Super Bowl Parties in Churches get Sacked

Here is an excerpt of an article that I recently read….”For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church’s fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food — and prayer.But this year, Immanuel’s Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.”
(read the rest of the article here)

Now on one level, I understand why churches might be disappointed and angry. All they are trying to do is enjoy a game together and have some fun…what harm can there be in that?

None really, right? But on another level, I am glad that the NFL has cracked down on churches. Certainly the NFL’s motives are self-serving, but actually I believe they are inadvertently serving the Kingdom of God.

Read again the last sentence in that quote…”instead church members will host parties in their homes.” Wow, what an opportunity, if churches actually take it!

The option now is to have these parties in homes with the opportunity of inviting neighbors. Instead of having the party at the church and expect people, who are not yet followers of Christ, to walk through the doors, we instead take the parties to them.

Sometimes it takes God using a hostile agent like the NFL to light a fire under the church and force us outside the four walls of our safe, secluded, and comfortable churches (It kind of reminds me of when it took the persecution in the early church to finally disperse the church outside of Jerusalem to the four corners of the known world – bringing the Gospel to the gentiles.)

Open up your home. Walk across the cul-de-sac, get to know those on the other side of your fence, and invite them into your home. There is nothing more non-threatening than eating some wings and nachos while watching a bunch of grown men beat each other into a pulp.

Bill Reichart is a pastor at Big Creek Church in Forsyth County, GA. He blogs at his personal blog, Provocative Church and his ministry blog, First Impressions .