Auburn grad anchors nightly news, preaches on weekends
Chase Gallimore on the set of the KAVU-TV news in Victoria, Texas. (Photo provided by Chase Gallimore)
Chase Gallimore has a made-for-TV name.
That’s appropriate, too, given his day job — er, night job.
Gallimore, 27, anchors the weeknight news for KAVU-TV in Victoria, Texas, which is known locally as ABC 25. But on weekends, he steps behind the pulpit of the College Church of Christ, where he serves as the preacher.
Gallimore and I first connected on Twitter (find him @chasegallimore), where his bio describes him as “Anchorman, Preacher, and an Auburn Man.” We met in person at the recent Christian Scholars Conference at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., where Gallimore is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree.
He graciously accepted my invitation to do a blog Q&A with The Christian Chronicle.
BR: Please tell me about your background.
CG: I grew up in Huntsville, Ala. There my parents raised me in the church. When I was about 10 or 11, along with some other families in our area, my family started a new congregation in Huntsville called the Winchester Road Church of Christ. We started meeting in homes and eventually built a building.
Because I worshiped with a such a small group, I started serving during worship service at a pretty young age. I was baptized when I was 12 years old. Beginning in the third grade, I was part of the Lads to Leaders program. I really feel like this program played a significant role in my development as a leader in the church.
I went to Auburn University. I am a huge AU football fan. I rarely missed a game when I was a student. I graduated with a degree in communications. After interning with the sports department at WREG in Memphis, Tenn., I landed a job as the weekend sports anchor/sports reporter for KAVU in Victoria , Texas. After a year and a half working in sports, the evening anchor job opened up here at the TV station. I applied and got the job in August of 2008.
BR: Your situation is certainly unique — anchoring the news during the week and preaching on Sunday. How do you balance the demands of both jobs?
CG: It is definitely a challenge to find time to balance every aspect of my life. I live on the go most of the time. I just have to keep my priorities in order. But that is still something I have to work toward every week. It is not unusual for me to be putting the final touches on my sermon late on a Saturday night after a football game. Believe it or not, I also play for a local football team. I am one of the oldest members of the Victoria Red Rage. It is a lot of fun to get back out on the field and re-live the high school football days.
BR: What do you like best about anchoring the news? Least?
CG: It is pretty neat to walk around town, and a stranger comes up and says, “You are doing a great job,” or just walks up and says hello. But working in the eye of the public can be bad as well. I once had a viewer call in and tell me I looked like I did not brush my hair that particular day.
I have also had a lot of great experiences because of my work with the news. Just this past February, I did a special report called “Chasing your Dreams” where I got to fly an airplane for the first time. That story is included in the video link that I shared with you (see below).
The worst part about working in TV right now is the fact that it puts me so far away from my family. The TV business is so competitive you have to go wherever you can find a job. For me, that meant heading to South Texas, a long way from home.
BR: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
CG: When I was in the third grade, I won the very first speech competition I ever entered. From that moment, I knew I wanted to talk to people for a living, I just wasn’t sure what that meant.
BR: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years? What would be your dream situation?
CG: I plan on sticking with the news business for a while and seeing where it leads me. I would like to continue to preach wherever I end up. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I am very passionate about sharing the good news about Jesus Christ.
BR: What role does faith play in your personal life and your professional one as well?
CG: When I was a student at Auburn University, my campus minister shared a philosophy that I have tried to live by ever since. He said, “You are not a student that just happens to be a Christian. You are a Christian that just happens to be a student.” I think we should all model our lives this way. My No. 1 priority in life is to bring glory to God. I am no longer a student. But I am a Christian that just happens to be a news anchor and a preacher.
BR: Does being on the air improve your presence behind the pulpit? Do you preach from a script or ad-lib as you go?
CG: Yes. My experience anchoring and reporting has helped me develop my communication skills. I write every day when I am working at the TV station. So, I think that really helps me improve my ability to tell a story. I use a lot of the same skills with my two jobs. I am just glad they don’t make me wear makeup in the pulpit.
I usually preach from a script. It would be nice if I could get a teleprompter like I have at the TV station.
BR: What’s the best sermon your ever preached? What was the title, and what was the main text?
CG: My first “real” sermon was about Gideon. It is amazing how God uses ordinary men to do great things. That one was pretty special. But it certainly was not my best. One of my recent favorites was about Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3. The title was, “Take a Look at Your Shoes.”
BR: Be sure to check out the video below of Gallimore on the air.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zxk2iluqw8
-
FeedbackAwesome job Chase. So glad I know you. Ha Ha!Michelle ClickJuly, 8 2010That’s a very interesting piece, Bobby. I enjoyed reading about this young man.Dee Ann AndrewsJuly, 8 2010What a great article and what a great guy!Tony OravetJuly, 8 2010Awesome piece Chase! I know someone famous…& I get to co-anchor with them every day! Who else can say they anchor the nightly news and preach every Sunday morning? I’m guessing…probably nobody!
– LaceyLaceyJuly, 8 2010What an awesome article! Good job Chase!Robert MIllsJuly, 8 2010Great article about a great guy. Chase was such a great part of the <strong><a href=”http://www.auburnchurch.org” rel=”nofollow”>Auburn church</a></strong> when he was here.
Keith Maxwell
<strong><a href=”http://www.pro17engineering.com” rel=”nofollow”>Pro17 Engineering</a></strong>Keith MaxwellJuly, 8 2010Today I am celebrating my 50th birthday. What a present!!! To be reading about my son who makes me so proud and makes me feel so blessed! I too knew when he preached his first sermon at 8 years of age that he had a special talent. I prayed before he was born and evey day since that God would use him in his kingdom and I thank him for doing so. No father has ever been more proud and thankful to have such a son. I love you Chase!!! Your dad in Alabama.Frankie GallimoreJuly, 8 2010Chase has been a Blessing from birth. I always called him my “Superman”. God has truly given him a talent that he has chosen to share. He is a man of God and on fire for Him. He couldn’t make his Mom anymore proud. I love you, Chase!!! Your MomKitty GallimoreJuly, 8 2010Chase, you are awesome and I am so proud of you. You have always been a blessing in this family and we all love you. Aunt SandySandy RigsbyJuly, 9 2010Wow. How refreshing and encouraging. I’m serious.
This guy really stands out in a business where credible surveys show more than 85 percent of its practitioners profess to have no religious beliefs.
Most TV reporters were raised in homes where religion played no role in their lives. Consequently, they have little or no knowledge or understanding of religious teachings, which is why their coverage of religion issues is so superficial and painful to watch.
I watched a story on a Houston TV station a few years ago, reporting on the Pope’s appointment of the new Archbishop of Galveston-Houston. The reporter stated that “Christians in southeast Texas now have a new spiritual leader.”
Being personally acquainted with that reporter, I ran into her a few days later and asked her about her story. I was astonished to learn that this person, educated in a respectable school of broadcast journalism, did not know the difference between Catholics and Protestants. In fact, she didn’t even know what a Protestant is. She thought all Christians are alike, and that the Pope rules over all of them.
How is it possible that in a country where 75 percent of the people say religion is important in their lives, that someone could grow to adulthood, be educated in public schools, and even graduate from a respectable university, and be so woefully ignorant of things religious?
This is why I cringe every time I see a story about churches and religion coming up on my local TV.
This young man in Victoria appears to have his priorities straight, but I hope he’s happy where he is in one of the middle markets. There’s no way a major market station would allow one of its anchors to be a minister on weekends.Jim BellJuly, 9 2010Hi Jim,
I’d love to know the source of the “credible surveys” you mention that show 85 percent of TV reporters have no religious beliefs.
By the way, you mentioned Houston. <a href=”http://www.khou.com/on-tv/bios/66550372.html” rel=”nofollow”>Greg Hurst,</a> an anchor at KHOU-TV, is a faithful member of the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston. His father-in-law is Alan Highers, who is pretty well known in some circles of Churches of Christ.
NBC’s Lester Holt, a member of the Manhattan Church of Christ in New York, talked about the perception of the media as non-faithful people in <a href=”https://christianchronicle.org/article2158968~Anchor_for_his_soul:_Lester_Holt_reflects_on_faith_and_journalism” rel=”nofollow”>an interview</a> with <em>The Christian Chronicle </em>last year. He told me: “I think there�s a connotation that we�re the liberal, atheist media. And I know a lot of people in this business who are people of faith � maybe not this specific faith that I share, but people who believe in God and follow their faith. So I don�t find it hard.”
I mention all that not to disagree with your main point that many in the media don’t understand faith or religion, and may even be hostile to it, but the 85 percent figure sounds high to me.
I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts.Bobby Ross Jr.July, 9 2010Wow!
What a great story on a great guy! Chase has been a blessing to our small church! we all just love how excited he is about god- you can truely hear it in his sermons. chase is truely a one in a million guy!
Love teri purcelltim & teri purcellJuly, 11 2010I can relate — more than many — to what it takes to balance these two pursuits. From 2007 until June of this year, I anchored the evening news in Corpus Christi while maintaining my “full-time” job as the Lead Pastor of a church! Kudos to Chase for doing it so well. May there be more like you!MikeJuly, 13 2010
