Super Sunday and Sunday night worship

Yesterday was the Super Bowl and now all will be sad until next August when football comes back. I know my wife is happy at least. She won't have to put up with football for several months, and I think she is secretly plotting ways to rid the world of football games forever. Super Bowl Sunday always brings up an interesting question. What do we do with Sunday night worship?

I don't know how many churches still do Sunday night worship. Growing up in south Mississippi, Sunday night worship was part of our religious landscape. When I served in the Mississippi Delta, we didn't have service, and neither did any of the larger churches, and I do not believe that other denominations had services as well. In my current appointment, we do have Sunday night worship. So, I've had it all ways.

There are complications and blessings to Sunday night worship. First, as a preacher, that's one more sermon! You sometime think you may run out of stuff to preach about. And, it is hard to sometimes find a theme for Sunday night worship. At Coy, I use it for different sermon series. I find it is helpful to do some teaching sermons that would really fit within the flow of our Morning worship. Right now I'm preaching on the fruit of the Spirit, previously, I've the membership vows of the UMC, things such as that.

And I find that to be the blessing. You have a committed group of folks on Sunday night that really take the Word of God seriously, that really do want to grow in their faith, that really do want to learn. I was very pleased with the crowd we had last night for worship. We had basically our normal Sunday Night crowd, which thrilled me to know that there were these folks that want to spend time worshiping God, even on the night of the Super Bowl.

So, would I cancel Sunday night service for the Super Bowl? No way. Not if we normally have it. Remember the fuss over canceling church on Christmas? Now, this is different, but in some ways the same. Do we rearrange our schedule as the church for other things, or do we say, this is who we are, and we will not conform the world. Part of the identity of my church is Sunday night worship. Canceling that for the Super Bowl would have been giving up part of who we are to conform.

Is this is a life or death issue? Is this a salvation issue? Of course not, but I have found here, and I have found in myself, that it is important. It comes back to who we understand ourselves to be, and much of that understanding will we give up to conform to the world. For too long, the church has given up too much of that identity. Do we start with Sunday night worship and the Super Bowl? I don't know. But, it was on my mind this morning.