oUR sTORY
KEN KARCHER
AND
w.I.N.
aWAKENING
OUR STORY...
"A BEAUTIFUL MESS"
As the 2022 season comes to an end and I take a moment to reflect on the last fifty years of memories, as a former player and coach, I am reminded of the greatest gift that I encountered along the way, YOU! As I transition from the sideline to behind-the- scenes, I am excited to connect with YOU in a new way. I desire to be available for YOU in environments that allow personal growth and spiritual enrichment, while building true relationships, regardless of individual success, records, or the scoreboard.
Contentment can be very elusive in a performance-based industry. In our professional pursuits, we often miss the gift, the person in front of us. I am reminded daily that "One Matters," and YOU are the ONE.
For as long as I can remember, athletics has played a significant role in my life and has undoubtedly influenced who I am today. Like many of you, my experiences included highs (winning a championship) and lows (being fired and cut). During one of these low moments, seventeen years ago, that my family and I faced the greatest challenge of our lives, the rebuilding of our faith, family and football.
In our brokenness, we encountered a glimmer of hope, in a small community called "The Ride." For the first time, in our lives we experienced true relationship, "One Story at a Time." This community became a safe environment where transparency and vulnerability were accepted, and value and worth were recognized right in the middle of our mess. My wife, Pauline, refers to our life as a beautiful mess.
Now that you have heard some of my story, please take a moment to allow your heart and mind to imagine a safe place where YOU can be transparent, vulnerable, and known as you walk out your own personal story.
KEN AND PAULINE KARCHER
BIRTH OF W.I.N.Â
AWAKENING
As the spiritual tapestry of the 2005 season was coming to light, unbeknownst to me, my oldest son Austin had been working on a painting that documenting my time as the head football coach at Liberty University. He illustrated the worlds perspective of winning compared to God’s.
Fast forward to 2022 and the birth of the W.I.N. Awakening on the horizon, I asked Austin to create some logos for my consideration. After numerous drawings and conversations, we arrived at our current logo.
I was cleaning out our garage in preparation for our move in the following days when I came across his painting. To say that I was taken aback by what I saw would be an understatement. The similarities in the two logos were startling. Seventeen years have passed since my son Austin’s, painting, but the revelation of what it means to WIN has not changed. God used this time to confirm in my heart the calling to help others be awakened to the WIN. From this place, W.I.N. Awakening was born.
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These two pictures visually represent my journey to my awakening of what it means to WIN. The summer before the 2005 season, I was asked to speak at the FCA Coaches Camp in Black Mountain NC. I challenged the coaches to consider who they were in Christ and how it is lived out in the performance-based coaching industry. I thought I had a good grasp on my identity at the time, but it was getting ready to be turned upside down. Over six years, from 2000-2005, my family and I lived for Jesus, while I was training Champions for Christ, believing that the administration and I were all on the same page, until the scoreboard revealed what mattered.
As my family and I worked through our brokenness and started to heal, we began to understand that our true identity was about being and not doing. We no longer felt the pressure to perform but started to experience the freedom of grace and the reality of Christ living through us. Once again, our faith would be stretched as we were confronted with the shared love of the Father, Son, and Spirit for all men and the finished work of the cross. Our spiritual pilgrimage over the years began as living for Jesus, then moved to ask him to live through us and now living from a place of victory where Jesus lives as us. My passion is to encourage you to live out of who you are and draw out what you already possess in Him.
OUR FAMILY
My wife, Pauline, and I have been married since 1987, and are the parents of Austin married to Lauren, Kelly married to Nathan, Katie, and Clayton married to Ashton. We also have six beautiful grandchildren, Ella, Abel, Lyndsley, Harper, Lincoln and Remi, along with our dog Gus and our eight grand puppies Ruthie, Mindy, Baby Mill, Cookie, Coconut, Saint, Cash and Banks.
kEN kARCHER BIOGRAPHY
I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I was a highly recruited athlete. I received a football scholarship to the University of Notre Dame and after two seasons, I transferred to Tulane University where I finished my college career.
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As an undrafted free agent, I spent the next for years trying to make an NFL team. Over the next four years, I would be cut four times and become a member of a Super Bowl team.
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My family and I would live in 15 states and Europe for the next thirty-two years as I pursued a coaching career. My coaching resume includes stops at the pro, college and high school level. Professionally, I coached four years in the World League and NFL Europe, and spent twenty-seven years coaching at the college level at Idaho State, North Texas, Pittsburgh, Liberty, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, and East Central CC. My experiences include sixteen years as a head football coach, fifteen years as an offensive coordinator, one world championship in three appearances, two winless seasons and being fired twice.
I graduated from Tulane University and also have a Master’s in Theology and Biblical Counseling from Global Grace Seminary.
