I’m not sure how many football fans read this but by now you’ve heard the discussion of a lockout for the 2011 football season. I’m not the biggest football fan, if I cheer for a team it’s the NY Giants. I prefer college football even though I have no specific team. But I can’t imagine how the biggest sport in this county could cease to exist for a year on the professional level. How about you? Could you imagine if there was no professional football on Sundays for a whole year? I’m not sure what your area is like but Baltimore loves the Ravens, when it comes to this city football is king. With no Sunday football games to attend or watch you might wonder, “What does this mean for my ministry?”, “What does this mean for my church?” So what does it mean for church if the NFL locked out?
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post we hosted a Family Ministry Kickoff for our kids and student ministers this weekend. One of the central themes mentioned in our kickoff is seizing the opportunity that God presents to us. Some times in ministry we’ll focus too much on why students are coming or are not coming but then forget to follow that up with, “What should we do now that they are here?” While evangelization is an important purpose for our ministries to focus on we need to be ready to take care of an instance when students start showing up. What would you do if one night 50, 100, 200 kids just showed up? I’m not saying that would happen with the NFL lockout, but it’s possible right? No football, means a very different weekend for many people? I think some of us may have to change the way we do ministry because no football means a void in many people’s lives.