Super Bowl Sunday

...we are beginning service right on schedule.

No question about it.

 

Eli is "The Bomb!!"----and I'd like to see him play

but

Eli can do it w/o me just this once!!!

Super Bowl will go on without the church

Church will go on without the super bowl

 

We don't usually have a Sunday Evening service so it wouldn't affect us one way or the other.

OTOH, Compassionate Hope Foundation, an international church planting and Christian relief organization that was founded some years ago by our Founding Pastor Al Henson, is planning to have its official launching of a new program they call Rescue 1 on that evening. It'll be held at our facilities during the Super Bowl. Along with being able to watch the game, they will present this program that has as its goal the elimination of worldwide s@x trafficking.

Statistics reveal that every year during Super Bowl week s@x trafficking reaches its highest amount of activities. Their goal is to rescue women and young girls from this ungodly way of life and provide a means of reaching them with the Gospel of Christ and to be able to live a life that would be honoring to the Lord.

For details, visit their website at www.compassionatehope.org

See also out church's website at www.lighthouseministries.org

 

I cannot imagine it affecting my church much, if at all (and that would be true even if you replace "Super Bowl" with a UK sporting fixture that happens to take place on the Lord's Day!) In this year of the Olympic Games, I am reminded of Eric Liddell in the 1924 Olympics. The "History Makers" site says of him:

Committed Christian Eric Liddell refused to race on Sunday and was forced to withdraw from the 100 metres, his best event. Instead, Liddell raced in the 400 metres and little was expected of him. As Liddell went to the starting blocks for the race, an American slipped a piece of paper in his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, "Those who honour me I will honour." Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand and not only won the race but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.
​

 

We change our Sunday night service to 5:00 pm instead of 6:30 pm for the Super Bowl.

 

We will have our accidental power outage at approximately around exactly at 6:00 so we'll have to cancel church.








Ok, only joking of course. We will have people over at our house right after church. We record it on the DVR and start the game when we get home. We'll skip through the halftime show and anything else that's not part of the game/commercials.

 

Our church will have its regular Sunday evening service. I'm fine with that. I'll be there.

But for purposes of discussion, let me play the devil's advocate.

What's wrong with having a Super Bowl Party instead of Sunday night church?

I understand that some churches actually use the Super Bowl as an opportunity for outreach and ministry, which is great. But would it be a sin just to pop up the popcorn, fire up the big screen TV and just have fun?

Annsi's comment got me to thinking. Nobody would even think of accusing Ann's church of sinning by not having a Sunday night service. So why would anybody think our church was sinning by not having a Sunday night service?

I know, some will say that it's giving in to the world. Well, is it, really? Is a bunch of Christians, faithful followers of the Lord Jesus, having great fellowship watching a football game giving in to the world by watching it on Sunday evening instead of Sunday afternoon?

Shouldn't we remember that we don't observe the sabbath and all its rules.

Shouldn't we remember that having a Sunday evening service is a human invention?

Okay, I can hear some of you saying, yeah, he just wants to watch the football game and is looking for some way to justify it. Naw, I'm just trying to stir up a little discussion.

But Tom, but Tom, what about all those beer commercials running during the game?

Mute Button.

 

We will have a chili cook off. Our senior pastor will make shrimp gumbo. We will have a large screen and board games. It will be a great night of fellowship.


None of this will impact our normal Sunday routine.

 

We don't have Sunday night services, but we do have a bible study, which will take place as usual.

 

We don't have Sunday night services, so it's nothing to interfere. But our class for middle-aged singles is having a party at the home of one of our members, as I'm sure other classes are, too, though I haven't heard 'officially.'

 

I know you were playing DA here (as in Devil's Advocate, not District Attorney! ) but surely there is a difference between having an evening service most Sundays but cancelling one week in favour of a sports event, and (as in Ann's case) never having an evening service. (I notice from her church web site that they have one service at 9:00am and another at 11:00am).

Is it? Paul was preaching "until midnight" when the disciples at Troas met on the first day of the week and Eutychus fell out of the window. I know that could mean that the service began in the morning, and just carried on through the day, though that seems unlikely, since the first day of the week would have been a normal working day for them. I may well be wrong, but I don't think the bible lays down any particular "timetable" for church services.

 

Every year we have this discussion, and every year believers practice the great doctrine of 'the priesthood of the believer' and some go to church as usual, some change things around a bit, and some don't go to church on Sunday night as usual. To God be the glory in each case.

There is far too much unbiblical pastoral hand-wringing and congregational head-bashing over this issue.

 

I don't think it is a question of how the Superbowl affects church. It is more revealing of what is in America's heart, million dollar sports idols, movie stars, etc. "They flatter me with their lips but their hearts are far from me."

 

Nope... Packers not playing. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Yeah, I was playing DA. And I concede there is a difference. Seems to me it boils down to the reason. Maybe Ann, Alcott and Amy G can tell us why their churches don't have Sunday evening service.

I agree. Nor does it specify how many gatherings a church has on Sunday. And my church also meets on Wednesday for Bible study and various children's activities.

I want to be sure that we don't equate our spirituality with the number of times we have church services. I think that's close to legalism.;

I've joked with folks about classifying Christians that way. The most spiritual are the Sunday morning-Sunday night-Wednesday night Christians.

The Sunday morning-night Christians are a step less spiritual, and the Sunday morning-only Christians are the least spiritual.

So I'm making the DA argument that altering the Sunday gathering for the Super Bowl is not necessarily "forsaking the assembling."

 

I like your idea of turning the Sunday night service into a gathering/party. I won't be going to the Sunday night service at my church. The Super Bowl is a once a year event. I feel no guilt in watching it instead of being in church. Since "forsaking" literally means stopping and never doing it again, I'm not doing "forsaking the assembling".