Deacon Jim Mullin
Episode 355 Part 1
17 NOV 2025
He played college football, first at William Penn University and then at Missouri Western State University, including playing in a combined total of three bowl games. After college he played club lacrosse for several years and became an avid cyclist and swimmer and even competed in two short-course triathlons. In high school he was team captain for varsity football and was a three-time Missouri state qualifier in swimming and senior year state qualifier in discus. On the faith side, he is a convert and serves as Deacon and Minister of Evangelization at the Church of the Nativity in Leawood, Kansas, and was recently appointed to the Archdiocese Synodal Team.
Notable guest quotes:
“My mom and dad helped start the church, but the neighbors, all the people that were there, we did things together as – now seeing what parish life is like – it was very much a parish family. They got together outside of Sunday worship. They did things all the time. We went camping together. We celebrated fourth of July holidays. It was a wonderful group of friends that they had and frankly it was a wonderful environment.”
“We led youth groups… We took some of the young people out skiing. It was actually just a phenomenal church … it’s a very good memory for me.”
“I leaned over to my wife who was really enjoying all the people sharing and I said, ‘I’m gonna get the kids’ – they were in the nursery and I said – ‘I’m gonna get the car. You can stay as long as you want.’ We were actually sitting on the very front (pew), so it wasn’t like I could just sneak out. But I got up and went back, got the kids, and she came out shortly afterwards.”
“It’s a nine-month process? What is this? RCIA, I had no clue what that was. But I agreed, for all the wrong reasons. I just said okay, that’s fine. If that’s what it takes to get into this church, that’s fine.”
“They started talking about the sacraments and they started with baptism and marriage, and I had felt like, wow, God was very, He was real. When our kids got baptized, I felt that God was part of that. I mean a real part of it. And our marriage, I felt God was active in our marriage and so when they started talking about, okay, God is actually really present and He’s doing something in what we call a sacrament, I’m… listening more intently. Then they got to the Eucharist and it just all came back to me, this me getting up because of the communion being canceled.”
“I had a conversation with the head pastor, the monsignor now, and he gave me some really great advice, because I said, ‘You know, I’ve got some questions.’ He says, ‘Jim, you’ve really been given a great gift. Let the Holy Spirit reveal all the answers to these things, in the right time.’ And he did, he has, which is ultimately how I eventually got into the Diaconate.”
“We were going through our first reconciliation and… I get in and I’m with the priest and … I tell him my sins and so he gives me penance and he said, ‘I want you to go open up the hymnal to a page number’ … in my football career, 51 was my number… middle linebacker… Psalm 51 became very close to me. It was what gave me confidence when I was lonely. And so, the priest gives me this penance to open up and read and there it is, create in me oh Lord a clean heart… Psalm 51.”
“It just opened my eyes to the dignity of people and how we’re all related.”
“He said, ‘You know Jim, being a deacon is not preaching or being up at the altar. It’s about service to people. What is your service? What’s God doing with you that’s service oriented’?”
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