Why Oakland Raiders Fans Would Make A Great Church – pt 8

Participation

Kudos to Raiders fans when it comes to participation. All of them are totally on board with just about everything, including the tailgating prior to the game. And, as mentioned previously, most everyone had on Raider gear. Fans enjoy participating so much, they even have custom motorcycles, cars and this interesting 3-wheeler.

They even had their own language… sort of. You could hear sounds of praise being shouted everywhere. Once inside, I heard the insider lingo… “Raaaiiii – dddeeerrssss” repeated over and over. It was cool. There was a lot of other language used, particularly the F-bomb. These expletives can’t be condoned… but they did fit the atmosphere. I know that’s weird.

I suppose I was as uncomfortable not knowing (or agreeing with) the language as other people are stepping into a church and trying to understand all the Christianeze talk going on. With words and phrases like, born again, evangelical, accept Christ, be blessed, bestow, emblems, Lord’s Supper, etc, it’s no wonder many get confused..

And when the refs made a bad call… watch out! The fans all joined together in expressing their displeasure. In fact, when anything happened that wasn’t in the favor of the Raiders. EVERYONE joined in.

Wouldn’t it be great to see believers doing the same thing? Everyone singing to the ‘tunes’ on Sunday? EVERYONE cheering and clapping when appropriate. Sad thing is… some of those same types of die-hard Raider men… the ones that bleed black and silver… they go to church and sit idly by instead of honoring… no, worshipping, the best ‘Player’ to ever grace the earth’s surface… Jesus, THE MVP. But you would seldom know that from the reaction of the ‘fans’ in the audience on Sunday. Sad.