By james art 
Bad ratings helped to save Don Green.
Long before he found great success as a basketball coach or answered his call for ministry, Green was a LSU basketball player and a student who struggles with her assessments and spiritual growth.
The transformative moment in his life came one day in his apartment in 1980 when he received a letter from LSU.
“I opened my grades and said,” It’s ridiculous, “Green recalled. “I knew I needed some guidance. I needed help – not only in my academic life, but also in my spiritual life. Everything that came from the fact that I was spiritually dead.”
65 -year -old Green said he had realized that he was in order to change an immediate change.
“I’m not just talking about the circumstances, but throughout my life,” said Green, Basketball coach in the Istrum High School and the Baptist Church of the Plezant Battist Church in Batton Rouge. “I needed someone to come and help me because I didn’t realize I was fighting, but I’m.”
The Monroe -born one became a “good devil” who was named after a Christian home, but still lost. He and his siblings were involved in church activities, but Green says he just went because he had to.
At LSU, Green met with some Christian friends and was growing in his faith. However, on the day he received those disappointing grades, they caused Green to see who he was.
His life changed without leaving his apartment.
“Tonight I entered my wardrobe, fell to my knees, and just asked the Lord to enter my heart and be my personal savior,” he said. “This is what he did and I have been trying to live this way since.”
The change in the heart eventually manifests itself in the academic, professional and spiritual life of Green.
In the classroom he graduated from the LSU with a specialty administration for criminal justice/law enforcement. He achieved his education by winning a master’s degree in administrative supervision from South University, followed by a doctoral degree in educational management by Southeast Louisiana.
As a basketball coach, Green has accumulated six national championships and 25 playoffs, most of the ParkView Baptist School. Green has been the district coach of the year five times and the state trainer of the year four times. Green joined Istrouma in 2023 after training at Community College Baton Rouge.
Green has long had dreams of the hoops, but it has never been his dream of being a pastor.
“Although I have never been a pastor, I have always considered my players in my church. I was able to direct them and help them and help them, “he said.
For seven years, Green finds it useful to focus on teaching a Sunday school in the first Baptist Church Mount Zion. That’s right, while his pastor, Renee Renee Brown, asked Green to help Mount Plezant, who was without a pastor.
“He asked me, ‘What do your next three weeks look like? “Remember Green, who continues to serve as an associate minister and teacher at Mount Zion Sunday.
Green LED mountain Pleasant for three weeks. This extended into a nine -month stay as a temporary pastor, as the church continued its demand. Green was encouraged to consider full -time positions, but he expressed a performance in coaching and various other activities.
“I was very pleased to help them, very pleased to give them this guidance or insight that they may need during the search. It was never my intention to become a pastor not only there but also a pastor anywhere” He said. “I somehow fought back -behind, becoming a pastor, but the Lord opened my eyes.”
He found revelation in one of his leading scripture from Matthew 6:33: “But first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; And all these things will be added to you. “
“The Lord showed me that there was something he wanted to do. So I really had no choice on the matter after giving me to understand,” said Green, who years ago conducted biblical training and teaching at the Bible College in Bethany.
He also received his wife’s blessing.
The Church of the 1743 Convention St. Green chose Green and it was installed in August.
“It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Green said. “The ability to lead people in an eternal way is an opportunity that you do not receive very often. The fact that with this particular congregation is emphasized for everything I have ever done my life so far.”
Green expressed that Mount Plezant has shown strong support, as well as his pastor Brown, who is also president of the fourth area of the missionary Baptist Association.
From Brown, Green, he said, “He was very, very supportive then, and even so much more supportive. God made him send me over me there and one thing that led to another.”
Green recognizes valuable similarities between the basketball team leadership and congregation nourishing.
“There are so many ways to influence people’s lives and how I can be affected by them,” Green said. “These children made me better coach, better father, better man. This is a beautiful relationship. Those you can influence positively, they will remember you until the day they die. My hope and my prayer Well, they will accept what they have learned in basketball and apply it in their daily lives.
Green uses a comparable approach to his pastoral experience.
“It’s in the same vein almost to coaching,” he said. “You apply it differently, but the principles are still the same. You love your players. You love your congregation. Be very transparent in front of them and either be real. But at the same time, provide a level of expertise that may not have been aware of. “