I’m hoping this is just a joke. But even if it is, it’s still offensive because it sends the worst message in the world. A Lutheran pastor who is clearly a 49ers fan clearly wanted to catch the big game and couldn’t be bothered to hold services.

You know what this is, it’s the desire to be cool. No. It’s the desire to seem cool. But the thing is, the more you try to show people how exactly like them you are, you’ve got to wonder why should they search you out for answers? A believing Christian, never mind a pastor, should be different from other people. They should live their life in a way that makes people wonder what they have, what they know.

If this is real, I pray that nobody showed up to that service in dire straits looking for something to cling to and witnessed this.

There’s so much wrong here that it would take too much heavy lifting to unpack it all. I’ll just skip to it and let you watch it.

Fox40 reports:

At a Lutheran church in Butte, Montana, the pastor made it easy for fans who wanted to watch the NFC Divisional Playoff game between the 49ers and Panthers; he offered a very short, abbreviated church service.

“Would you all like to be forgiven for your sins?” Pastor Tim Christensen is heard asking, to a resounding “yes”, he responds, “Ok, you are”.

He then invites people to come up to the front of the church to have some bread and wine.

Christensen then “Kaepernicks”, kissing both biceps, opens his vestments to reveal a 49ers shirt, then shouts “I’m out of here” as he walks out of frame.

*subhead*The game.*subhead*