Zechariah “Zech” McGahan once found it difficult to share his Christian faith as a student-athlete at Crittenden County High School. Now, the former Rocket football player is preparing to make ministry his full-time vocation through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
McGahan, 22, is serving a 10-month internship with FCA in central Kentucky while raising the financial support required for the position. He hopes the internship, which runs from September through May, will lead to a permanent, full-time role with the organization.
To complete the internship, McGahan must raise $8,500. He is asking individuals, churches and businesses from his hometown and elsewhere to consider making one-time gifts or joining his monthly support team. Contributions made through FCA are tax-deductible.
The ministry represents a new direction for McGahan, but it also places him on a familiar path. His father, the late Troy McGahan, spent nearly three decades in ministry and served as pastor of Central Baptist Church in Marion. He was also well known throughout the community as a radio personality at WMJL.
Troy McGahan died unexpectedly in 2024, during the summer before his son’s junior year of college.
Before his death, the elder McGahan had begun to sense that his son might eventually enter ministry.
“Toward the end of my dad’s life, he asked me, ‘Are you thinking of going into ministry?’” McGahan recalled. “I told him, ‘I don’t know.’”
His father later shared his thoughts with McGahan’s mother, Terra, and others close to the family.
“He said, ‘I think the Lord is going to call him into ministry,’” McGahan said. “He didn’t necessarily see
me as being a pastor, but he saw me going into ministry of some sort. He would definitely be very excited for me.”The younger McGahan said he felt that calling in 2024. Until then, he had planned to attend graduate school and pursue a career as a dietitian after completing his bachelor’s degree in health sciences at Midway University.
“The Lord basically said, ‘No, you’re going to be in full-time ministry,’” McGahan said. “I didn’t know what that looked like.”
FCA had been a consistent and important part of his spiritual development during college, and he gradually became
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convinced that joining the organization’s staff was the direction he should pursue.
Now living in Lexington, McGahan works with students and coaches at four schools: Sayre School, Winburn Middle School, East Jessamine High School and East Jessamine Middle School.
FCA is an international Christian organization that primarily works with coaches and athletes. Its stated mission is to lead every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and the church.
McGahan’s responsibilities include organizing multisport and team-specific “huddles,” leading Bible studies and individual discipleship, developing student leaders, recruiting volunteers and assisting with camps and mission trips. The organization’s representatives are regularly present on school campuses, where they build relationships with athletes and coaches and conduct voluntary faith-based programs.
“We get to go into schools and preach the gospel and open the Word of God consistently on a weekly basis,” McGahan said. “We pursue student leadership. We don’t want it just to start with the adults and end with the adults. We want it to continue on.”
His involvement with FCA is particularly meaningful because McGahan did not participate in the organization while attending Crittenden County High School, despite its active presence on campus.
“To be honest, I was a little afraid to share my faith in high school,” he said.
That changed after he entered college and became involved with FCA. He found a supportive Christian community that encouraged him to become more open about his faith and more comfortable leading others.
McGahan graduated from Crittenden County High School in 2022 after playing football for the Rockets. He continued his athletic career at Midway University as a member of the school’s sprint football team.
Sprint football follows many of the same rules as conventional college football, but players must remain below a designated weight limit. At Midway, McGahan played at about 190 pounds, making him one of the larger players on the team. He lined up at left tackle and also served as a long snapper.
McGahan started every game during his freshman and sophomore seasons. The program initially struggled on the field, but it improved during his junior year and reached the playoffs.
His college football career was eventually altered by two serious knee injuries.
McGahan tore an anterior cruciate ligament in the final regular-season game of his junior year. He underwent surgery and spent about nine months rehabilitating the injury, working his way back in time for the opening game of his senior season.
Four games into that season, he tore the same ACL again and also injured his medial collateral ligament.
The injuries kept him from completing either of his final two seasons, but they also gave him time to assume a different role within the team. Instead of spending the week studying game film and preparing physically to play, McGahan began devoting more attention to preparing devotionals and Bible studies for his teammates.
“The Lord really called me to dive in with my team spiritually,” he said. “I was blessed to hold devotionals before games and hold team Bible studies during that time.”
The experience showed McGahan that ministry could take place in locker rooms, weight rooms and athletic facilities as naturally as it could inside a church. It also helped him recognize how his background as an athlete could allow him to connect with young people facing the pressures associated with competition, school and growing up.
Through FCA, he is now working with students at approximately the same age he was when he remained hesitant to speak publicly about his faith.
His fundraising goal will cover the internship from September through May. After completing the program, McGahan hopes to become a full-time FCA staff member and continue ministering to coaches and athletes.
McGahan said support does not have to come in the form of one large donation. His fundraising material outlines opportunities for donors to make recurring monthly gifts at several levels, including $50, $100, $200, $400 or $800. One-time gifts may also be made.
Individuals interested in supporting McGahan or learning more about his FCA ministry may call or text him at 270-969-1975, email zmcgahan@fca.org or contact him through his Zechariah McGahan Facebook account. He can provide a fundraising flyer and a direct link to his FCA donation page.
McGahan’s mother, Terra, now lives in Paducah. His given name comes from Zechariah, the Old Testament prophet and priest who encouraged the people of Judah to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem after returning from exile. The biblical name is commonly interpreted to mean “the Lord has remembered.”
For those who knew his father through Central Baptist Church or his years behind the microphone at WMJL, McGahan’s decision to enter ministry may seem like a continuation of a family legacy. For McGahan, however, it is also the culmination of his own journey — from a high school athlete reluctant to discuss his faith to a young minister asking others to help him bring that faith to a new generation of coaches and athletes.
