NewSpring Church, a five campus megachurch in Anderson, S.C., is canceling its Sunday night services due to the Super Bowl this weekend.
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Lead Pastor Perry Noble explained the reason in his blog. "I've been in church work for over 20 years and the one thing I can say is that attendance on Super Bowl Sunday night in church has always been awful! (and...the people who are there are pretending to be looking at youversion on their phone...but they are really checking the score of the game!)," he wrote.
Noble said the church has always tried to compete with the Super Bowl with poor results, so NewSpring made the decision to change its worship times from Sunday night to Saturday night. The megachurch's two Sunday morning worship services are still being held.
The decision, in part, also stemmed from something Noble said he once heard influential pastor Andy Stanley say. Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., said that one of the things the early church was obsessed with was making a difference and not making a point.
Noble said NewSpring, in regards to the Super Bowl, was not going to "try to make a point, but rather make a difference. We want people to come to church, and we think church should do whatever it takes to get people in the doors."
Apologist Chris Rosebrough told The Christian Post that Stanley's statement doesn't have "anything to bear on whether or not it's appropriate for a church to yield to the Super Bowl."
SOURCE: Christian Post
Brittany Smith
