Christ Covenant Church in Kansas City used to house a Christian academy. This school was where my parents first worked after they were married. In addition to teaching classes and driving the bus route, they lived in a small blue house that was also on the grounds. After a few years, my sister and I entered the scene, though those were the toddler years I don’t remember. I wager I spent most of it eating, sleeping, and making messes (wow, upon writing that, I realize I’ve only progressed so far). The church is located just down a service road from Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium, so I’m always quick to point it out to people as we go past the George Brett Bridge (a fact that will come into additional play later in this post).
Anyway, we moved away around the time I hit three, though my grandparents continue to attend services there. Lots of visits over the years have helped me familiarize myself with the place and left me with a lot of people whose faces I can’t place with names. Of course, I have had enough cousins that I myself have been mistaken for others (“Are you Scott and Mary’s?” “Nope, I’m Mike and Marcia’s”), so it has worked both ways. When I go there I am surrounded by smiling faces that I drive myself bonkers trying to identify.
Despite my origins in the church and the fact I’ve caught every service since I started camping out with my grandparents in Kansas City, I still hesitate to identify any place as my home church. It’s a nice place, and I wouldn’t mind settling in the area, but with resumes flying every which direction, I hesitate to latch on to anything.
Anyway, with that prolonged clarification out of the way, let us proceed onward with our post…
Game Day Guidelines
Over the years, football schedules have influenced church attendance. They shouldn’t, of course, but it’s an unavoidable fact that they have, they do, and they will for the foreseeable future.I have had much experience in this phenomenon, though maybe not in the manner most would expect.
My grandparents have attended Christ Covenant Church for longer than I’ve been around. It’s a small little church located at the end of a service road that snakes past the George Brett Bridge, behind a Holiday Inn, and past a Missouri Department of Transportation Depot. In theory, you would think that would make it an easy destination to reach, being so closely orientated to a highway off ramp, but occasionally other factors come into play.
Arrowhead Stadium is rightfully known as possessing on of the most potent home field advantages in the NFL. Repeatedly it has been scientifically proven that the open aired stadium is one of the loudest, especially when the fans concentrate on a team trying to convert a third and short. I always feel a strange combination of patriotism and home town pride, when at the end of the national anthem, the crowd coverts the final lyrics to be “And the home… of the… CHIEFS!!!!!”
And those are only the fans that make it to the game. There’s an equal legion of tailgaters that prefer the luxury of roasting their own food and having space to toss around a football and a backseat to crouch in should the outpouring of alcohol become overwhelming.
Even in the harshest weather, you’ll find a thick bastion of fans bedecked in their team colors (sometimes only employing grease paint as a protective layer against the cold, and pants, of course). Stadium parking is plentiful, but it also costs money. To save some money, at the cost of an extended walk, many people look for alternative places to park their vehicles up and down the strip. Some places offer spots for a lower cost than stadium prices. Others roll over the curb and park on the grass and hope the property owners wont deem them worth the trouble.
Throw in the law enforcement officials directing traffic, people ducking back and forth from the local hotels and mini-marts, scalpers, pan handlers, and other people just out walking the strip, it can be very hectic around game days.
This makes for an interesting environment in which to drive to church.
The closest off ramp is usually backed up for several blocks, held at the mercy of the cops and the traffic lights. Going the long way around takes extra time and prompts more close encounters with people running across the road.
Note: If you are a Raider’s fan, spend the extra money to have official parking. Don’t try to save dough by resting your wheels on the opposite side of the road. While I don’t have updated traffic statistics to support me on this, I have to warn you, YOU WILL NOT MAKE IT ACROSS THE ROAD ALIVE. People will accelerate when they see the despised white and black markings. Granted, I hate your team as well, but I don’t wish such overt harshness upon your being. At least not in the situation that will cost me another 20 minutes as the police scrape up your white and black remains, now mixed with red, off the pavement. Was that really worth saving $8? I don’t think so.
It’s a combination vehicular and pedestrian circus. And to apply the old axioms, if you’re running late, you’re bound to encounter additional delays in proportion to how behind you presently are.
You shouldn’t have to look at the kickoff calendar to determine when you pull out of the drive in the morning, but in this case, it’s really a necessity.
Of course, sometimes things hit from the other direction as well.
If there’s an afternoon or night game (though the Chiefs have only played a handful of night games in their history), church arrival may be further delayed. This is more tied to the game’s broadcast, however, rather than traffic.
This occurrence is especially “serious” as the season winds down (and the team gears up for the playoffs, in theory). If the games count for more, one is tempted to linger by the television or the radio before heading toward the church.
I myself had deplorable church attendance when I lived in the St. Louis area the year the last time the Rams won the Super Bowl. It’s an in-built sermon for the preacher to point out how people organize their priorities. People slipping in 15 minutes late, 30, not at all make a perfect example of not giving God your all.
Of course, if you decide to delay the start of the service was everybody watches the final four minutes of the match-up, you automatically cancel out that concern.
My grandparent’s church has changed the format of the evening services. Instead of being held in the sanctuary, as is typical practice, they’ve been having more informal meetings downstairs where people can be closer together and more easily have a discussion. Also, it’s a lot easier to wheel in a TV set, which has good reception is someone sits next to the tube clutching a wire, and watch the end of a very close game (possibly the last big game the Chiefs will win this year, though we also said that last week… and the week before).
I was kindly asked to fetch my grandfather from the cold parking lot, where he was waiting patiently by the radio. With all the calls, challenges, commercial breaks, and general running of the clock, church started about 30 minutes later than scheduled. We made up for that, however, by having the after-lesson discussion last longer than usual.
If/when the Chiefs start losing, the games will become easier to ignore. Game day timing will revolve more around the die hard drivers than the game broadcast.
It’s a strange conundrum for a Christian, trying to find a balance on the “day of rest.” Maybe someday I’ll be spiritually mature enough not to be hounded by such secular distractions. Or maybe my favorite franchises will have such a horrible winning record that it’s more profitable to take an afternoon nap (following the lead of the dismal offense, defense, and coaching staff). Either would do the trick.
