We are about to leave for an important congregational meeting that is scheduled to begin at the same time as tonight’s BCS Championship Game. Our services also regularly end well after noon each Sunday. That’s alright by me. I have to honestly say that all of the football and other sports that I’ve watched over the past 25 years or so hasn’t really enriched my life. However, the pragmatic and pessimistic side of me wonders whether our unpragmatic little fellowship is doomed to remain much the same as it is given what a football crazed environment we live in.
I used to attend a church that, like many churches today, had a large projection screen. The sound guys used to joke with the pastor that if he preached too long, they had the capability to put the the Saints games right on the screen behind him! I don’t think he ever went long, or not very long, perhaps in part because he was just about as eager to watch the game as everyone else. Other churchgoers who may not be so concerned with football have other priorities that may be just as paramount in their minds. I once heard a Southern Baptist evangelist tell a congregation that some of them were sitting there during his message wondering if they were going to get out early so they could beat the Methodists to the restaurants!
My prayer is that we will have our priorities in order and focus on things of everlasting consequence.
One Pilgrim's Progress 