Posted on 05/14/2008 1:51:38 PM PDT by Between the Lines
The smell won't be incense Sunday, but burnt rubber. Leave that coat and tie in the closet. Grab your Dale Jr. T-shirt, and practice your "whoooeeeee!"
NASCAR is coming to church.
First Baptist Church in Rock Hill, most of the time a traditional Southern Baptist flock, will try something Sunday so outlandish, so unorthodox and cool, that it just might work: NASCAR All-Star Sunday.
If you are one of the "unchurched" or "dechurched" who might have fallen off the church wagon somewhere in life's Turn 4 so many years ago, this is your kind of worship.
In the foyer, next to the greeters, look for life-size cut-outs of bad boys Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch and milquetoasts Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin. Nearby, instead of stacks of programs, will be stacks of slicks. Slicks are slang for racing tires, and these slicks were used at February's Daytona 500.
Posters of favorite drivers will be up on the walls, not far from the stained glass. The pastors might wear T-shirts of their favorite drivers. Maybe a ballcap, in the colors of the favorite car with the number right there on the brim.
This Sunday ain't your grandmother's Baptist service.
"We just figured there are so many race fans in this area, and maybe some of those people don't go to church or don't feel comfortable in church, that we'd have a Sunday just for them," said the Rev. Larry Sizemore, one of the First Baptist pastors whose job it is to increase spiritual development and outreach. "Saturday night is the All-Star race in Charlotte. People are all revved up for racing around here for the next week, but there isn't any race Sunday. Race fans have this particular Sunday to come to church if they want -- nothing to compete against. It fits perfectly."
There will be Sunday school classes and two services. The idea came up a couple of years ago from the senior pastor at the church, the Rev. Steve Hogg, who pulls for the 24 car of Jeff Gordon.
No Gordon hat for Hogg on Sunday, though. "Junior nation will get so mad at me, they might miss the message," Hogg quipped.
The message will be this: To get to the destination in life, you gotta race the right way. No bumping, no fender bending, no causing wrecks.
"I'll have a few race analogies in there, especially after Saturday night," Hogg said. "I'm going to the race in Charlotte that night with my son."
And it seems clear that if Sizemore and Hogg bump each other along the back stretch of the altar, no fight will ensue.
All kinds of great stuff will be given away Sunday. A Bobby Labonte driver suit. Helmets worn by racing greats. Richard Petty autographed model cars, tickets for future races and more.
Sounds just like a Sunday at the track, minus the drinkin' and cussin'.
Dress code Sunday? There isn't one. Just make sure your T-shirt covers your belly.
Tip your race cap to Hogg and First Baptist for this idea. Churches that look at people outside the comfort of the pews change worlds. It is easy to preach to the guy in the suit in the front row every Sunday. It is another to seek out those who might need a reason to come to church.
Another great thing about this Sunday is all the stuff, the helmets and tires and more, will be given away to guests as door prizes.
How many times do you get to hear "How Great Thou Art" sung, or sing along if the spirit gets in you, then when it's over, yell out "Earnhardt!"
Go to First Baptist Church this Sunday. You get Jesus with a dash of Carl Edwards. Just be careful of the backflips brought on by the Holy Spirit -- you might land on the choir. And the choir might pull for Junior.
We are all at some destination or another in life already. Maybe he should explain how to get to a destination in Heaven.
Another example of the world invading the church. So many other things could have been done to draw people in. This is no better than a tag sale in the church parking lot.
What’s next...”HOOTERS Sunday”?
Preaching at a bass fishing tournament? Hmm. Preaching to fishermen.....Nah.
I'd just think of it as "seeking out the lost".
“What’s next...”HOOTERS Sunday”?”
I’m not but what that may have already been done!
Actually the joke among fans of racing (as opposed to NA$CAR which is entertainment) is that NA$CAR is just like the Baptist Church: you go there at the same time every week to meet the same people and see the same thing, then afterwards you go to the same restaurant with the same people to eat the same food and talk about the same things.
The only difference is that generally the people inside the church are better dressed and they aren’t sitting there hoping for a multi-car accident, the bigger the better.
Well then let’s do something different! How about figure-8 Indy car races?
Have Southern Baptists ever used incense in their services?
I have never heard of Southern Baptists using incense, but it is not uncommon to find potpourri stashed here and there.
In the bathroom. My Weight Watchers group has met in a Baptist church :-).
I don't know about that. I have been to some churches where nearly everyone gossips and they all seem to enjoy seeing other people's wrecked lives.
And in the bases of the silk flower arrangements. Now you know our secrets.
Aha!
No — let us head to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the 76th running of a 60 car field of Beautiful Cars of many different makes and pilots of every country on Earth, racing day and night around an 8 mile course made up of large portions of city streets.
For me it will be a 36 hour day (and night) and I will exit to my hotel at 6:00 p.m. Sunday evening, have a bite to eat and a bath, and go straight to my well earned rest, having seen the mother of all week long carnivals with a superior race running right through the midst of it.
Perfection.
OK. When do we leave, and did you get Mrs. Tac a ticket, too?
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