Many of the Catholic players still make the sign of the cross even with the prayers of a Protestant minister, which is not a problem, Ellis said. He feels comfortable offering his services to players of all faiths, but don’t expect Ellis to offer any watch-out-for-this-one Hail Mary’s or pray to anyone other than Jesus Christ.
“I would just have to say that’s not biblical and that’s not Scriptural, just have to take them to the Scripture and show them,” Ellis said.
Recruiting players to his church is not the goal, but having the young men give up their selfishness, making Christ first in their life is the objective, Ellis said.
“I believe salvation involves a relationship, not a religion,” Ellis said.
Sharing his testimony with every player who comes through the program, Ellis said he hopes each player will make that individual commitment in their life. But if they don’t he believes they will spend eternity in a real place — hell.
“According to the Bible, if you die without a relationship with Jesus Christ, you will be separated from God for all eternity,” Ellis said.
 
Train a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6)
Walking into the empty 6,000-seat auditorium at Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, Ellis quietly makes his way to the church’s school where he teaches a few courses.
The school bell rings and students enter the classroom greeting their favorite teacher with a smile. Teaching the attributes of God in this particular class, Ellis takes a seat atop one of the desks and recaps a lesson about the Trinity.
Unlike his dealings with LSU football players, Ellis said he must continually encourage his high school students that their lives are significant.
“I’m just trying to help them to realize and bring them to understand that even as young as they are, God can use them. He wants to use them, and he desires to use them if they’ll just make themselves available,” Ellis said. “A lot of these kids don’t feel like they’re important to God. I try to instill in them that they are an important part of what God is doing.”
Kayleigh Altazan, a junior, said she struggled with a self-confidence problem before Ellis pointed out a Biblical truth.
“Mr. Ellis showed us a Scripture that we’re created in [God’s] image, and it elevated me to feel better about myself,” Altazan said. “If God’s perfect and I’m created in his image, then I can strive to be perfect too.”
Hoping the seeds he plants produce fruit, Ellis said the students he teaches are going to decide how future generations view God and their relationship to him.
“God loves them just as much as he loves any adult,” Ellis said. “At some point in time, they’re going to be taking the baton that we’ll be passing to them. And they’ll be going out, and they’ll be training up leaders, and they’ll be mentoring people.”
Many of Ellis’ students call him Brother Ken. Junior Lauren Shirk said when combining Bro. and Ken, it describes Ellis’s spirit — a broken and humble man who serves the Lord.
“I respect him a lot because he’s a humble man and he’s not quick to anger when somebody’s in trouble or doing something wrong,” Shirk said. “He doesn’t get mad at everybody like some teachers do. He doesn’t holler. When he disciplines somebody, it’s out of love and not out of anger.”
Ellis’ only daughter and youngest child Jemia, 24, said the discipline was the same in the family household. There were rules in the house when she was a child and she abided by them for the most part because of the trust her father developed in her.
“He controlled the household, but he wasn’t very strict,” Jemia said. “My father was balanced in the way he reared us but also gave us freedom to develop as individuals.”
Ken Ellis trained up his children to honor God, not out of his own selfish pride, Jemia said.
“His character and integrity stand out,” Jemia Ellis said. “He’s a humble man with considerable achievements and one of the most honorable men you’ll ever meet. He represents Christ in everything he does.”
Humility may be seen as weakness by the rest of the world. Ellis said he also can lay down the law, but with so much hurt and anger in the world he usually turns the other cheek to show God’s love for his students.
“Jesus was a very humble man but yet was a powerful man,” Ellis said. “A broken and a contract spirit, the Scripture says, ‘I will not despise.’ … If you’re on your face, there’s no place to fall.”
 
Finishing the race, keeping the faith
(2 Tim. 4:7)
The players hold four fingers in the air as the Tiger Band cranks up the fight song, reminding everyone to keep up the intensity they have played with so far in the fourth quarter. Fifteen more minutes of focus and execution will earn a victory for the Tigers on the football field, but Ellis is more concerned about what the players will do when they leave the locker room.
Huddled up for one final prayer at midfield after the game, the Tigers break the huddle and go out into the real world where liquor and women will be offered to them freely. Their high social status could cost them in the morals department.
Remembering his college days at Southern University, Ellis said he knows it is tough to remain spiritually moral with all the attention college football players receive. His goal as team chaplain is to direct the players toward the moral higher ground.
“Moral character is a lot of the challenge for these guys, especially in this era,” Ellis said. “The young ladies on college campuses now seem to be so much more aggressive than they were when I was on the college campus. The guys were chasing the girls, but now the girls are chasing the guys. I think that’s a big part of what I’m constantly challenging these guys in — the area of morality and spiritually what God expects of them as Christians.”
LSU quarterback Marcus Randall said he finds the moral challenges more difficult than those physical ones on the field. The fifth-year senior said he has attended Ellis’ chapel meetings since coming to play football at LSU because it helps keep him accountable in his spiritual life.
“He always talks about things that help you on the field and off the field,” Randall said. “I don’t really see a challenge with playing football basically because that’s just a sport. Life goes on after that and you still have to be ready when God calls you.”
Knowing many of the players are still immature in their spiritual lives, it does not surprise Ellis to see players who had entered into prayer with God a few minutes earlier to melt down under the pressure in a game or in other tough circumstances.
“I know that a lot of these guys are still a diamond in the rough,” Ellis said. “They’re still growing in the Lord.”
As many of the players look up to Ellis for guidance in this area of life, he tries to set an example — that it’s not about the religious rituals or special phrases said in prayer but how sincere those words are and how the athletes follow through, he said.
“I try to keep an even keel, and they don’t see me cursing or losing my cool,” Ellis said. “Hopefully that will carry over to their lives where they see it’s not about a religion but a relationship.”