The Lionesses go into battle at 11am, UK time this Sunday. This means the televised women’s World Cup final will clash with a lot of church services. Should we move or cancel our church gatherings so that people can watch the match? If we don’t does this reflect a problem with sexism? What would we have done if the men were in action in a world cup final for the first time since 1966?
Well, as it happens, I’m confident that our church would be making the same decision either way and whilst there have been situations in the past where the question has come up hypothetically for a big international game, I’ve actually had to make the call on a personal level for real. Back in 2013, my home town team, Bradford City got all the way through to the League Cup Final at Wembley by beating Premier League opposition including Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa. The final was on a Sunday. I was down to preach and there was no way that we would have enough time to get into London after the end of the service. This was a history making, once in a life time opposition. City were the first bottom tier team to make it all the way through to a Wembley final. I am sure that if I’d asked nicely, someone would have swapped with me. However, even if I hadn’t been down to preach or lead, I would still have chosen to be at church and not at the cup final.
Why did I make that decision? It wasn’t that I was being legalistic about it. I wouldn’t have a problem personally with people going to play or watch sport on a Sunday afternoon. However, I did feel that there was something at stake. If I indicated that this was so important that I needed to rearrange my time, then it would have been an indication of where my priorities were. Now, there have been times when we’ve needed to do that. Most recently, we had to dash down to Kent when we got news that Sarah’s dad was critically ill and unlikely to survive. We had responsibilities at church that Sunday but the other leaders stepped in quickly. I think there has been one other situation where a family crisis meant that the other elders at our then church said “just go, we’ll cover things.”
However, this situation was not such a crisis. So, it was important for people to know that as much as I enjoyed football and as loyal as I was to my home city, there was something more important, some-one who commanded my greater loyalty and in fact something more enjoyable (as it happened we lost that game 5-0 so it might not have been that enjoyable anyway!)
This is important, because as you will have picked up from my article the other day, I’m not one of those who sees things like sport as merely trivial. I do think there’s value in it. However, it does not have ultimate value. I wanted people to know that my first loyalty was to Jesus, that I valued fellowship with them as my church family more than identity with my home city and that church is itself something to be enjoyed not endured and sacked off at the first opportunity.
I believe that all of those things would apply in any sporting situation, even with something as big as a World Cup Final. As special as the occasion will be for some, being together with God’s people is more special and therefore of greater importance. We first of all want to show that our first priority is to Jesus, to his name and glory. We will not be singing the praises of a football team when we should be singing the praises of Jesus.
Incidentally, we also might want to consider some other messages we might be sending too. You know, if I’d headed off to Wembley to watch Bradford, then the church family will have looked kindly on that. They would have wanted to have allowed me to enjoy the occasion but they wouldn’t have really got it or been involved. Many were not really football fans and I was definitely the only Bradford City supporter.
I would struggle even more if we were to be cancelling or rearranging church services on Sunday when many in our congregations will not be football supporters. I would struggle to be moving things around when many in multi-ethnic church don’t owe particular allegiance to the English national team. I don’t want those people to be given any impression that they come second to my sporting or national allegiances.
That’s why we’ll gather as normal on Sunday. That’s why I would encourage other churches not to get caught up in putting the game on the big screen, re-arranging or even cancelling their service. Record the game, watch the highlights or even tune in for the final moments after church. Get excited, sing Sweet Caroline and “It’s Coming Home” if we have won at that stage, cry if we lose. However make sure you get first things first.
Faithroots 