From my weekly article at “Worldmag.com:
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| photo credit: Tom Haymes via photopin cc |
To go or not to go, this is the question facing thousands of churchgoers on Super Bowl Sunday evening. Of course, all sorts of moral expectations and qualifications underpin that question. Is it wrong to skip church in favor of a Super Bowl party? (And is “skip” even the right verbiage for choosing not to attend?) What if it is only the evening service but you went in the morning, is it OK then? What if the pastor said it was OK but will still be leading church? (Even though everyone knows he’d rather be watching the game, too.) Even worse, what if the pastor said, or subtly implied, that skipping church is a questionable decision? And on and on it goes.
I wrote last year why I think participating in Super Bowl festivities is a great idea, football fan or not. But the issue of conflict with church is a sticky one in Christian culture, with a long, moral tradition of “there’s no good reason to skip church.” And there is much fresh thinking about whether attendance makes the churchgoer or whether it is something deeper. So here is some encouragement and a bit of perspective.
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Read the full article HERE.
