Editorial

I could hear the anguish in his voice.

Jerry Vines – the most prominent pastor in the Super Bowl XXXIX host city of Jacksonville – told me the morning after the big game how difficult it was to cancel First Baptist Church’s Sunday evening services to assist city officials clearing the way for the National Football League’s championship game.

As anyone who has even casually followed Southern Baptist life would know, Vines is not the sort of Christian leader who bows to cultural trends or bends to the will of politicians. As church after church has moved out of downtown facilities for seemingly more prosperous suburban climes, as Sunday evening worship services have increasingly fallen out of favor with some pastors, Vines has remained steadfast in his traditional commitments in the heart of Jacksonville’s downtown.

The former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the nation’s most prominent Christian leaders for decades and an outspoken defender of the total truthfulness and inerrancy of the Bible is no wimp in today’s Culture Wars.

Click image for related coverage

Nevertheless, the world’s premiere sporting event inescapably clashed with the decades-long commitment of Vines never to cancel an evening worship service to accommodate church members who wanted to see the Super Bowl. Occupying nine downtown blocks, First Baptist Church was asked by city officials to not hold evening services Feb. 6 since the rest of downtown would be closed for the Super Bowl, held less than a mile away at Alltel Stadium.

Left with no other choice, Vines was forced to cancel the services.

“We did it without rancor; we didn’t kick a fuss up about it,” Vines told me Feb. 7. “I’m realistic – you can’t spit in the wind. We cooperated as best as we know how. We try to be good citizens in Jacksonville.”

In the wake of Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at last year’s Super Bowl, Vines vigorously exercised his Christian citizenship and his considerable influence in Jacksonville to make this year’s event as family-friendly as possible.

Mayor John Peyton and Vines “were in close communication” throughout the year leading up to this year’s game in the hopes of averting a replay of last year debauchery, Vines told me.

Vines’ criticism of Jackson’s performance elicited a letter from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, promising a “family-friendly” event in Jacksonville. The 62-year-old former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney headlined the Jacksonville half-time show, which most observers credited as being far more subdued than last year’s debacle.

“I guess it’s a commentary on the decadence of entertainment today that a former Beatle is considered family-friendly. But, at least the old guy kept his clothes on,” Vines quipped.

While thankful for the comparatively mild half-time performance, Vines acknowledged there were still plenty of pre-game activities and commercial messages that were “pretty raunchy” and “pretty tasteless.” A sport that is inextricably linked to beer ads featuring scantily clad women and “male performance” messages has a long way to go to family-friendliness, to say the least.

While he used his citizenship to try to positively influence the morality of the Super Bowl, Vines spoke candidly of the mounting tension in today’s Christian churches concerning how we balance our obligation to be in the world, but not of it.

The fact that this American cultural phenomenon falls on a Sunday – “Super Sunday” isn’t an accolade for an especially remarkable worship service these days – illustrates the challenge for Christians in relating to an event of the Super Bowl’s magnitude.

Rather than attempting to compete with the event, many churches use the occasion to host fellowships and to do evangelistic outreach. Vines is not critical of those who choose this path; nor is he critical of those who would choose to even go to a football game or other sporting event on a Sunday. But the readiness of some churches to accommodate the world does concern Vines.

Canceling his first Sunday evening worship service in four decades of pastoral ministry because of Jacksonville’s first Super Bowl “was uncomfortable for me,” even though the city left him no other choice.

“I really think it’s not about football. I love football, but the church makes it too easy for Christians,” Vines said.

In our morning-after-the-Super Bowl interview, Vines elaborated at length about his concern for a diminishing passion for discipleship among Christians today which is being encouraged by America’s entertainment culture.

“I think that there needs to be times when Christians have to decide between activities related to the Lord’s work and activities related to the things of the world. If the church just acquiesces and never gives the Christian that opportunity” to make a choice, believers will be harmed, he noted.

Vines told me the story of a young, gifted baseball player at his former church in Rome, Georgia, who declined an invitation to the state all star game because it conflicted with a church youth camp. The young man heard the call to ministry at the camp – and today, David Allen is dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

“What if we had just said, ‘go ahead and play baseball’? I think there needs to be those times when Christians have to decide, difficult times. I think that’s a part of growing as a Christian. Churches today, everything that comes along, churches cave in. It’s really a sad state of affairs.”

At the same time, Vines was insistent that I make clear, “I don’t come at this from a legalistic, judgmental standpoint. … I, in no way, am judging others or that I view this as this makes you a better Christian because of what you don’t go to or don’t do.

“I’m just talking about one’s personal convictions and I’m talking about commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we just don’t have a lot of that today,” Vines said.

Vines reminded me of the classic movie, “Chariots of Fire,” in which a sprinter who is a Scottish missionary refuses to compete for the Olympic Trials because the race is held on Sunday.

“That (kind of commitment today) is just like a foreign language to most Christians, isn’t it?” Vines asked me.

Concluding our interview, Vines said, although the signs are not hopeful, “I long to see a day when Christians will really, really get serious about the Christian life.”