By Mallory Mattingly
Vanderbilt basketball standout Tyler Tanner is ready to “share the Gospel” as he leads his team into March Madness.
Thus far this season, Vandy has a 21-6 record, led by Tanner, who averages “18.5 points and 5.2 assists per game, leading the team in both categories. He also swipes an impressive 2.44 steals per game, good for 10th in the country,” Sports Spectrum reported.
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Right before the season began in October, he partnered with Vanderbilt and several faith-based ministries on campus to host a campus-wide event called “Come As You Are.”
The event drew hundreds of students to praise the Lord and hear from several athletes on campus.
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“I want to be able to spread the Gospel to as many people as possible,” Tanner said in a post shared by the event’s Instagram page. “I want others to feel the Lord and grow in their faith just like me.”
Tanner is also participating in the Nashville 21-day Challenge, a month-long event that sees 26,000 college students in Nashville read through the gospel of John.
Tanner and his teammate Coleson Messer read John 10:10 in a video for the challenge. It reads, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
“My biggest takeaway from this was just what God has to offer for us and the life he can give us whenever, whenever we give Him our life, He gives us so much more, and he has so much to offer for us,” Tanner said after he read the verse.
“Building off that, I want to highlight the word ‘abundantly.’ When I think about, ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,’ he’s not saying that we’ll have a super long life or super easy life or super comfortable life, but we’ll have abundance in life, meaning surplus,” Messer added. “And so I think what he’s saying here is we’ll have a surplus of joy, you know, a surplus of steadfastness, just the ability to withstand hard trials and live in the world.”
On his Instagram account, Tanner writes “Ambassador for Christ.” He also has a tattoo of Jeremiah 29:11, which reads, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”
As Tanner continues to lean on the Lord, he looks to share the Gospel while leading his team into March Madness.
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