Having A Superbowl Sunday Mentality

What does "Superbowl Sunday" mean to you? Easter? Christmas? The actual football Superbowl? But why don't we treat EVERY Sunday like a Superbowl Sunday? What is at stake isn't a trophy or a prize but people's eternal lives. Shouldn't that be enough for us to treat EVERY Sunday and EVERY service like it's the Superbowl of all services?

What does it mean to treat every Sunday like a Superbowl Sunday? It means excellence. It means attention to detail. It means understanding how every small detail contributes to the big picture.

One of my friends got saved at C3 and told me about their experience and perspective when they first came to a service. He told me the service had so much production value that when someone called to follow up with him he thought he would have to pay a monthly membership fee like 24 Hour Fitness to keep coming! AND he was ready to commit to it and pay! Now THAT is excellence!

Now think about the flip side of excellence. It isn't necessarily a mediocre or horrible service. It is attention to details. Attention to detail removes distractions. A distraction is not seeing a Bible verse on the screen when the Pastor is reading it. A distraction is having a mic go dead because the batteries were not changed. A distraction is seeing the stage light get brighter and darker as a speaker walks across stage. A distraction is not seeing lyrics show up on the screen until after everyone else has sung them.

To distract is to "prevent (someone) from giving full attention to something." Distractions keep people from engaging in worship, from listening to the sermon, and ultimately from making a decision to give their lives to Jesus. Imagine a person missing their opportunity to meet Christ because they were distracted during a message and missed a key point. Attention to detail is our way of ensuring people have every opportunity to encounter God in an inspiring, distraction-free environment, and giving our Pastors an excellent platform from which to impact a person's life for eternity!

We have all been given the amazing opportunity to go to heaven. At its core, that is one of the reasons we serve. It is deeper than the fact that you like the colors of lighting or crafting a great sound mix or feel a sense of purpose that your camerawork is letting people around the world watch one of our services. We serve because we are grateful for what Jesus Christ did for our own lives and we want other people to experience that same life-change.

In the 1990's a cheesy phrase was coined, "What Would Jesus Do." One of our brilliant Production leaders, Kay, asked us to think about how we would do our jobs if Jesus were sitting in the service. Would He wonder why we showed up late to sound check and why we were constantly checking Instagram during the entire service? Or would He feel honored that we were giving our best and treating that moment like a Superbowl Sunday?

Colossians 3.23 (NIV) says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."

This coming Sunday, I challenge you to approach service with the mindset that THIS Sunday and THIS service is a Superbowl Sunday service and give it your all as if someone's eternal life was on the line.