Baptist Churches Hosting Super Bowl Services

(I hope you read my post yesterday about being a fanatic. Today I thought I would share a post from yesterday's Friday Church News Notes published by David Cloud and the Way of Life ministry.)

BAPTIST CHURCHES HOSTING SUPER BOWL SERVICES (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many Baptist congregations are turning their churches over to football, one of America's real Gods, on Super Bowl Sunday, February 4. Pastor Luis Acosta of Pines Baptist Church, Pembroke Pines, Florida, says, "It's a way of showing people we're regular Joes like they are" ("Churches Gear Up for Super Bowl Sabbath," Christian Post, Jan. 27, 2007). Believers are not supposed to be regular Joes; they are supposed to be "a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). Acosta says there won't be as much as a prayer at the Super Bowl Sunday event at Pines Baptist because he doesn't like the "heavy handed approach" to evangelism. I wonder what the bold apostle Paul would think of this? At Carrollwood Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida, some attendees bring their recliners from home to the Super Bowl gathering. Jim Waters, associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Milton, Florida, says they have the choice of hosting a Super Bowl event or holding church, but if they do the latter, "no one's going to come." That's a fearful reflection on the worldliness and nominalism of this congregation. Instead of hosting a Super Bowl event this church should be on its knees confessing its sin and seeking revival. William Baker, who has written books about sports and religion, says sports, religion, and patriotism form the "American trinity." He says that a visitor from Mars on Super Bowl Sunday would say, "These people believe, MAYBE in God ... BUT MOST SURELY they believe in sports." The Lord Jesus Christ did not exalt sports, but He did exalt the church, saying, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). James 4:4-5 says God is jealous over the affections of His people and calls "friendship of the world" spiritual adultery. It is carnal folly to think that God would be pleased with a church that replaces or supplements the preaching and worship of Jesus Christ with the carnality and hero worship that surrounds a Super Bowl football game. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5). "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).