Lions Chaplain Dave Wilson speaks at His House Thursday

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From a 6-hour car trip when Cody was 13 to “pimping” Cody’s car, Cody Wilson and his father have had a lot of bonding time.

Thursday night their stories were told in front of more than 500 people in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium by Dave as part of the “Get Real” series, hosted by His House Christian Fellowship.

“Tonight we are in for a special treat,” said Josh Chaffin, associate campus minister of His House.

Rochester junior and wide receiver Cody Wilson had a smile on his face.

“My dad has been the chaplain of the Lions for 20 years, and this year it is a really good thing,” Cody said.

The audiences laughed as Cody acknowledged the Detroit Lions for having their first winning streak in years.

Cody told the audience a story of when he was 16 and he and his father decided to “pimp” his car.

“I couldn’t get the piece on the car, so my dad said keep trying, then he finally said, ‘move aside,’” Cody said. “My dad tried and he threw it on the ground.”

The audience broke out in laughter as the founding pastor of Kensington Church in Troy, Dave Wilson received the microphone from his son.

“My hero, my role model, and he is a man of God,” Cody said.

Dave Wilson thanked his son.

“My son was here two weeks ago and my wife and I sat at the back of the auditorium. We both are proud of our son,” Dave said. “When I was 20-years-old, I definitely didn’t preach that well.”

Dave explained to the audience why he goes around the country preaching on the topic “R.E.A.L. man.”

“I grew up in a home without a man of God.” Dave said. “When we began raising our three boys, we said we would train and launch warriors for Christ.”

Dave said to have the transformation from a boy to a man, you have to apply the four pillars also known as R.E.A.L.

Dave said ‘R’ stands for rejects passivity, ‘E’ is engaging with God, ‘A’ is accepting your responsibility and ‘L’ is for leading courageously.

“This is for women too, they need to step up too,” Dave said.

Dave concluded and asked the real men to stand. About 150 men stood and were applauded by the rest of the audience.

“It was good to see all the men stand up because now I know there are real men out there,” said Lansing senior Nichole Humes. “From a woman’s perspective, the service made me really excited.”

Jake Dupuis, 26-year-old Mount Pleasant resident, thanked Dave with a hug.

“I was once that same kind of man. I got saved 3 weeks ago and my life made a complete change,” Dupuis said. “After I came home from fighting in the war, my life was filled with anger, now it’s filled with compassion.”

Many of the audience members gathered in the halls after the service to reflect.

“He told his experience with living a double life, which hit home for me,” said Midland senior Jeremiah LaRue. “I knew he would talk about real men, but he told stories that I didn’t expect.”