3 Decades of God at Work: Celebrating Terri Greener's Impact on FCA in the South Metro

Tanja Hansen • April 2, 2024

As a young intern in 1994, Terri Greener attended a workshop where she saw an FCA banner hanging above a booth and met our most tenured staff, Randy Jensen. Reflecting on that moment, Terri says, “Within minutes of meeting Randy and hearing about FCA, I knew this was a ministry I wanted to be a part of.”


Randy connected her with Dave Bergstedt, who was already leading the FCA Huddle where she was interning at Rosemount High School, a school located in the south metro area of Minnesota. “I just showed up to the huddle and tried to build relationships with the student-athletes.”


That was 30 years ago, and Terri is still serving as a Huddle Leader for FCA today!

While Terri was still early in her career as a school counselor and girls’ soccer coach at Rosemount, Eastview High School opened (1997) and she “felt called to go to Eastview and make sure that FCA would have a place at a new building within our district.” So, after ensuring that the administration would be open to her bringing FCA to Eastview, she accepted the counselor position there and started the huddle while Dave continued leading at Rosemount. 


“It just exploded,” she shared. “It was so much fun; we were the biggest club in the school. I just felt like God’s blessing and His hand was over the ministry.”

As a new homeowner, without children yet, Terri’s house had a lot of empty space, so she opened up her home and once a week, the living room was transformed into a makeshift youth room. “It just kept getting more and more full – we had over 100 kids coming to the huddle and spilling into the other rooms. We just had a blast! My goal with FCA over the years has always been to show students that loving Jesus is anything but boring.­­­”


“My goal with FCA over the years has always been to show students that loving Jesus is anything but boring.”


As you can imagine, the number of ministry stories Terri could share are countless. But, here are just a few that showcase how God has been working the last 30 years at Eastview and Rosemount. 

Story #1:

As part of her role as a school counselor, Terri ran a grief group for students who had lost a loved one or relative. One of the young men who attended the group lost both his dad and his brother in a tragic accident. His grief ran deep, and he struggled with anger that often resulted in him getting into trouble at school.


Terri was persistent in inviting him to FCA, and eventually, he gave it a try. Slowly week after week, his heart softened, and he began to carry his loss differently. After coming to FCA for many weeks, something in his heart was stirred, and at one of the huddle meetings he began asking questions about Jesus and salvation. Later that evening he asked Jesus into his heart, and asked Terri to lead him in a prayer for salvation. “It was amazing to watch this young man be transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of FCA.” This testimony aligns itself up perfectly with FCA’s Mission Statement, “...to see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.”  
 

Story #2:

A student who regularly attended FCA persistently prayed for her parents to come to know Jesus. After every FCA huddle, she would go home and share what she learned about Jesus with her parents. One night, her dad called Terri and asked questions about FCA and about Jesus. As her parents learned more about FCA, and ultimately more about Jesus, they began to open up and developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. FCA not only helped this young girl’s faith grow, but it had an impact on her family, as well. Her mom, dad, and younger brother all accepted Jesus into their hearts, and are still serving faithfully in their church today. 


“FCA has provided a way for me to talk about Jesus in a public school to kids who might never find themselves in a church but somehow, Jesus has found them.”

Here are some of the things that Terri shared about her time serving as an FCA volunteer:

“I’ve learned to be patient and let Jesus do the work. I try to provide a faithful presence for the kids, whether that is through building their trust and being a good listener, or making it a crazy night at the huddle full of fun and games. It’s amazing what Jesus does when you just create space and make room for him in the lives of other people – particularly in the lives of kids. Kids are hungry – they are hungry for the truth, they are hungry for a safe place to ask questions, and they are hungry to hang out with other kids who are also trying to do the right thing.”


“I hope the way I live my life is to disciple others and pour into them with the hope that they will disciple others and pour into others. The ripple effect of that kind of discipleship is something we won't know its full impact this side of eternity. We’ll just never know the number of lives that have been impacted through ministries like FCA.”
 
“It's been a gift to be part of FCA. It’s provided me a place in a public school where I can safely tell kids what to have hope in. As a counselor, I can tell kids to have hope in things, but having a platform like FCA allows me to safely tell them WHO to have hope in. And that makes a big difference.”

Wow. That’s part of what makes FCA so impactful. A counselor, teacher, or coach may not be able to share Jesus in their office, classroom, or locker room but they CAN make an invitation to FCA where they may safely share the love and hope of Jesus Christ which can change young lives for eternity. 


We asked Terri how Jesus has worked in her own life during her three-decades of being a leader for FCA:

“When I started this, I didn’t think there was a chance I’d be doing it for 30 years. I have four kids and my life was incredibly busy between work, my kids’ activities, and family commitments. There were definitely times when I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can keep doing this.’ But I never felt released from it. I never felt like Jesus was saying, ‘Yes, you can put this down.’”


“The truth is, many nights as I drove to FCA, I thought to myself, ‘What in the world am I doing? This is crazy, I just left three crying babies at home, I’m not sure I can keep doing this.’ But, faithfully, every single Monday night as I drove home, I thought, ‘Thank you Jesus that I still get to do this.’ Honestly, that has been my testimony as I talk to other people about getting involved and leading FCA – I know it feels like you can’t do it but there has not been a single night that I’ve driven home where I haven’t felt like it wasn’t a complete blessing to be a part of FCA and I’m always thankful driving home.”
 
“God makes room for things. Without a doubt, it is the most rewarding part of my career to be involved with FCA and build relationships with kids, teachers, coaches, and other adults that are based on Jesus. It’s been an absolute gift to represent Jesus in the public school.”


During a time when Terri and the huddle group faced opposition within the public school, a good friend challenged her with two significant questions:

  1. Do you believe everything in the Bible is true?
  2. Are you okay if not everybody likes you?


“It challenged me with the fact that when you’re representing Jesus, you might have to stand up for things that not everybody will agree with. And you must be okay with that and decide who you are going to serve – the world or the Lord.”


“Having people in my life who challenged me and pointed my eyes toward Heaven and the Bible was extremely valuable.”



“I love God’s economy. It’s not like I got paid for doing anything with FCA, but oh my word, what I’ve received is worth more than any salary you could get doing something like this. You’re not sure you have enough time to do it but you step into it and the blessings are just poured out. That’s the cool part of God’s economy.”


“I believe that God called me to work in the public schools, and that they are mission fields in need of workers.  It is vital that FCA remain in our schools. I know it is getting more and more difficult for FCA to have a presence in the public schools, but we cannot let up, we cannot take our foot off the gas. FCA provides an avenue to talk about Jesus. I’m not exaggerating when I say that through the ministry of FCA at Rosemount and Eastview High School, thousands of kids have heard about Jesus, and hundreds have come to know Him as their Lord and Savior.


“When I look back and think about what I want to be known for, it’s so easy – just to love kids where they are at and introduce them to Jesus. That is the most rewarding part of my career.”


“My kids were literally born into FCA. When I was pregnant with my first (who is now 25), we were meeting in my living/dining room and the 80 kids turned the huddle meeting into a giant surprise baby shower.”


“All of them grew up as little kids having cool high school kids come through the front door week after week. Not only did I get to help kids through FCA, I really believe the ministry helped shape my own kids’ lives because they saw it firsthand. They saw these kids coming in, having a great time, laughing and singing songs about Jesus and recognized that loving Jesus is a lot of fun and it’s cool to be a Christian.”



“Hopefully my story will encourage other people to get involved and stay involved.”

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