by mr palmThe college I attended, the University of Florida, is a rabid football school. [Gator pride: ON] While the athletic program on a whole is one of the most successful in the country, football is stilll the Big Sport On Campus. [Gator pride: OFF]
Several times, I've heard preachers in that college town say something like:
"
If you can jump, scream, and stand in the sun for three hours to support a football team, you should get just as excited for Jesus!"
The admonition made sense, but honestly, I've yet to have a big-game adrenaline rush in a church setting. I've had transcendent worship experiences and felt painful conviction, but no high-fiving excitement. Part of me feels guilty, but part of me also wonders if it's a fair comparison to make.
Is it bad that I haven't felt as pumped up about Jesus as I have at a football game? Or can they not really be compared?
Comments (21)
Hmm.. I think we have every reason to feel pumped up for Jesus, but maybe in a different way. In football games you get to see the players run and score, but we don't get such a visually abundant experience with Jesus. It's different.
And I don't think leaders should pump the congregation's mood up with just awesome music and 'pumping' words.. But trust me, I'm not much of a sporting person, but there comes a time when you want to dance for Jesus..
randomly. on the streets. with no Christians nearby. =D
It's a You-and-God thing.
Two points.
First, I think it's remarkably annoying when pastors or authors rely solely on sports analogies. I don't know how many times I've heard a pastor say, "It's like this. We're down in the third, with eight to go, and the coach calls for a Hail Mary. It's nine and ten. And you're on the spot. What are you gonna do?" And I'm left with no more understanding than if he'd just explained himself in Greek. Maybe less.
Second, I don't want the people in the community of believers acting like they're in a sports arena. I don't want to see J-E-S-U-S painted on five shirtless men. I don't want pastors and worship leaders giving each other the chest bump during service. I would hope for a little more reverence.
Maybe I'm just out of touch.
-ND
actually, i do get as pumped up about Jesus..i hoot and holler for HIm and with Him all the time...
I get WAY more excited about Jesus than I do sports. I mean, I do love me some college footbal (tangent--what the crap was up with the Gators yesterday?!?!), but Jesus paying the penalty for my sins is still WAY better than anything I could see on the field. Now, does that mean everytime I'm in chuch I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, high-fiving people, and jumping up and down? No...sometimes I'm more introspective about my faith....sometimes I really need to take the time to ponder the deep sacrifices that God made, BUT, yes, there are times when I'm jumping up and down and just excited/extroverted about God.
To me it doesn't make any sense how someone could get really excited/act extroverted about a sporting activiity, but NEVER act that way about God. Now, perhaps someone who's an introvert won't scream at the top of their lungs about God, but I also imagine they don't do that while watching the Gators get beat by the bottom of the SEC either
It seems to me, the whole screaming, cheering, and becoming willingly burnt to a crisp in the sunshine just to watch a field full of men try to kill each other for a ball is a bit primitive. It is a primitive thrill, no? Some sort of rabid, innate desire to see if anybody will actually get hurt under all of their padding, and to see who will win, because really, it's exciting! Football games, (or any sports for that matter) are fun because you don't know what will happen, and what could happen could be dangerous. That's why we cheer and scream and yell... IMO.
But our excitement for Jesus is a bit more graceful, I'd like to think. I don't think it matters to him if we're jumping and screaming or simply sitting and praying. As far as I know, worship is his main desire. It isn't any more 'Christian' to be worshiping while clapping, yelling and screaming, than to be just sitting with a heart of worship.
Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of this...
I think if on any Sunday a group of Catholics did the wave at Mass, the priest would probably have a heart attack!
I think I'd rather be at a funeral than a Gators game.
Although this weekend, the Gators game WAS a funeral.
Emotions are not the same as faith. A mob can run on emotions and do some really destructive stuff.
I think it could be more about commitment at the heart of the issue. We can wear all sorts of sports team stuff on us, in our house or car to show who we support. We so our commitment to the sports team.
Do we show the same commitment by what we wear, how we talk, or what is in our house or car with our personal relationship with Jesus. Do we think about standing our in the rain and weather only for sports or to help encourage on who is hurting? It's not about emotion but commitment.
As soon as I saw the title of this, I immediately knew exactly what was going on, as I also went to the University of Florida. My pastor, an avid Gator fan, frequently used a similar thing with us.
I have seen people get way more excited for Jesus than they do for the Gators. I myself am a HUGE fan of both.. but how I respond to the Gators is in no way how I respond to Jesus. I think it's slightly unfair to compare the two. In The Swamp, I jump up and down and scream until my throat is sore, doing absurd hand signals and joining with 90,000 other fans in "We are the boys" before the fourth quarter. With Jesus, it is MUCH more personal, and much more quiet...but that doesn't mean I'm not just as excited, you know? Most pastors in Gainesville, I've seen, understand this... But not all of them do. I don't know that it's the level of visible excitement that counts.
(Gator fan:ON) That said, the Ole Miss game was the most depressing thing ever. I was in Gainesville, though not at the Swamp since I couldn't afford tickets, and it was terrible. Our team played like a glorified high school team until our second to last possession. Had we been playing like that the whole game, we'd have trucked them over like should have. ..but, even so, We are down but not out...and a game at the Swamp is still my absolute favorite way to spend a saturday in the fall! (Gator fan:...well..still on)
But I guess even Gators have their off days...Thank God Jesus doesn't.
I've never been too big of a fan of that analogy. Namely, with sporting events, you have no idea what the outcome will be (ok, sometimes you'll correctly predict that it'll be a blowout, but you still get my point). Your team doesn't win the championship game every year, even if your team's program is the best in the history of its sport (e.g. NY Yankees in baseball, UK Wildcats in college basketball, etc.). If they do pull off the victory, there's the chance that it might never have happened. When your team wins or makes an incredible play, you get excited at
that moment. A week or month later, your excitement over that one play has probably significantly waned.
With Jesus on the other hand, he's already won the victory, and it wasn't in question. You don't read the Bible biting your nails over whether or not Jesus decides to submit to the Father, love others, or be resurrected. I'm not saying that you can't still get pumped or excited about it, but its not that great of an analogy. A lot of the excitement and cheering in sports comes from spur of the moment events where you don't know what will happen. Plus, in sports, you'll often cheer to motivate your team or to distract the other team (e.g. making a lot of noise when the opposing football team is in its huddle).
I certainly think there's reason to be excited about Jesus and what He's done. Unfortunately, for me at least (and I'm sure some others), these analogies can be distracting enough that you miss the heart behind it and get caught up in "why it doesn't fit" or "why it's wrong". It's like they're appealing to pop culture to make Jesus more relevant/exciting, but it kinda backfires. At least that's been my experience.
I laughed at your title.
I go to a Catholic high school but it's sad that not a lot of us we don't get all hyped up about Jesus the same way we get hyped up at a sports game.
Applying sports analogies to faith doesn't make any sense at all (at least for me), but comparing what fans do during a sporting event to what Christians do in Church - that makes a lot more sense.
We don't have to be in a Charismatic movement or to be in a megachurch to be pumped up for Jesus. But of course, let's not get carried away with our excitement.
Oh yeah, your title made me laugh because last year, in an attempt to get us excited about the huge Feast of St Dominic Eucharist, we were asked to do the wave after the offertory song.
Deuteronomy 6:5 and Luke 10:27 say we're to be loving the LORD with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind. When we worship we shouldn't check our emotions at the door. When we worship we shouldn't check our bodies at the door. When we worship we shouldn't check our minds at the door either...
We find a wide range of worship within the Scripture:
-A more active, outward display of worship. For example when David danced before the Lord with all his might in II Samuel 6. Of course some considered him undignified/contemptible because of his display of worship. Or Psalm 98:4: "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise."
-Quiet, contemplative worship such as we find in Habakkuk 2:20: "The Lord is in His temple, keep silence before Him," and Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God."
Ideally, we should have both types of worship going on, but it seems that more often than not most congregations end up focusing on one or the other, or they go for a middle ground.
I don't know if the sports analogy is good or not, but I think it should give us cause if we get excited about sports (or whatever) and we never get excited and passionate about Jesus and the things of God and our faith. We're to be red hot for Him. God has nothing good to say about the lukewarm believer. (Rev. 3.)
i think when there are events....like someone gets baptized or you see someone healed, then HECK YES high fiving is in order! But thats the thing.... worship can be amazing but it isn't so much an event as a lifestyle.
There are so many things about Jesus to be excited about. So many things. But we don't always see them and when we do, we aren't always sitting in a stadium together waiting for it.
@Whatisfaith@xanga - Good points!
IMHO, the house of the Lord is a place in which we are to hear mainly what He has to say. That is best done in a setting which is calm and would allow for a worshipper to focus thoughts away from his/her worldly anxieties.(That's not to say there's absolutely no place for emotion in worship, but a person shouldn't want to get emotionally charged just to get emotionally charged.)
In contrast, at times, such as when one's favorite football team takes a heart-breaking loss, that can actually add to the kind of anxiety the Lord may not agree with.. Comes with the territory.
I am told that the man who Florida's field is named after was a member of a church that was totally run down and he gave virtually nothing to it which if true shows a condition of his heart. Jesus said out of the overflow of your heart your actions speak. If your heart is more content at a football game screaming with your friends or is it spending time with Jesus in a worship setting? I go to church because I love God and his followers which is a heart condition. Many are there just to check it off the list more out of obligation.
At a Promise Keepers gathering in the Georgia Dome we had three waves going at once, two in one direction and one in the other. This was while we were waiting for the meeting to start. I've never seen three waves going at once before or after.
That being said, I find the analogy and the use of shame to get a behavioral or false emotional response deplorable. Love is the only motivator we should use with one another to stir us to love and good deeds. Fear only works appropriately when backed up by love as its foundation. IOW, "I'm afraid to disappoint the One I love so much."
So if I never get excited at sports games, I'm off the hook, right?
  The analogy stinks and it is more or less a false guilt about emotions that are simply not connected in the grand scheme of things. The intentions are not misunderstood: Why can't we be as motivated to evangelize or share the Gospel with the same fervor we root for our favorite team? Can't say it's because we might feel/look foolish. Dudes with beer bellies painted from forehead to navel in garrish colors whilst jumping up and down? Foolish looking, indeed. I'm sure there are more pressing matters the Body of Christ ought to tend to, like the Eastern Mysticism that has found it's way into our churches through the failed attempts at being more "relevant" to the world and worldly people?
Emotions do not always follow reality. Forcing people to feel an emotion does not help matters any. Rather have people encounter and understand the reality of Christ, and then the emotions will follow.
I think church is more of a place to worship, not to scream and yell and jump up and down. That's not being respectful to God, IMO.