Who cares for our athletes once the crowds have gone, the lights have been switched off and they just need friend.

It's now commonplace for sports teams of all levels to have access to a chaplain, but how do you get started in sports chaplaincy?

Warren Crank was chaplain to the North Queensland Cowboys NRL (rugby league) team for five years, and has also served the Townsville Blackhawks and Norths Devils rugby league teams. Both of those teams compete in Queensland's top tier rugby league competition, The Queensland Cup.

Along the way Warren has also founded a network of pop up churches called Red Dirt Church, and written a number of books including 'Unofficial Chaplain'.

In this episode we discuss Warren's story and how he ended up working with athletes as a sports chaplain.

You can find out more about Red Dirt Church here.

Order Warren's book 'Unofficial Chaplain' is available through Koorong and the ebook is available through Dymocks.

To find out more about sports chaplaincy, visit the Sports Chaplaincy Australia website.

Chappy Chats is a production of 96five Brisbane and SU Australia.

Artwork by Tamar Petersen of Red Box Studios.

To find out more about becoming a chaplain, visit the SU Australia website.

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