Super Bowl games have long been something the faith community has had to put up with. It causes havoc, impacts attendance for worship, events and programs and saps congregational attention at the time of the year when they are trying to ram things up.Since it began in 1967, the Super Bowl phenomenon has steadily grown into a Sunday monster even though the game itself begins late in the afternoon. What pastor has not felt compelled to craft a sermon the Sunday of the game to create some relevance or to comment on American societys inordinate obsession with showdown football — that other religion that especially steal mens hearts and actually ensures some football diehard men and women will stay home all season on NFL Sundays, lest they miss a kickoff televised in Foxboro, Mass., at 10 a.m. MST. When my two children were teens, youth leaders of our church never saw a need to cancel or delay Sunday night youth events for the Super Bowl game. I can remember feeling offended by that. In the middle of the game, I had to pull myself away from TV to take them to church for youth activities and go back later to pick them up — invariably missing out of great game-changing plays. How could they be so oblivious to the biggest sporting event of the year? I dont recall that the youth leaders ever reinvented the Sunday night activities around the Super Bowl. But certainly in many youth lounges, the kids do eat pizza and lie on beanbags as THE GAME is shown on the big screen.This year and for many years, our church and many others have held The Souper Bowl of Caring, a simple fund-raising project. It calls for meeting the congregation at the churchs exit doors on Super Bowl Sundays to collect cash to go to the homeless locally and nationally. Often they hold out soup pots to catch green bills. Since 1980, the youth-initiated effort has collected $32 million to fight hunger. This year, some 11,000 organizations have signed up to be involved. Families planning their home Super Bowl parties are encouraged to take up a collection for the Souper Bowl efforts as well.Back when Super Bowl games tended to be in January, they fell on Sundays when some churches normally would schedule their annual congregational meetings. Leaders were conflicted over whether they should budge for such an ignoble thing as football and change it on the calendar. In the end, most checked the times of the game and worked to get it in early that day, well before event the long pre-game buildup. But we cant have it that day its Super Bowl Sunday has been the order of the day. Stay away from the Super Bowl has become an American expression in planning generally. So, will the pews necessarily be missing more folks on Feb. 4 as families stay home to get the food, family room and signs ready for their individual Super Bowl parties for the showdown of the ponies versus the bears in Miami? Egads, thats my birthday. They never checked with ME before deciding to upstage my party. Oh, well

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