Many Winners on Super Bowl Sunday

For the 47th consecutive year the sporting world will turn its eyes to the big prize in professional football, the Super Bowl. In locker rooms, lunch rooms and even hair salons the western world is talking about the ‘big game.’ Let’s face it, even those who don’t follow the National Football League (NFL) just can’t resist getting in on the action of this annual high water mark of the football season. Bets are laid, trash talking reaches a fever pitch, and folks choose sides about who they think will take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Come game day, however, the contest between the two teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco Forty-Niners, will produce only one winner. Yes, the thrill of victory for one team will by mathematical elimination produce the agony of defeat for the other. There is only one winner in the Super Bowl. Or is there?

A quick search of the internet reveals a growing trend amongst churches on Super Bowl Sunday each year. With NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, allowing churches to show the big game on-site at their places of worship (a February 2008 ruling, according to a report from ESPN.com news services) many, many winners are emerging each year from the aftermath of the Super Bowl. Leading the way in this endeavour is a popular sports media outlet that focuses on Christian athletes in professional sports. Sports Spectrum, with their motto of “where sports and faith connect” (check out www.sportsspectrum.com), is launching their 20th version of “Power to Win.” The philosophy of ‘Power to Win’ is very simple. Men (and some women, too!) gather with their friends at church on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the game on a big screen. The atmosphere has the usual fun, food, and fan frenzy of the local sports bar, but without the alcohol and the game’s usual halftime show. Instead, when the whistle blows signalling the end of the second quarter, the often-raunchy halftime show gives way to a powerful DVD presentation of actual NFL players sharing about their Christian faith. These are genuine testimonies from real players who have found the significance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Those attending the Super Bowl party get to hear these dramatic stories and an opportunity is given to pray at the end of the DVD presentation.

Something like this begs the question: Is the Church prostituting the gospel by showcasing it on professional football’s most famous stage? Churches and pastors across North America are somewhat divided on such an “outreach” event, by the way. While a number of churches cancel their usual evening service in favour of taking advantage of this sports venue, others consider such action worldly and compromising to the faith. I wonder what Matthew, the tax collector-turned-apostle, would have thought? After Jesus called him from the despicable life of a tax collector, this man then turned around and hosted a party at his home. The guest of honour was Jesus, but the rest of the party-goers were, well, despicable tax collectors and other “sinners.” Jesus was criticized by the religious elite of that day for eating with these undesirables and they questioned His disciples about it. But when Jesus caught wind of their condescending opinion He confronted them with an obvious truth, as recorded in Matthew 9:12: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice’, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The way I see it, we have 51 other weeks to offer a typical Sunday evening church service for “the righteous” ones. Why not throw a party, like Matthew did, and invite your friends to hear the greatest story ever told, straight from the mouths of those who have mingled faith with football? It’s a win-win situation all the way. By the end of the night there will be one victorious team hoisting the coveted Lombardi hardware on a crowded stage. Yet in church auditoriums and livingrooms across North America, many more victors will emerge, having seized the true spiritual power to win. Is that not the best prize of all? Many NFL players and coaches who have discovered this already think so.