Watch Out for Those Cheap Shots, Pastor!

A cheap shot in sports is when you catch your opponent off guard and give him an illegal hit that hurts him badly. The referee usually flags you for it and the crowd boos. Even your own fans are embarrassed that you would stoop to such.

Preachers do it all the time.

Not all preachers, but some of us make a practice of finding a weak spot in our targeted sinner, one undefended, in his most vulnerable area, and letting him have it.

We had a case in point this weekend: Super Bowl Sunday.

A friend on Facebook messaged me privately about his intended sermon. He was going to let the congregation have it that day about their addiction to sports, football in particular. He was upset and wanted to accuse his people of a form of idolatry.

I did not accuse him of hitting below the belt–the very essense of a cheap shot–but I could have. (We might say I avoided a cheap shot myself by not doing that.) Instead, I suggested an alternative approach.


“Instead of choosing to pour cold water over your people’s enjoyment of this day’s festivities,” I said, “what if you took a different route. There are so many positive things that sports teach us, and football in particular.”

I suggested he reflect on teamsmanship–all members of the squad having to work together as a unit. Football demonstrates this as well as any activity I can think of.

I suggested he consider how a superior talented athlete will sometimes be out-done by a lesser talent with greater drive, greater “heart.” The Bible says much about serving the Lord with a whole heart.

Finally, I suggested that if he still wanted to preach that sermon against the idolatry of sports in America–no one argues the point–he consider doing it the week following Super Bowl Sunday.

It just seems fairer.

You see it all the time on Facebook. Someone will post a note on, oh, let’s say, the search for a missing child. Friends add their comments on various aspects of the subject. Invariably, however, some cheap-shooting Christian almost has to jump in and say, “If we would search for the lost as diligently as those people are searching for that baby, we’d reach the world for the Lord.”

Is it true? Sure. And it leaves someone somewhere with the intended impression that the writer is a superior Christian with a great love for the lost.

The impression it leaves with this preacher (moi!) is that the writer is a cold-water-pourer-on-er, one who delights in moving the conversation off a good subject into spiritual realms where he can inflict guilt on one and all.

Here are a few of the ways preachers take cheap shots in their preaching.

1. By attacking celebrities who are not there to defend themselves.

2. By taking a single sin someone did and ballooning it to represent the entirety of fallen humanity.

3. By taking one slip by a well-meaning person (whom he does not know but has heard of) and banishing them to hell for such a wrong.

4. By erecting a law God never got around to making, then crucifying his people for breaking it.

We legalists are great at this. A legalist, they say, is someone who says, “I know the Lord never said this, but He would have if He’d thought about it.”

For instance. The Super Bowl takes place on Sunday night, usually the first Sunday of February. But that’s church night. So, you decide that all who skip church that night to watch the game are violating a law of God.

The only problem is it isn’t so. At no point in Scripture is anyone commanded to attend church on Sunday nights. If they choose to go and if they actually worship Him, God will honor it. But why should He hold His people to a command He never uttered?

When I mentioned that to a friend–Facebook again–he came back with Hebrews 10:25, the verse reminding God’s people not to forsake to assemble themselves together. Wrong verse to make this point.

Same thing when preachers harangue our culture for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Show me where we are commanded to say “Merry Christmas” in the Bible, and I’ll retract this. Otherwise, it’s a cheap shot.

The problems with taking cheap shots….

1. We hurt people.

2. We lose the respect of outsiders.

3. We lose the support of our people who still have a sense of right and wrong.

4. We misrepresent God.

9 thoughts on “Watch Out for Those Cheap Shots, Pastor!

  1. Good stuff, Joe. I know I have used cheap shots at times. It’s especially hard not to take cheap shots at celebrities. It’s so easy to do, they’re not there to defend themselves, it gets a big laugh, and it makes you look like such a moral tough guy in the eyes of many of your congregants. I wonder how many thousands of preachers made some crass comment about Madonna yesterday during church. Of course, there’s nothing tough about it. It’s the coward’s way out.

  2. I had to tell one preacher that the pulpit is for sharing the word not bashing Oprah or the president. Thanks for sharing. That should be covered during Seminary days, but ……

  3. Amazing post. And a great, funny, convicting reminders. Fantastic quote by legalists. I think we’re all guilty of that…it’s never annoying when you’re saying it, but man it sure is when you hear it 🙂

  4. Calling out cheap shots is hard to do. It is everywhere and I would love to see Christians and Pastors do their best to both avoid them and expose them. Our adversary is an expert on deception and a dirty fighter who does not respect rules. Leave the dirty fighting to him, but learn to engage him.

    Those facebook side by side pictures are very good at cheap shots. Here’s one I saw recently.

    On the left a picture of two men in a subtle but obvious homo-erotic caress. On the right a picture of two mal-nourished children from an impoverished third world nation.

    The caption was something along the lines of “What does it say about you if the picture on the left offends you more than the picture on the right.”

    It’s an apples and oranges comparison, but also a cheap shot. You see it everywhere, and it is difficult to find the right words to correct it.

    Thanks for pointing this out Bro Joe. Let’s help each other do better.

  5. Once again, you are on point, my brother. “Super Bowl” Sunday evidently has a sore spot with a lot of preachers. One year when we “moved our evening services” up an hour you would have thought I invited the Pope to preach at the local Baptist church. One of my dearly beloved 80 plus yrs old ladies hugged me and thanked me for doing it cause she loves football. We try now to have all sorts of fellowships, gatherings, and raise money for our local food bank participating in the “Souper” Bowl of caring. I like your idea and one friend has members wear their favorite teams’ uniforms in the morning services then preach on your topic – teamwork.

  6. Great article! I have been guilty of some of these “cheap shots” and you have helped me see the adverse effect it can have on a congregation of God loving people! Thank you for your cartoons and anointed articles.

    Ken Sullivan

  7. Very good, these comments are great and needed to be

    exposed that others can know the new straight

  8. Joe: Very good article. I have at times taken cheap shots.But the last one broke me from ever doing it again. Our church as well as others were participating in the opening ceremonies of the County Fair on Sunday around 5p.m. Many of us were singing in a choir. Others were singing Gospel songs quartet style, some led in prayers, a Methodist lady Preached (000ps) spoke.

    One of the groups singing sang a song about, “The Church has to get back to Jesus”(do not remember the exact title). There was nothing wrong with the song. The thing that bothered me was that they were singing about getting back to Jesus and afterwards before the service was over their group left and I guess went to their own church.

    That upset me. The next Sunday morning my message concerned the thing that happened. I should not have peached that way. My people were there and stayed to the end of the service and we went home.

    After my harangue, not a good sermon for my people, I overheard a person say. If that is all I am going to hear the next time, I will not be back.

    The Lord dealt with me mightily the week following and then some more. No he did not whip me but all week I was reminded that I had not done right. I was under a cloud and it was very uncomfortable. I will not do that kind of sermon ever again.

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