Clergy Make End Run Around Super Bowl Squeeze

The last weekend of January is a good one for Seventh-day Adventists. They go to church on Saturday, so the Super Bowl game on Sunday doesn’t conflict. Other churchgoers, though, can face a personal playoff of their own on bowl day. Do they spend that morning at service or at the supermarket shopping for the big brunch? Preachers have found ways around this line of scrimmage--and usually they involve food and a large TV screen.

But first, preachers point out with a hint of smugness that West Coast preachers don’t have it as tough as those in the East. Kickoff time is 3:18 p.m. this season, which means that evening service-goers don’t have any better excuse to skip church than the morning crowd. (This Sunday, though, might be a challenge with nonstop championship games from morning till late afternoon.)

Preaching to worshipers who have football on their minds, some clergy members play to the crowd. The Rev. Randy Rowland, who happens to be in-stadium announcer for the Seattle Seahawks as well as pastor of the Presbyterian Church at the Center in Seattle, starts his sermon like this: “It’s a Super Sunday, ‘cause there’s the bowl game and ‘cause we’re in the presence of a God who’s crazy about us.”

He keeps his in-church sports commentary brief, but after church he and “a bunch of guys and women” go to a sports bar and watch the game together, says Rowland, who is teaching a course at Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary this month.

Pastor Cecil Murray of L.A.’s First AME church plans bowl day services a year in advance. No programs are scheduled at the church that afternoon.

“We want people to be together to enjoy the game,” he says. At sermon time, Murray doesn’t talk football. In general, though, he’s a fan.

“Sports are a healthy arena for people,” he says. “Football and basketball certainly beat throwing each other to the lions, the way we do on our city streets with all the violence. And if sports figures set a good cadence for the young, that’s healthy.”

Pastor Isaac Canales of the Pentecostal Mission Eben-Ezer church in Carson is a major sports fan. When the local high school baseball team makes good, he stands all the players up on the church podium for a round of applause. Super Bowl Sunday is his excuse to compare religion with sports, just the way Paul the apostle does in his epistles in the Bible.

“The Christian life is like running a race,” Canales says. “It involves competition with yourself, you challenge yourself to be your best. You need self-discipline, physical exertion, setting goals. And Super Bowl Sunday is a good opportunity for me to remind the Latino people in my church, especially the young kids, to set goals. Worldly goals, especially to finish school. And spiritual goals.”

Right after church Canales hosts a potluck lunch around the big screen in the fellowship hall.

At the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Super Bowl Sunday doesn’t present major problems. But the Rose Bowl and the World Series games often do. For the Rose Bowl, says the Rev. Glenn DeMaster, executive pastor, lots of visitors in town for the game attend services at the cathedral.

“We recognize them during our announcements, along with the team members who belong to the congregation,” DeMaster says.

DeMaster’s Spanish-speaking church members face a serious challenge during playoff games because they meet during game time.

“The pastor who works with them just acknowledges the games and lets people make their own decision about whether they’ll be here,” DeMaster says.

UCLA students who attend the Newman Center, the Roman Catholic center just off campus, can expect a Super Bowl Sunday sermon about the Scripture readings, says Father Jim Moran, associate director of the center. But then, “we’re doing a multiethnic potluck lunch around 2,” he says. It’ll be in the lounge, beside the big-screen TV.