LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Crossroads Church in Lexington kicked off its annual Super Bowl-themed Sunday service this morning.
The church hosted tailgating, games and even the Frederick Douglass High School cheerleading squad, but the main event was a preaching competition.
Pastor Tome and Pastor Mingo went head to head in the competition, which was filmed in Cincinnati the night before and played at 33 services across Ohio and Kentucky.
Crossroads community pastor Bryan Carter said Super Bowl Sunday is the lowest-attended church service of the year across the nation, so the "Super Bowl of Preaching" was created in an effort to boost attendance.
"The whole idea behind it is to create a weekend that people would feel comfortable inviting their friends to, that is a very low pressure event that doesn't have a lot of what typical people would think about typical church stuff," Carter said.
"We just kind of have fun with it."
Carter expected 2,000 people to come to Sunday's service. On an average Sunday, the church sees about 1,200 people.
