By Kiri Lanice Walton, Staff Writer
kwalton@williamsonherald.com
Al
Allen saw himself in the NFL with the classic football stance, but
after being diagnosed with a spinal disorder, he turned his attention
to his faith. Now, the former football star is the city director for
First Priority of Williamson County, an organization for students in
high schools and middle schools to carry out Christian principles.
The mission of First Priority is “raising leaders, reaching a generation and restoring our nation.”
The organization carries out its mission by uniting students in their
schools to have a support network and to show Christian principles by
living like Christ.
Allen’s journey to First Priority took a few twists and turns. It began
during Allen’s senior year at Brentwood Academy; he was paralyzed for
10 seconds during a football game.
He was told that he had spinal spenosis, which is a temporary
concussion of vertebrae and if he continued to play, he would risk
permanent paralysis.
At the time, he had scholarship offers from schools like Notre Dame and Tennessee.
That day changed his life.
“I watched my dreams die,” Allen said.
There was not a mechanism in place to help him deal with the emotional aspects of what happened, he said.
However, if First Priority had been established, there would have been
someone to support and stand with him during such a hard time at a
young age, he said.
There was one quarterback though who encouraged and supported Allen during this time, and Allen would never forget him.
He ended up pursuing basketball, earning a scholarship to Belmont
University, where he graduated in 1996 and holds a place as one of
their top 12 players of all time.
He is one of only eight players in Belmont’s history to have scored
more than 2,000 career points after playing just three seasons. Allen
was named TCAC Co-Player of the Year and second team NAIA All-American
as Belmont earned its first-ever No. 1 national ranking and a trip to
the NAIA Final Four.
In college, he double majored in political science and theology, after
his faith grew stronger due to the incident which changed his life his
senior year of high school.
After graduating, he began working as a mortgage broker for banks like Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan and Franklin American.
He was enjoying professional and monetary success, but something was
missing. He was not in his purpose, and he realized this when his son,
Seth, was born.
During her pregnancy with Seth, Allen’s wife, Jude, experienced a
unique disease resulting in a starved-induced coma. To keep both
herself and Seth alive, she was fed intravenously.
After Seth was born, healthy and with no implications, Allen realized he needed to pursue his passion and purpose.
For two years, he worked in an inner-city ministry where he met Tod
Bell, founder of Pass the Salt. Pass the Salt is Nashville’s first
marketplace ministry.
He served for two years under Bell leading the Cool Springs marketplace
church before Bell appointed him to succeed him as the leader of the
entire organization last year.
He was one of the only African-American leaders in the network of more than a thousand people.
“It was my spiritual life, my Christian life, that defined who I was and that became my goal instead of basketball.”
Allen met Benny Proffitt, president of First Priority, in January 2007
at Belmont’s basketball Hall of Fame celebration, which was held the
day after Allen delivered a speech about Christianity overcoming racism
on Martin Luther King Day.
He spoke of how there are economic, social, cultural and moral
implications of race, but that the true source of racism is a spiritual
problem.
“The problem is not racism, it is rejection…It’s a spiritual problem,
and the world can’t solve a spiritual problem,” Allen said then.
Proffitt, a former basketball player, graduated from Belmont in 1968.
It was symbolic that Proffitt passed the baton to Allen. Proffitt had
spent the majority of his life doing the same thing in education that
Allen had done in the corporate world, the marketplace.
Two former Belmont basketball players, one 28 years younger than the
other, one white and one black, from the same place but two different
worlds, are working together for the same cause.
Proffitt, who founded First Priority in 1982, and Allen have partnered
in their belief in this movement. Allen is leading it in the Nashville
and Williamson County schools.
First Priority exists in 200 locations of rural, suburban and urban communities throughout the nations.
There are so many students that call themselves Christians, and they
don’t know each other or don’t know that they’re there, Allen said.
“Imagine 400 kids coming together with one purpose,” Allen said.
The tenets of those involved in First Priority is “loving all students
that are hurting, make schools a place of light, transform their
schools where students can experience life, faith and security.”
“We want to see the children take the things they learn on Sunday, not
just moral aspects, but evangelical aspects and apply them to their
environment throughout the week,” Allen said.
We want to utilize them with “strategies to serve and bless their school,” Allen said.
There is a popular song that came out a couple of years ago that instructed listeners to “Walk it out.”
Besides uniting churches surrounding schools, Allen and those involved
in First Priority hope students will “walk it out” to implement
strategies they are teaching.
“As it says in Luke 10, ‘Speak peace’…God absolutely loves these
people. Take care of their needs before anything is said about Jesus on
school campuses,” Allen said, and doing so speaks volumes.
Allen has published two books, “A Father’s Epistle” and “The Salt Journal.”
