Uncertain what to do after retiring from the NFL, Chris Reis and his father, Mike, were encouraged to share their story in a book.

Reaching the next generation through relationship

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part Q&A with Chris Reis, the former New Orleans Saints safety who recovered a game changing on-side kick during the 2009 Super Bowl. The second will be published next week.

 “In everything set them an example by doing what is good.

In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and

soundness of speech that cannot be condemned…”

— Titus 2:6-8, New International Version

 

Chris Reis didn’t know what he would do after retiring from the National Football League, but becoming a pastor was not on the radar. Now, his future is filled with encouraging youth and all ages to be the best they can be. It started with a book he wrote with his father.

How did the book come about?

The crazy thing is, after leading my dad to the Lord when I was a senior in college, he was a 47-year-old man and I discipled him a few months until it got to the point, it wasn’t healthy. I pointed him to a church and got him involved with a small group and the rest is history. When I left the NFL in 2011, just trying to figure out where God wanted me and what He wanted me to do, my dad was still in the corporate world doing his job, but he felt a burden and calling to help people like himself. He didn’t want them to make the same mistakes that he did with his kids, his wives, his marriage, so he was taking a class to become a substance abuse counselor. That’s what he wanted to be. 

One of the projects, he decided to write our story down and make it into a pseudo-book. He asked if I wanted to write it with him, I said sure, why not. I wasn’t doing anything and trying to figure out what God wanted me to do after the NFL. I ended up visiting with my mentor, Derek Moore, the team chaplain at Georgia Tech, and mentioned our story. 

He said, “This isn’t just a little book, it is a platform for you guys to speak, this is something big and you guys need to pursue this.” 

I went back to my dad and he was like, “You think?” We contacted a writer, flew out to San Diego and met with him for three days telling our story—  every part start to finish. He starting writing it, self-published it and didn’t know what to do after but started speaking wherever people would let us speak. We went to men’s groups and churches all over the country, addiction and recovery centers, giving God glory. 

What inspired the title, “Recovery of a Lifetime?”

Of course the title refers to the on-side kick for the Saints in the 2009 Super Bowl, but also the recovery of the father-son relationship and the recovery of us to Jesus. That’s what God did with His Son Jesus. It’s a play on words. 

The book talks about how you regained the relationship with your father. How has that impacted your relationship with your own children?

Wow, I think many times, it’s one extreme or another with our kids when you look at parenting as a whole. You either want to be just like your parents, or you don’t want to be anything like your parents. For me, there is no manual for parents or relationships. We parent as our parents did, that’s where we learn it from. 

When my first daughter, Piper, was born, my big heavy was, “I don’t want to do what my dad did, and that wasn’t a knock on him, I was just so focused on the past, and what I didn’t want to be, I didn’t put any intentionality on the parent I wanted to be. As I went along with my parenting, I found God really wanted me to be me and find me in the parenting. My relationship with my kids, outside of Jesus, is first and foremost. It goes Jesus, my wife and my kids, that’s really big. It is the order of my relationships. Everything else falls into place and becomes meaningful. I think having four kids with a fifth on the way, I’ve really been able to see how God created us differently and we parent the same. 

When we speak to them, we have to parent them differently. I love the way God uniquely created them. He’s been showing me in my prayer time, and spending time with each one of them, how to parent each one of them, how to love on them and discipline each one, how to show affection. 

I want my kids in ministry. It can be separated, but I want them to be a part of ministry. I want them to love the church. I don’t want them to be tired of the church, or serving people, I don’t want it to be a burden. My wife and I are watching them and how we speak of the church around them, that is really important to us. It’s not perfect by any means because it is formed by man, but at the same time, Christ died for us and the church. 

So it does affect me to be the best father I can be, the best husband I can be. And before that, the best believer and disciple I can be of Jesus. They see that. I want them to see me more than they hear me. I hope that’s taken root. We try to live the life and not preach it at them. Just live it before them. Definitely not the perfect parent but just intentional with everything I do with them.