But it did the job.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, 250 church members and neighborhood residents flooded the church grounds, where Christian rock music blared from giant speakers, football fans in full Miami Dolphins regalia mingled with church volunteers, and dozens of people lined up for hot dogs, raffle tickets and autographs from retired Dolphins players Dwight Stevenson and Mark Higgs.
''We're trying to show that the people who go to church aren't all stuffy,'' said Gary Cromer, head of missions at Pines Baptist Church. ``It shows them who we really are. It's not just a bunch of shirts and ties on Sunday mornings.''
Super Bowl parties may typically involve beer, swearing and varying degrees of profanity, but increasingly, some celebrations center around prayer and proselytizing.
In the deafening run-up to Super Bowl XLI next weekend at Dolphin Stadium, some South Florida churches have launched a sports-themed, adrenaline-fueled evangelism drive. Congregations are hosting Super Bowl watch parties, distributing magazines featuring testimonies from Christian NFL players, putting on Christian concerts and inviting athletes to speak at churches.
Pastors say they are seizing on the event to recruit new members and market themselves as culturally relevant, laid-back revelers rather than buttoned-down puritans.
''It allows the church to show the gospel in action,'' said Daryl McCray of Mission Miami, a coalition of South Florida churches that has been recruiting volunteers to work at the NFL Experience, which startes today at Dolphin Stadium and runs through next Saturday.
The evangelism effort has spread well beyond local congregations. National Christian groups are using magazines, television and the Internet to turn the most widely-watched television event of the year into a soul-saving extravaganza.
The Assemblies of God, the world's largest Pentecostal denomination, published a special Super Bowl edition of Today's Pentecostal Evangelical, a monthly magazine with a circulation of 200,000. The issue features biographies and testimonies from Christian players, said Kirk Noonan, the magazine's managing editor. About 20,000 extra copies have been printed for church members to distribute to neighbors and local businesses, Noonan said.
The California-based Church Communication Network will broadcast the Super Bowl Breakfast -- a program hosted by the evangelical Christian group Athletes in Action -- to 2,500 churches across the country.
Episcopal, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and African Methodist Episcopal churches are partnering with corporate donors to distribute food in several cities as part of an annual faith-based event called the Souper Bowl of Caring.
NFL POSITION
While the NFL sanctions some religious programming -- including the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration and the Super Bowl Breakfast -- it does not endorse a particular faith, said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. `
''It's a faith-based program, but these events are inclusive rather than exclusive,'' he said.
Church leaders say NFL rules against proselytizing don't prevent volunteers at league-sponsored events from talking about their faith.
The Miami Baptist Association plans to enlist more than 500 Christians to volunteer at the NFL Experience. The group has hired an Oklahoma-based Christian consultant who specializes in Super Bowl evangelism to improve their outreach strategy, said Mike Daily, the group's director of church and community ministries.
Other local Christian groups plan to broadcast their message by volunteering as entertainers. Trinity Church and Peacemakers in North Miami will perform gospel music with an 80-person choir during Superfest, an NFL-sponsored event expected to draw 15,000 to the Miami arena on the morning of of the big game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears.
''There's a great opportunity at this time because the eyes of the world are on Miami,'' said Rich Wilkerson, senior pastor of Trinity Church. ``We're hoping this will give an open door to people who don't even normally go to church.''
Mixing televised sports and evangelism can be awkward for pastors who disapprove of some Super Bowl programming, however.
Two years ago, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, skewered the Super Bowl halftime broadcast as ''an R-rated, hedonistic exhibition of human depravity.'' Other Christian leaders railed against the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast as an attack on Christian values.
CRITICS APLENTY
In past years the Super Bowl has drawn some Christian protesters who picket stadiums and admonish sports fans to turn to religion.
''They recognize the way in which a Super Bowl is a powerful event, and they see it as demonic,'' said Joseph Price, professor of religious studies at Whittier College in California who has written about the religious aspects of the Super Bowl.
Bill Johnson of the American Decency Association, an organization that promotes conservative Christian values, has criticized churches for marching in line with the rest of the culture when it comes to Super Bowl frenzy.
''If you gather a church for a Super Bowl party, you're putting yourself in a position of really not knowing what you're going to get,'' Johnson said.
Local churches have found ways to skirt that issue. At Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, which will host a Super Bowl watch party for single adults, the church will offer a disclaimer before the program, said Tim Popadic, associate pastor for adult ministries.
'We say, `Look, you're big boys and girls, and of course not everything you're going to see are things that we would affirm or support,' '' he said. ``We may turn off the halftime show if it gets too racy.''
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