5 things your ministry can learn from the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Pin It The Super Bowl 45 Black Eyed Pea Halftime Show. You probably saw it last night. If you didn't see it you definitely have seen it talked about on the world wide inter-web. The common reaction to the show was not positive and here are a few things I think our churches can learn from the spectacle that is the halftime show.

1. A short show that is bigger than life.
You have to be impressed by the sheer magnitude of the show. It's Huge. They fill an entire foot ball field with a lighted stage. I'm not talking about a stage they light... no the Stage is like an LCD screen you can walk on.
There is Pyro. There is intense choreography from the Black Eyed Peas and 1000's of dancers in Tron costumes. Oh and don't forget the Glowing box head people... There is really too much to notice and it is all crammed into a 12 minute set.

As someone who works in the Church of Jesus Christ, I feel  totally convicted when I see something as grand as the Superbowl entertainment.  We should be broadcasting Jesus much bigger. Not that we are blowing budget on silly opulence, but that we are MAKING A SCENE that can't be ignored by the world. A scene that conveys Jesus to the world.

There's nothing wrong with going BIG!

2. Be Prepared.
A ton of weight in Staging rolled into place.  Check
A 1000+ Neon dancers in position. Check
Firework Techinician is a go.  Check
2000 Light cues programed. Check
Fergie's Microphone turned on and ready for her vocal que...?   Nope  (37 Seconds into the video)

None of the extra glowing doodads make up for tech glitches.

btw... Did the Cowboys win? I was pulling for them.

On the other hand think about the amazing number of volunteers they had out on the field doing an excellent Job. Those volunteers went through 8 separate multi hour rehearsals. The amount of preparation is intense for such a short show. What kind of prep do we have in the displaying of the Gospel each week...? Moving on..

3. Don't over promise and under perform
The build up for the Halftime show was huge. It was impossible not to know the Black Eyed Peas were performing the super bowl. It was going to be huge. They built such an expectation and at the end of the day under performed. 

Here is just one person that called it "Forgettable" and that it "failed to produce one memorable moment."  Hate to say it... but I've planned some worship services that failed to produce a memorable moment.

Whatever the expectation is, when you surpass a perceived expectation it will be memorable.

What is your congregations expectation level? Do you surpass it?  Now this is tough because we are so over run with media today that the halftime show doesn't even meet expectation. It seems unrealistic, but it is the culture we live in. We can't ignore the expectation level of society. We can't over promise and under perform. 

4. Cool tech is really cool!... but not a substitute for substance. 
There wasn't much a point to the futuristic costumes. It carried no theme. It was just some cool stuff thrown into the mix. I've heard more negative about the tron costumes than positive.  It didn't help in the substance department.  (LOL substance... we are still talking about the Black Eyed Peas right?)

wow... did I mention they sound terrible live?

Oh... Have I done this one before in Church.  I get a cool idea. I love this idea. It's funky and different. One problem... it doesn't help me in the substance department. It actually distracted people from the substance. My My My... this one is so easy to fall into. On the one hand we want to over perform people expectations. We want to go big! We want to be memorable!  We think a cool tech gadget will do that... but it won't. 


5. At the end of the day it needs to mean something.
The Black Eyed Peas are the black eyed peas. I don't know if you know much about their music, but let's just say... It's kinda meaningless noise. Their lyrics for the most part don't hold much meaning.  As your eyes grow accustomed to the glowing tron outfits and fire explosions you start to listen... and what you hear isn't worthy of such a stage.

...what you hear isn't worthy of such a stage.

What we do in the Church has to HAVE MEANING! The meaning needs to communicated and received.  This should be the easiest thing for us in the church to do... But sometimes we get snagged in the trappings of church in the 21 century and forget the most basic truth.

I had a Sunday school class when I was 5 years old. They used an old felt board. It wasn't the coolest place on earth. I enjoyed the cookies and punch, but I realize sometimes the teachers had no idea what they were doing. The class wasn't as BIG as it probably ought to have been, BUT it did have meaning.

The music in the class was terrible, but I did learn a little song that was full of meaning. "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong." Although it wasn't spectacular in show, it was life changing in it's meaning.



I'll end with this thought.  The Super Bowl entertainment is being judged harshly.  You should know that every week someone is making a judgment about your ministry. The Judgement might not (Thankfully) be blasted across the blog-o-sphere, but know that it is being being judged by the hearts and minds of the people we need to reach for Jesus Christ.