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“God gives you certain opportunities when you are ready. He loves to give you incredible challenges and adventures,” Chris Barr said.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) life coach and chaplain, Barr is on a journey with Grand View football, which began two years ago. His role is to serve the athletes at GV by using their passion, skills, abilities and hard work inherent to their sport to strengthen the athletes’ faith. 

“He’s authentic, and he is always looking for the positive in everything, and it’s good to have people like that,” Joe Woodley, GV’s head football coach, said.

Brandon Flores, a GV football player from Texas, said that he considers Barr to be like a father figure. Barr has helped give him an optimistic outlook on life, make the best of what he has and not dwell on the things he cannot control.

Barr said being a chaplain was God’s purpose for his life. He first became a chaplain after Kevin Kellner, a member of FCA asked him if he wanted to be the chaplain at a school in West Des Moines. Barr said that he wanted to be used in a more powerful way and felt prepared to be chaplain. Eventually, he was offered a chance to serve as a chaplain at GV. Barr said he considers it an incredible opportunity to serve at GV alongside his son Noah, who plays on the football team.

“(He’s) helped us (the team) focus find a focal point where relationships come from the heart,” said Noah Barr, Barr’s son. “He gave us an opportunity to see what it means to play together, and he introduces ideas of being a man of God and having good morals and living for others.”

Noah said his father showed him what it means to be a man of faith, how to portray himself around others, how to treat women right and that every little moment matters.

Flores said that Barr is there for him when his father cannot call him or text him to see how he is doing. He said that he and Barr go to away games together and have great conversations in the two to five hours that they are traveling. 

“It is indescribable, the relationship between our Heavenly Father and us earthly fathers,” Chris Barr said. “The relationship between God and Jesus (helped) model the father to son relationship for me.”

Barr said that he considers every player on the team his son regardless of playing time or depth chart position; he wants to love them like he loves his own son.

Off the field, Barr is a husband, father and friend. He enjoys spending time with his family and serving others. Barr serves a men’s ministry as a speaker and he is the director of business relations for Communication Innovators, a business whose main purpose is to build relationships and help customers succeed in integrating technology that has the greatest impact on the community around them. Barr said that he wants to honor God in all he does and be a friend to everyone he meets. 

Barr came to his faith via another journey. He said that growing up he had great role models, and he knew who God and Jesus were, but he did not have a personal relationship with Jesus until a moment of despair. He said that it was a moment of surrender when he realized he could not live by his own power. A man named Gary Rosberg showed him what a relationship with Jesus looked like. Barr said he was transformed when he accepted Jesus into his life. He lived life with faith, which changed how he loved and served others.

Barr said that he has been called to equip and encourage young men so they can navigate life during times when they feel weak or hopeless, so they can respond with strength and courage. He wants to coach the character traits they need to become great fathers, husbands, friends and contributors to society, so they can be successful in all that they do.

For the athletes at GV, Barr hopes that they ask God to reveal to them what he has in store for them for their life. Barr also hopes they can embrace who they are and their identity in him and seize the opportunities that God gives them so that they can live from a foundation of joy and make a difference in the world through relationships.