Longtime Flames Football chaplain pivots to new role serving Liberty faculty and staff

Following a 25-year career in Liberty University’s Athletics Department as director of spiritual life for the Flames Football team, Dr. Ed Gomes (’76, ’85, ’07) has transitioned into a new role as Liberty’s first director of faculty and staff care and counseling under the Office of Spiritual Development.

“Dr. Ed Gomes has been serving as a transformational leader at Liberty University, impacting thousands of students’ lives for decades,” said Liberty Chancellor Jonathan Falwell. “As a faithful shepherd dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the spiritual growth and discipleship of students and student-athletes alike, it is fitting that he steps into this new role to serve our faculty and staff. Ed’s role in cultivating Christ-centered followers for the next generation is entering a new season of influence that will continue to inspire, counsel, and encourage Liberty leaders for years to come.”

“The amount of people that Ed Gomes has positively impacted on this campus over the last several decades is staggering, and it has gone well beyond football,” added Vice President of Spiritual Development Josh Rutledge. “So, to have his passion and his genuine love for other people now more broadly available to the staff and faculty on our campus is really meaningful. I’m truly grateful for Ed’s willingness to step into this role here with OSD to help serve this campus.”

Gomes will be based out of the Liberty Pastoral Counseling and Care office on the ground floor of Residential Commons IV.

He said the new job “complements my shape of ministry, my spiritual gifts, my heart, my abilities, personality, and my experience.”

“Since finishing up with football and beginning to build some bridges to the academic side at Liberty, I am very thankful the university has provided an opportunity to continue to develop a caring culture for spiritual and professional development for our faculty and staff,” Gomes said. “A big part of what I’ll be doing is building relationships within the different departments, visiting and getting to know the professors, staff, people in those areas that will eventually affect our students and beyond.”

Liberty administrators, including Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Scott Hicks and John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Dean Dr. Dean Troy Temple, were instrumental in developing the new position to better tend to Liberty’s faculty and staff at a pastoral level.

“What a wonderful transition for a faithful servant,” Hicks said. “Ed Gomes has been shepherding student-athletes for decades and now will be ministering to so many faculty and staff members, who are keepers of the mission of Training Champions for Christ. Ed provides a wealth of experience, wisdom, compassion, and spiritual strength that will help to foster and enrich an even deeper sense of community as he continues to humbly serve God in this new role.”

“This position will focus on a pastoral counseling approach, not clinical, as a faculty and staff chaplain caring for those who are going through various difficulties, whether it’s family or health issues, financial struggles or other things that may be happening in a family’s life or in an employee’s life,” Temple added. “We want to have someone who is there to listen and provide biblical counsel and care, and in situations that really require it, to refer them through all the university systems that can handle more intense or serious situations that require another level of care.”

Head Coach Jamey Chadwell said the spiritual influence Gomes has had on Liberty Football and the legacy he leaves with that program is immeasurable.

“People who come to Liberty all come to this school in different spots in their lives,” Chadwell said. “The great thing about Ed is that he never judged anyone, and I believe that is one of the reasons why he has had so many lasting relationships with our players. Ed was able to mentor them through the ups and downs of coming to Liberty as a young teenager and he played an instrumental part in them leaving as successful young men.”

He noted that Gomes has served as a sounding board to him, offering guidance and direction over his first two seasons at the helm.

“I would argue that any success we have had as a program is due in large part to the impact Ed has had on our players and staff. When you are new to a program, you need someone who has been in the trenches, and Ed had been in the trenches for a long time on the Mountain. He is an unbelievable servant leader, and our players see him live that out on a daily basis. He is intentional about every relationship he has with an individual, and Ed always meets people where they are at.”

Gomes said playing a part in the lives of players and coaches has been the most rewarding aspect of his time as team chaplain.

“It has been a privilege to build relationships with our coaches, staff, players, and their families over the years, to officiate weddings, to be a part of graduations. … It truly has been a blessing,” he said, noting God gave him a clear ministry mission and vision. “This new opportunity came out of nowhere, and God just made it so clear that this was the next assignment, to give back to folks here at Liberty.”

Gomes’ background with Liberty goes back even further than his time with Flames Football. As a student, he played point guard for three seasons on the Flames Basketball team from 1974-76 and still holds the program’s career record for steals (300) and single-season records for assists (256) and steals (137). He received his undergraduate degree in youth ministry in 1976 before opting out of his final year of athletic eligibility to travel with Life Action Ministries for two years. He pursued his master’s degree in religious education from Liberty while working as a resident director in Student Affairs from 1980-85.

Gomes then returned to his hometown of New Bedford, Mass., to work as an associate pastor at his home church for 11 years while serving as a police chaplain. He returned to Liberty to serve as dean of graduate and commuter students from 1996-2000 before moving over to the Athletics Department, completing his D.Min. in Spiritual Formation from Liberty in 2007.

Throughout his time at Liberty, Gomes has continued to serve in local ministry at Thomas Road Baptist Church. Over the years, he has officiated baptisms, marriages, funerals, and provided counseling and visitation, preparing him well for the new position.

“It has been a privilege to serve with Pastor Jonathan (Falwell, senior pastor of TRBC) and his dad (Liberty’s founder, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell), to complement Liberty University’s mission of Training Champions for Christ that has always been important to me,” Gomes said. “To have the opportunity to live that out, I’m honored.”

Gomes’ wife, Ruth, taught for several years in Liberty’s Family & Consumer Sciences Department before retiring in 2022. Their two children, Priscilla and Josh, are Liberty alumni.

Ed Gomes said he desires to finish his career at Liberty well and to encourage and exhort as many people as he can along the way to do their best to advance the university’s mission and the Kingdom of God.

“What’s important to me is that we build a credible foundation built on integrity and authenticity at Liberty,” he said. “It is important that the faculty and staff know that I’m all about helping them be all that God wants them to be. We have the potential to impact others for God, and He has a way of bringing people together with purpose. These relationships and contacts are divine appointments, and I want to be used by God to make a difference.”