church or football?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

this is interesting... a church in the Seattle area cancels its Sunday morning services so parishioners can watch the Seahawks game.  What do you think of canceling church services in favor of a football game?  To be fair, the church reschedules to an evening service that day.

Quote

The Bible says to remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Well, for some, the Seahawks are a religious experience.

EastLake Community Church, a Bothell-based church that bills itself as a “church for the rest of us,” has canceled its Sunday morning services at its Seattle-area campuses so congregants can watch the Seahawks’ wild-card playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings. The church has adjusted its morning service schedule in some form for Seahawks games dating back to 2011.

This time, the church delivers the message in Bad Lip Reading-style over video of Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe gaffe.

“Did you hear him?” Miss USA seemingly whispers to Miss Philippines. “He said no services!” Miss Philippines is visibly relieved she can skip church on Sunday without guilt.

The church will however hold a service at its Bothell campus at 6 p.m.

“It cracks me up every year we do this that it’s news,” said Ryan Meeks, founding pastor of the church. “We are human beings and we like to watch the Seahawks.”

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/bothell-church-cancels-sunday-morning-services-for-seahawks-vikings-game/?utm_content=buffer2fa77&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=owned_buffer

 

 

 

[pnattmbtc]

This reminds me of a story where someone was listening to a game in an earpiece during a sermon, and then got excited when his team did something while a sermon was going on, leading to out-of-place enthusiasm.

To answer your question, ideally we would be so into sports that we're more excited about that than we are spiritual matters.  Sports or really engaging and spur on our adrenaline.  It's difficult to go from that to something as mundane as Jesus dying on the cross to save you.  I remember some telling about how he was convicted about this that he was so into a game that when someone else was interested in discussing Jesus Christ, his response (internally) was something like, "I don't want to deal with this now, there's a game going on!" and he realized there was something wrong with his priorities.

That being said, the church is a place for those who need help, and if our reality is that we would miss a lot of our audience because of some activity, and we can reschedule so that doesn't happen, it makes sense to me to reschedule.  We need to reach people where they are.

I think if we personally need to reschedule because a sports event is more important the worship, that's a different issue.

[phkrause]

That's interesting!! I wonder what time there services are?? The game isn't until 1:05 pm!!

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

On the west coast, the kick-off is at 10:05 AM.... right smack dab during their morning service ...

[phkrause]

Ah, that's right!! I forgot about the three hour difference!