I was raised on football. My father volunteered with some local high school teams and taught me, his oldest daughter, to run patterns and catch passes. He passionately rooted for Ole Miss, and, therefore, SEC football was our Saturday entertainment. Professional football was enjoyed as well — after church, of course! One of my most vivid childhood memories is watching Walter Payton break the single-game rushing record in 1977 against the Saints at Soldier Field. We cheered him on from our living room on the Naval base in Newport, Rhode Island. Football is in my blood.
Apart from a few sermon illustrations, my love of football had not crossed into the realm of my faith or ministry until last year. Our elder for member engagement (a.k.a. elder for fun) launched a church fantasy football league at Grace Presbyterian Church in Plano, Texas. I enrolled. Draft Day arrived and I noticed something wonderful at our tailgate lunch and draft event. The room was filled with people who were contemporary and traditional worshipers, evangelicals and progressives, Republicans and Democrats, men and women, gay and straight, members and non-members, ages 9-79, and held all levels of football acumen. Together, we ate and laughed; we schemed and strategized; we stressed over our time-based drafts and moaned when our favorite player was selected by someone else. I have rarely seen such a diverse gathering at our church.
I have rarely seen such a diverse gathering at our church.
Throughout the season, relationships were formed. This middle-aged female pastor became friends with one of our elementary-school-aged boys. On Sundays, we checked on each other’s players. When our teams played each other, we jokingly trash-talked beforehand. Yet, we were humble in victory and gracious in defeat. I couldn’t help but think that maybe one day he will need to talk about something more serious than fantasy football and he will trust me because of the connection we made. Ours was not the only relationship built through this activity. Some shared past heartaches and offered comfort. Some provided help and support when a need was discovered. When one of us became sick, we prayed for each other. As I learned of each providential newfound friendship, I thanked the Lord.
There were critics in our church, sure that fantasy football was not of God and certainly not what our church should be pursuing. But isn’t this what Jesus did with fishing instead of football? In Luke 5 we are told that Jesus asked to use Simon Peter’s boat as a makeshift dais for teaching. When he was done speaking, Jesus said, “Let’s go out where it’s deep and catch some fish.” They caught so many their nets were breaking! I can hear the laughter as they try to handle so many squishy, squirmy fish together. It was then that Peter fell at Jesus’ feet in worship, and he with Andrew, James and John, left their nets to follow him. Through a secular activity, Jesus developed genuine friendship and trust with his disciples.
Isn’t this what Jesus did with fishing instead of football?
We are learning how to be the church in a post-COVID, post-Christian polarized culture. We are scrambling to be followers of Jesus in an epidemic of loneliness fueled by social media and technology. With giving and attendance down at church, many congregations struggle to know what the future holds. Could fun be just what we need to draw us closer to each other and the Lord?
Screwtape, the demon letter writer in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, admits the harm fun does to the demons’ cause. “Fun is closely related to joy,” he teaches his nephew Wormwood. “It is very little use to us. It can sometimes be used, of course, to divert humans from something else that the Enemy would like them to be feeling or doing: but in itself it has wholly undesirable tendencies; it promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils.”
Screwtape is right. The fun of fantasy football has built charity among very different people, given some the courage to risk new friendships across party lines, taught us contentment in winning or losing, and many other “evils” such as welcome, inclusion, acceptance, generosity and cultivating community. Fantasy Football has been a means of God’s grace at Grace Presbyterian Church.
And the ministry has grown. This fall, we have five leagues and 50 teams. Once again, the diversity of people and the fun we are having together delights me. The relationships that have formed grow stronger and we now dare to share more of our lives with and pray for each other. My young league friend/rival is now in middle school and has become active in our youth music ministries. We play each other in Weeks 4 and 13. I wonder what God will do, in those weeks and beyond.
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