{"id":30819,"date":"2023-02-05T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30819"},"modified":"2023-02-05T17:17:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T01:17:17","slug":"jesus-at-the-superbowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/jesus-at-the-superbowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus at the Superbowl: The Intersection of Faith and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

In just over a week, on Sunday, February 12, experts predict that more than 100 million people in the U.S. will tune in to watch the Super Bowl. [1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s referred to as the biggest pop culture event of the year. And this year, Jesus will show up on the big screen two times. An anonymous group of high dollar donors are footing the bill for this massive \u201cHe Gets Us\u201d campaign that has recently been making waves by showing the nature of Jesus in relevant, modern ways through commercials online and in primetime advertising slots such as the NFL.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Some Christians embrace the campaign as a positive way to spark conversation about the real Jesus to a culture that has a largely negative view of His followers, while other Christians are appalled by the \u201cwoke\u201d tone the campaign evokes.[3]<\/a> All of this is on my mind because my church is currently using the \u201cHe Gets Us\u201d campaign as the theme for our current worship series. As the creative director and member of the worship planning team, I\u2019ve been studying this campaign for more than 6 months and the connection to this week\u2019s reading was fascinating.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always tacitly known that religion influences culture and culture influences religion, however after reading Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em> by Bebbington and Evangelicalism and Capitalism<\/em> by Clark, I have a new appreciation for just how interrelated they are and how the current culture war between secular society and religious institutions came to fruition. The remainder of this blog will share my key take-aways about this intersection and relate them to the current \u201cHe Gets Us\u201d campaign that is attempting to reshape the reputation of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Defining Evangelicalism <\/strong><\/p>\n

Am I an Evangelical? I confess that question entered my mind as I began to read Evangelicalism and Capitalism<\/em>. I never really thought of myself as anything other than \u201cChristian\u201d when it came to my faith. I was born into a Lutheran family and continue to serve at a Lutheran church, so Protestantism and the reformation are part of my heritage. Honestly, the term evangelical did not enter my consciousness until it became part of political discourse in terms of the \u201cevangelical voting block\u201d (of which I do not consider myself a member).<\/p>\n

So, when Bebbington defined Evangelicals as Christians with a common core of four characteristics: 1) conversionism (going from lost to saved), 2) activism (living out the faith and encouraging others to be saved), 3) biblicism (devotion to the bible as the inerrant Word of God), and 4) crucicentnrism (focus on the death of Jesus being the atoning sacrifice that took the place of our sin),[4]<\/a> I was a bit surprised because I thought, \u201cwell maybe that IS me!\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evangelicalism and Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

What interested me most in reading about the development of Evangelicalism was that it was bigger than any single denomination and it appears to have developed in concert with culture much more than my own denomination of Lutheranism, which is steeped in tradition. As Bebbington states, \u201cit becomes clear that Evangelical religion in Britain, despite the four constant elements [discussed above], has altered enormously over time in response to the changing assumptions of Western civilisation.\u201d[5]<\/a> And yet, it spite of this changing nature, Bebbington shows this category of believers have had significant impact on society.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jason Clark\u2019s exploration of Evangelicalism and Capitalism provided further intrigue due to my own entrepreneurial spirit. It was fascinating to see how the Evangelical movement took advantage of the growing capitalist markets in the late twentieth century, launching faith-based products such as books, organizations, companies and careers. [6]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is this entrepreneurial\/activism spirit that I see reflected in the \u201cHe Gets Us\u201d campaign introduced at the beginning of this blog. Personally, I believe pairing a media obsessed culture with the message of Jesus and taking advantage of the capitalistic nature of the Superbowl is a brilliant move on the part of the mysterious donors who are funding the campaign. Are they using man-made profit centers and selfish markets to get this word out? Yes. Do they have the millions of dollars of money to do this because they have profited from capitalism themselves? Yes. Is it worth it to proclaim the nature of Jesus to a world that desperately needs Him. I say, yes. If nothing else, the development of Evangelicalism and it\u2019s symbiotic relationship to culture and capitalism has made this day possible. I look forward to seeing how God uses it!<\/p>\n

Watch this promo for the Superbowl He Gets Us Ads<\/a> and let me know your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1] <\/a>Bridge, Gavin. \u201c2023 Super Bowl: Expect a TV Ratings Rebound.\u201d Variety<\/i> (blog), February 2, 2023. https:\/\/variety.com\/vip\/2023-super-bowl-expect-a-tv-ratings-rebound-1235509835\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> See the public facing information at HeGetsUs.com and the partner\/church information at HeGetsUsPartners.com<\/p>\n

[3] <\/a>Nieuwhof, Carey. \u201cCNLP 549: Bill McKendry on How to Build a Super Bowl Ad, The Marketing Mistakes Churches and Non-Profits Make, And How to Brand When You Have No Budget CNLP 549: Bill McKendry on How to Build a Super Bowl Ad, The Marketing Mistakes Churches and Non-Profits Make, And How to Brand When You Have No Budget.\u201d CareyNieuwhof.com, January 31, 2023. https:\/\/careynieuwhof.com\/episode549\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4] <\/a>Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/i>. London: Routledge, 1989. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9780203359907<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Bebbington, 19.<\/p>\n

[6] <\/a>Clark, Jason Paul. \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship,\u201d n.d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In just over a week, on Sunday, February 12, experts predict that more than 100 million people in the U.S. will tune in to watch the Super Bowl. [1]\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s referred to as the biggest pop culture event of the year. And this year, Jesus will show up on the big screen two times. An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2579],"class_list":["post-30819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01-bebbington-clark","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30819"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30846,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30819\/revisions\/30846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}