with athletes in action where you got to experience a lot of great things overseas. Do you want to talk about that for a minute? How you could you already shared a little bit about being in the South Pacific just before you went to Treveca, but what were those like? How do you see the Lord movement through that and what kind of blessing was that for you? Yeah, well. Yeah, a pretty good squad. you talked about your writing and we certainly wanna get to that here as we wind down, but when did you feel the Lord moving that from kind of something that was a passion or a hobby or even to this is this probably could be your next ministry as you transition out of coaching and into Ministering to men, especially in maybe the western and cowboy culture. But that writing started that for you, didn't it?

Elliot Johnson: nineteen eighty, at Trebecca, I was of course we all need to spend time in the Word of God and I used some devotional books that were okay, but I started to think, you know what, I I think I can do just as good using baseball or athletic stories to illustrate and apply them to the Word of God and publish booklets, books, booklets. Started to do that. I st started a charitable foundation called the Winning Run Foundation through which I could take donations, tax exempt, nonprofit, never have paid myself. I I don't make money doing it. so 1980. I ended up writing about 35 athletic devotional books. Gordon Teeson, who is with Cross Training Publishing in Omaha, Nebraska now, published a lot of those. Other some major publishers did a few of But the shelf life of them is about a year and a half and then they're no longer sought by many people. FCA has used some. I used to like maybe you got one, I used to give away at conventions and stuff. And so that's when I it started. But it started because I need to get into the Bible myself. I need a plan to stay in God's word and I really didn't appreciate some of the devotionals that I read. I I I'd rather read baseball or athletic stories. I'd I like cowboy stories. And some of the stories it just didn't appeal to me. And so that's when I started writing my own Now I'm using authentic, true stories of the old West, cowboy stories, Indian stories, horse stories, bear stories, snake stories, it just kinda t took off from there and that's what I'm doing now. I go to different cowboy churches. There's a real movement of among cowboy churches around the country. So that the there's difficulties, the the long travel, sometimes flight. I I I really don't like to travel a long ways, but I I do say that there's a real need and people like like me, I they need to get into the word of God too. And people that go to a cowboy church, they o they like Western stories too, and some of like athletic stories and and they wouldn't be in in a c in a church at all if they weren't interested in the Lord, so it it fits. So

Greg Scott: Yeah.

Elliot Johnson: that's that's how that

Greg Scott: And you mentioned the Winning Run Foundation. I certainly wanted to mention that today as well. that started through your writing, but what's the Lord doing with that foundation today?

Elliot Johnson: Well, I don't solicit money. the Lord just has given enough money. It it costs about thirty thousand dollars for the printing bill alone when I do a printing and I've got one coming next week. A volume twenty two will be coming next week, shipped from Kansas City. I'll owe thirty thousand and I've already paid several thousand to the artists and the technicians to set it up. And I'll have to pay for shipping. So there are Th there's a need for money, but I don't solicit money. the bottom line is do they get into the hands of people that can that will read them? That's the issue. And that's whatever I can do to get them into people's hands, whether I give them away, I don't care, So the Lord just sent enough money in to pay the bills.

Greg Scott: well, Elliot, all of our guests on 315 Voices go through what we call a 315 challenge. And so I want to put that in front of you now. And the three in three one five are give us the three books that you would say outside of scripture have been the most impactful in your life.

Elliot Johnson: In the early seventies, a AIA weightlifter named Wes Neal wrote a book called The Handbook of Athletic Perfection. And I think Wes nailed it as far as a biblical motive and and method of competing in sports. And his book, and it's a little it's a it's a paperback, and it and Gordon Tesson in cross-training publishing still publishes it. That's been one of the most influential books that I've ever read. And Wes is is an old weightlifter. He's handicapped right now, but he's still alive. another one I is I I've been counseling kids that are dating, teenagers and 20 somethings. And that can be a real problem. And and I remember dating at the age of 20 and I didn't know if I was coming or going for a while. It's like a fog. And I've been counseling some kids about marriage and even married one couple a couple years ago. And I read a book called Love and Respect by a guy named Emerson Egeridge. And in that book the thesis is that men you're to love your wife and the wife is to respect her husband. That's what the Bible says. And men have a great need for respect. Women have a great need for love. Doesn't mean we don't need love and they don't need respect, they we do. But the main needs that we have, men respect and women need love. And so that that helped me understand a little more. Another one that I'm reading right now is called As It Was in the Days of Noah and Jeff Kinley is the brighter and You can guess what that's about. He's paralleling what's going on in the world right now with what how the world was before the flood. And that is really I s I mentioned that woo book among the three to because I'm reading it right now. And it's it's really interesting how the the patience of the Lord is amazing, but it's limited. It's going there's gonna come a time when

Greg Scott: Hm.

Elliot Johnson: It's going to stop. His patience will run out and there will be judgment. Judgment's coming on a country. And it it it motivates me to try to influence people to receive Christ because that's the only way out.

Greg Scott: Certainly a reminder that the gospel has an urgency to it because of the unknown of timing.

Elliot Johnson: That's right. That's right.

Greg Scott: that and that well those are three books I've not read, but three books to add to our list from our guests and we always like hearing new ones and all of those sound interesting, especially especially at first one I'd like to I'd like to look into that that you named from Wes. So yeah. Thank you for those three.

Elliot Johnson: It's really good. Yeah. Wes was the first one in my view to nail it about here's what it l it would look like to compete as a believer according to God's way

Greg Scott: Yeah.

Elliot Johnson: of competing. they really made it applicable, the Bible applicable to the competition. And I it affected by coaching for many, many years. And you're

Greg Scott: yeah.

Elliot Johnson: able to focus on the process instead of the result. The results you cannot control, but you can control the process. You can control your effort, your attitude, how hard you work, are you faithful in in in everything? And then the results take care of themselves. And that it's a great book. Really is.

Greg Scott: Controlling the controllables. things that can can be grasped by you and then letting the rest of it go. It's a great great concept.

Elliot Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.

Greg Scott: the one in the three one five challenge, you may have named a person already, but who would be the most famous or recognizable person in your phone that if you picked up, you've got their number and you called, they would answer or they would call you back?

Elliot Johnson: Well, as far as being famous, probably Zobrist, I suppose, although he doesn't always call back, or right away anyway. And and and it's been several years since he played, I mentioned earlier, even Bobby Richardson, I've talked to him since. But a lot of people don't even know who Bobby was unless they were avid baseball fans of the 60s, of a certain age. But a 20, 25, 30-year-old baseball fan today probably doesn't know who Bobby Richardson was. And he was a very, very famous athlete. But

Greg Scott: Probably not. Yeah. Yeah, you'd have to be a student. Yeah.

Elliot Johnson: so you're famous until you're not, but may I I guess I'd answer that by saying probably Zobrist is the most f famous that people would maybe remember.

Greg Scott: well, a World Series MVP certainly would

Elliot Johnson: Yeah.

Greg Scott: go to the top of the list of recognizable for sure. Elliot, the five in the three one five challenge is our guests describe it as the most difficult to to pin down, but if I gave you five minutes to sit down for a conversation with anyone current or anyone from anywhere in history, who would you choose to spend that time with?

Elliot Johnson: I thought about that and I I had two names that I really would mention. I'll mention one quickly and then elaborate on the other one. Henry Aaron was always my favorite player. Hameron Hank Aaron. Milwaukee Braves, they became the Atlanta Braves. But growing up, his bat was quick as a snake striking. And it was said that you couldn't It was easier to sneak to sneak the sunrise past a rooster than it would be to sneak a fastball by Henry Aaron. the way he wiggled his bat, he was about a hundred and eighty pounds. He wasn't real big. He was a he was lith. He was smooth. He was fast. He was so quick. And he'd wiggle his bat before he swung and explode. And of course he became the all time home run leader. he wasn't in the days when he was I was growing up, but he became that until Barry Bonds came along and but I always wanted to talk to him. Never got to I once sent Henry Aaron a tract. I said to you I you know, you're my favorite player. I hope to see you in heaven. Here's how you get to heaven. I don't know if he got it, I don't know if he read it. But then the other th other one The apostle Paul would was a tough, wiry guy that had some kind of a handicap. He had some kind of a thorn in the flesh, he called it. I don't know what it was. It might have been poor eyesight. But he was beaten up many times. And if I had five minutes to talk with him, that would be a real treat because he suffered so much for the gospel

Greg Scott: He did.

Elliot Johnson: and the Lord Jesus and He never gave up and he persisted. He was betrayed by others. So there was a lot of things that happened in the Apostle Paul's life that he just really persisted through. he would have had a good athletic attitude. I don't know how talented he would have been. I'd never Don't know how big he was or how fast, but e anyway he was he would be one I'd like to talk to.

Greg Scott: he lived two lives. Well one that was definitely anti Christian and anti gospel and when the Lord I if if I could ask him nothing else but about the Damascus Road experience, that would be worth those five minutes, wouldn't it? being with you today and just hearing some baseball stories and how the Lord has worked in your life and continues to use you has been a you called sitting down with Paul a treat. Sitting down with you today's been a treat for me just I know we have some some commonalities, whether it's in AI baseball or just loving the Lord, but this has been a it's been a great time for me to to do this and I certainly appreciate your time today.

Elliot Johnson: Thank you, Greg. Great talking to you too. I I'm always glad to visit with you. So anytime you wanna visit, just call and we'll talk.

Greg Scott: I'll do it and I and I listen, I wanna I'm I don't think I've ever been to Waco, Texas, but if I ever get close I wanna see this turf front yard and this twelve acre ranch that you talked about.

Elliot Johnson: Well, the front yard isn't turf, but the the the infield is and it's a regulation size field. Of course we can put in bases shorter distance and have

Greg Scott: Yeah.

Elliot Johnson: six and seven year olds play on up to regulation size. And so So love to show

Greg Scott: Yeah. Well

Elliot Johnson: it to you.

Greg Scott: Once again, we we certainly have enjoyed our time together and I know our listeners have enjoyed the time they've sat down with you as well.

Elliot Johnson: Thanks. Thank you, Greg.

Greg Scott: And I hope you enjoyed our time today with Elliot as much as I did. When life throws curveballs, Elliot models how to keep fouling them off and then stepping into the pitch you've been waiting for. Taking what the Lord gives you and serving well certainly has defined and continues to mark his life. So share the link out to today's episode on all of your social media platforms. Subscribe to our YouTube channel or anywhere you get your podcast downloads. And then tell someone you know about your favorite three hundred one five Voices guest in order to encourage and inspire them. And join us again when someone else will be prepared to give the reason for the hope that is within them on the next episode of three one five Voices.