Baylor Bear Insider
Holly Murray, a latecomer to the gymnastics world, was acting on the ground train gold medal on the 2010 nationwide championships, “however I felt so low.”
With no school scholarship and even an invite to check out: “I believed this is perhaps the tip; I would stop.”
That's when the Harrisburg, Pa., highschool senior had “a bit speak with God within the health club” and vowed that if he may assist fulfill her dream of changing into a university athlete, “I'm going to benefit from visiting this new setting. to come back to this complete factor by religion.”
In July, Murray bought a name from the Rutgers gymnastics coach with the welcome information that the Scarlet Knights had a spot for her: “Would you want to come back?”
“I used to be prepared to begin at (Harrisburg Space Neighborhood Faculty) and stop gymnastics,” she stated. “I bought that cellphone name and moved into campus inside three weeks, which is loopy. I nonetheless don't understand how they did it. I by no means put in an official utility.”
After which, as Holly sat within the first gymnastics workforce meet of the yr, she listened to Missy Maurer speak about sports activities ministry, her relationship with Jesus, workforce Bible research, and the Athletes in Motion group. Her speedy response: “She appears to be like type of bizarre. I don't care.”
“Someplace within the subsequent three minutes, the Holy Spirit stated, 'Yeah, you might be. Don't you keep in mind the prayer you prayed? Go speak to Missy,'” Holly stated.
That led Murray (Holly McKenzie, from November 2022) on a journey within the athletic division that included eight years at Wisconsin and the final two years at Baylor, serving as athletic division director since August 2023.
“We converse the identical language; we end one another's sentences in relation to service,” stated John Maurer, Missy's husband and Baylor's assistant AD for the athletic division, “simply because we predict a lot alike. She's extraordinarily gifted at relationships. folks come as much as me and so they say, 'Holly is unbelievable!' And it's the student-athletes, it's the coaches, it's the workers. He simply has an ideal skill to attach with all types of individuals.”
However it was that momentary reference to Missy Maurer practically 15 years in the past that led Holly to a lifetime of Christian ministry.
Rising up within the church, Holly all the time cherished God and knew He cherished her, “however that's the place my religion ended.”
“In the event you requested me who Jesus is to me, I wouldn't be capable to reply that query,” she stated. “No person taught me to learn the Bible. Gospel, I didn't even know what that phrase meant…Throughout my freshman and sophomore years of highschool, gymnastics consumed my complete life. I gave 100% to succeed.”
Success definitely got here to Holly. As a member of the Inventive Sports activities Academy Plus membership workforce, she captured Pennsylvania state championships on bars and ground train and positioned third within the all-around in 2010.
And whereas accidents derailed a lot of her school profession, Holly continued to develop in her Christian stroll, “getting right into a Christian neighborhood with individuals who cared concerning the issues I cared about; she linked with my workforce Bible research; she joined the native church. .”
“Inside the first three months of my first semester of school, my complete world turned the wrong way up,” she stated, “to the purpose that after I went dwelling for winter break, my mother would say, 'Wow, college was so good for you. so one other man.” That was Jesus.”
John and Missy Maurer, a part of the Athletes in Motion program serving the Rutgers campus in New Jersey, had been those who initially sparked Holly's imaginative and prescient to be concerned in sports activities ministry.
“I believe that's one of many joys of being concerned in God's work,” John Maurer stated, “you by no means know what God's going to do. What number of student-athletes we've ministered to over time, we've linked with them, and also you by no means know when and the way the Lord will act in a specific means.”
After years of resisting this calling, typically even working from it, Holly lastly realized that disciplining her teammates and main a workforce Bible research crammed her cup.
“It bought to the purpose the place I stated, 'Wait, if I really like this, why don't I truly make this my profession?''' she stated.
With accidents stopping her from being the “gymnast I needed to be,” Holly stepped again from competitors and have become extra of a workforce supervisor or assistant pupil coach in her senior yr at Rutgers.
“It bought to the purpose the place I didn't love the game anymore,” she stated. However in her new function as a pupil coach, I ended up falling in love with the game another time.
Motivated by this renewed love of the game, Holly joined the membership gymnastics workforce at Rutgers, however suffered a compound fracture of her tibia and fibula in a “actually horrible, career-ending harm.”
“That was only a testimony that I most likely ought to have stopped after I did,” she stated.
Holly, who graduated from Rutgers in 2014 with a level in neighborhood vitamin, initially interned via Athletes in Motion whereas working full-time on the College of Wisconsin in Madison.
“I felt it was greatest for me to depart Rutgers, at the least for a season, and turn into an grownup relatively than keep the place I used to be as a student-athlete,” she stated. “I knew the remainder of the Athletics workers in motion on the College of Wisconsin. And I believed, 'Hey, I'll be with them for 2 years, get expertise, coach, after which possibly return to my alma mater or return to the East Coast.' ''
Two years became eight as Holly labored her means up from apprenticeship to principal and workforce chief, overseeing a workers that served athletics at Madison and different College of Wisconsin campuses.
“God stored me within the frozen tundra of Madison, Wisconsin for a very long time,” she stated. “It was humorous as a result of I attempted to depart Wisconsin just a few occasions. And each time I did, the Lord made it clear it wasn't time.”
Being in Madison with a longtime workers additionally gave Holly the chance to begin an internet seminary via Denver Seminary. She additionally met her future husband, Parker McKenzie. . . twice.
Whereas the chemistry was palpable on their first date in 2016 and “we had lots to speak about,” Holly stated she may inform from their conversations that “we're not in the identical place with our religion. And that was so vital to me. So we didn't go on a second date.”
In an odd twist, two years later, Parker was baptized on the native church Holly attended. Two years later, Parker was working at a church when Holly requested him to “fill within the dots” of his life within the 4 years since their first date.
“It wasn't a romantic curiosity kind of dialog,” Holly stated. “It was simply, there's an elephant within the room and I title it. And I believe that allowed us to be buddies.”
When Parker opened as much as church occasions after the COVID pandemic, he lastly texted Holly, “So, would you prefer to go on a second first date?”
“I wasn't fairly positive the place it was going to go,” she stated. “However he and I joked the entire time if we continued relationship in 2016 it will be a catastrophe. It was straightforward now. We had so many mutual buddies at that time and what we didn't know.” we had little puppeteers behind the scenes attempting to arrange us.
Parker and Holly had been married in November 2022 on the lovely Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Ark. and had a “mountain bike honeymoon.”
“Parker is an avid mountain biker and I'm extra of a street biker,” Holly stated, “however we inspired one another to do each. And this space of Arkansas is de facto good for mountain biking. So we did an Arkansas vacation spot marriage ceremony .”
And whereas they had been busy getting ready for the marriage, Holly took a job at Baylor and moved to Waco, Parker bought a job with the Waco Police Division, and so they discovered housing.
“I bought engaged two days earlier than I moved in,” she stated. “And we had been like, 'Okay, we're developing with one other chapter.' However after I look again on my first six months in Waco, I'm like, 'There's no means I may transfer throughout the nation, begin a brand new job, have Parker discover a new job, plan a marriage once we had been lengthy distance. getting engaged, getting married and discovering a spot to dwell.”
“And all this stuff got here collectively so seamlessly that it needed to be the Lord as a result of it was loopy. We deliberate our marriage ceremony so shortly.”
As Director of the Athletic Division at Baylor, Holly works with John Maurer to steer and facilitate all the division's programming; instructing two chapel teams for student-athletes; doing iDisciple, which helps student-athletes turn into non secular leaders on their groups; and helps plan and lead missions, retreats, and “another one-off occasions that come up.”
However it additionally serves the athletic division workers with a weekly Bible research and particularly the equestrian, acrobatics and tumbling groups, which each have massive rosters.
“There's part of me that loves working with these two groups,” Holly stated, “as a result of when you’ve groups of that dimension, you've bought people who find themselves all around the map spiritually — from zero religion or possibly rising up in religion. that's not Christianity, possibly they imagine in God and are serious about it, however they're a bit skeptical, of the youngsters who grew up within the church and confirmed up at college able to dwell a lifetime of mission for God, who I really like range.”
In the identical means Miss Maurer coached her all these years in the past at Rutgers, Holly additionally works with the non secular leaders on every of the ladies's groups, following the message of two Timothy 2:2: “And the issues which ye heard me say within the presence of many witnesses entrusted to reliable individuals who may even be capable to educate others.”
“My philosophy is I need to make investments very well in these few to allow them to make investments very well of their teammates,” Holly stated. “And to be sincere, as a student-athlete I used to be way more receptive to studying or having a non secular dialog with a teammate I knew, trusted, and noticed every single day than with a random pastor who he solely appeared often.
“If you concentrate on how Jesus did it, he had his 12. And Paul invests in Timothy and encourages him to put money into devoted women and men who will be capable to educate others. I actually imagine that these 4 or 5 athletes on to every of these groups that I’ve invested in that once they transfer on from Baylor, they may go on to a life that’s missional and Christ sits on the throne, that’s the definition Making ready champions for all times.“
In partnership with Truett Seminary's Religion and Sport Institute, Baylor's sports activities ministry workforce will host a five-day mission retreat for student-athletes in Might, “introducing them to the 5 biblical virtues … and what it will appear like to be formed by Jesus in sports activities.”
After which in August, Holly will work with Director of Mission Affect and Enrichment Josh Ehamb and Director of Softball Operations Dani Worth to steer a mission journey to Costa Rica with 16 student-athletes.
As she works to finish her seminary diploma via Truett, Holly stated she is aware of God introduced her to Baylor “for a selected goal.”
“I do know for positive that God referred to as me to the ministry,” she stated. “And I'm positive that calling was by no means to any explicit place or place, or, frankly, by no means particularly to the service of sports activities. However that's the way in which He led me.”
“There could also be a day in my life the place I shift and alter and go in a unique route. However I really feel assured that God introduced me to Baylor for this particular goal. And I'll be right here till He makes it clear that He desires me some place else.”