Manslick Road church of Christ

A Stand Against Compromise

The NFL made lots of news last month with Super Bowl XLI. I am not talking about the fact that it was the first one played by teams with African American head coaches, nor that it was the first one played in rain. I am referring to the league’s crackdown on church Super Bowl parties.

It all began when someone in the NFL office spotted a web site promoting a Super Bowl gathering at Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis. The league informed the church that it could not use a wall projector to show the game, citing copyright laws. (Using the expression Super Bowl in advertising and charging for admission or refreshments is also prohibited.) Churches across the country scurried to make last-minute adjustments to their plans. Some altered arrangements to comply with the law, others simply canceled their parties.

At least one church reacted much differently. The following excerpt is from Yahoo! News, posted February 2.

Second Baptist Church, located 3705 Kessler Blvd. North Drive, [Indianapolis], will proceed with its plans to show the game Sunday —using a rear projection TV screen—following an afternoon service, an assistant to the church’s senior pastor told 6News.

“The NFL implied that it has a problem with the venue and medium that local churches conduct ministry,” the senior pastor, the Rev. David Greene, said in a press release. “We want to save souls by any means necessary. Football, traditional service, street ministry—it doesn’t matter.

“All we want to do is increase fellowship with believers and demonstrate true love to people that don’t know Christ. . . .

“I believe that God’s people have to take a stand,” Greene said in the letter. “If the church continues to compromise with the world, it will soon have no influence on the world that God has instructed us to reach in His Great Commission as directed in St. Matthew 28:18-20 .”

A stand against compromise with the world—by having a church Super Bowl party?! Get this straight. Watching football instead of worshiping isn’t worldly. Making eating and entertainment a church function, in direction opposition to 1 Corinthians 11 , isn’t worldly. Redefining fellowship (a word that in the Bible refers to sharing in Christ) to mean food and fun isn’t worldly. Ignoring divine and civil law isn’t worldly. No, compromise with the world doesn’t occur until you allow the NFL to say how its programming can be used.

Can reasoning be any more upside down? “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness” (Is. 5:20 ).