Sport Fans vs Church Fans
There was once a time while I was serving as a hospital chaplain that my family and I attended a new and growing Baptist church. We loved the fellowship, the church, the vision for growth, but there was one thing that use to drive me nuts…the pastor would often say “Why do you get so excited about your favorite sports team on Saturday but you can’t express yourself in worship in Sunday?”
That statement, and his similar sports compared to church analogies, drove me nuts because I failed to see the correlation between a sporting event and a church in worship. Both have differing purposes, differing reasons for existence, and a differing mission. Was the pastor suggesting that I behave toward the Lord as if he was merely a football player? Or was he really implying that a football game is equally as important as a church gathering?
Well, ultimately it humored me because although I am a sports fan, I am not very vocal during a game or outwardly excited, whether I am sitting in a sports arena or standing in a church sanctuary.
I shared all this because I just read a great article in Christianity Today by Karl Vaters titled “Understanding The New Apathy About Church Attendance” that hits on a related topic of misinterpretation and misunderstanding the topic of attendance and non-attendance.