Leader's Insight: NASCAR and the Emerging Culture
New traction for understanding shifts in postmodern ministry.
by Chad Hall, guest columnist

A few years ago I moved from North Carolina to New Jersey. The culture shock was not too bad, but one of the things that made the transition worse was the prevalence of NASCAR fans in the Garden State. I thought I was escaping the redneck South only to find that racin' and rasslin' were really big among my new mid-Atlantic neighbors. The Yankees' accents may have been different from the southerners', but they loved Dale, Jeff, Rusty, and the boys all the same.

I don't care much for the sport, so at first the whole NASCAR-in-Jersey thing bothered me. But then I began to ask why the sport had broken across the Mason-Dixon and was taking over the civilized parts of the nation. My theory is that NASCAR has an inherent appeal to postmodern people. If true, then this means the church can learn a few things by paying attention to the distinctive aspects of NASCAR. I'm not saying you need to start watching the points standings or put a bunch of decals on your car, but maybe this will help you put some handles on our shifting culture.

So buckle up; here are five things I've noticed about NASCAR that may be of help to you and your church:

1. The sport centers on loyalty to persons, not on loyalty to institutions or organizations.
If I am a baseball fan, I pull for a club. So should the Braves up and decide to trade Chipper Jones to the Mets (I'm not trying to start a rumor, this is just hypothetical), I still pull for the Braves. Not so in racing. In racing, fans follow drivers. The driver's sponsors can change, the paint scheme on the car can change, and he might even start driving for a different owner—but who cares?? The fans' loyalties focus on drivers—on real people, not the organization behind the driver.

Today's humans are more loyal to other people (their friends, relatives, neighbors) than to an organization. Loyalty to government, company, and even church are secondary. This means churches must help people get loyal to Jesus and to each other rather than trying to build loyalty to the organization.

2. Many NASCAR fans secretly think, "I could do that."
Face it, racecar drivers do something that each of us does every day: they drive a car. They are just whole lot better at something each of us does fairly well (actually, I am a much better driver than you are, but that is a different story). There is some kind of connection because of common experience. Few of us hit a ball with a bat in our everyday lives. With the exception of recreation leagues, none of us throw an oblong ball very often or try to sink a jump shot. But driving a car is an ordinary experience. And racecar drivers seem like real people.

Today's folks want to identify with someone who has flaws and shortcomings and is a real person, not somebody who might as well be from another planet. This really has impacted the way I preach and tell the stories of scripture. I used to feel that I had to hide the flaws of Biblical figures like David, Abraham, and Peter. But now I point them out and say, "Hey, these are real people just like us."

I also do the same with myself. I'm careful not to air too much of my dirty laundry in my preaching, but I am learning that God can use my everyday stuff to help move people forward in faith.

People really want to know that ordinary people have faith that matters in their ordinary lives. To foster faith involvement, church leaders must help people overcome the "saint syndrome" that creates the delusion of faith being only for a minority of top spiritual achievers whom God drafts in the high rounds—while the rest of us sit on the sofa and watch.

3. Racing fans typically pull for more than one driver.
Speaking of loyalties, this one throws many of us for a loop. Racing fans usually have several drivers that they like and pull for. Though a fan may have one favorite driver, there are other drivers whose victories will put a smile on the fan's face. Part of the beauty of NASCAR is that a fan can almost always go away from a race feeling good, because at least one of their favorites will have done well that day.

As church leaders, we should expect Jesus fans of today to follow Jesus, whichever car he is driving or track he is circling. Some pastors would prefer loyalty to the church above faithfulness to Jesus. I hear such sentiment from church leaders who bemoan the fact that some of "their members" sometimes take part in another church's special event, or attend a small group sponsored by someone else, or get spiritually nourished through a parachurch group. We should expect today's followers to be fans of the Savior and we should be fans of anything that draws them nearer to him.

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4. NASCAR drivers don't have to win in order to win.
On a typical NASCAR Sunday there are about forty cars in the field. This means the odds are stacked highly against one particular driver winning very often. In fact, most racing teams are quite pleased with a top five finish. Unlike sports such as baseball or football, NASCAR (and golf) can have more than one winner each week. In fact, the whole annual championship is based on a cumulative success system whereby a racer could win the championship without ever actually winning a race. The question that a driver (and fans) go away asking is not "Did my driver win today?" but "How'd my driver do today?"

This is a big deal.

Postmodern people are much less comfortable with binary categories (win/lose, right/wrong, Christian/not) than with spectrums. For a NASCAR driver, Sunday can result in a spectrum of possible experiences:

—first place
—top five
—led most laps before finishing seventh
—started 32nd and finished 12th
—had engine trouble but still finished
—blew an engine after 100 laps.

For people of faith, movement along the spectrum is significant. So the question to ask may not be "Are you saved?" or "Are you a Christian?" but "Where are you on your faith journey?" or "What would a healthier spiritual life look like?"

Finding categories of victory and success are crucial for helping people move forward in faith.

5. NASCAR promotes a team approach to individual success.
Though the focus and loyalty in the sport rest with a driver, fans realize that racing is a team sport. The car and driver are but an extension of a racing team comprised of the car owners, the crew chief, the pit crew, the mechanics, the sponsors, and even the fans. It takes many people working together to do well. And some aspects of teamwork are even short-lived alliances between competitors who agree to draft with one another in order to excel beyond the rest of the pack.

Postmodern people of faith realize faith is not a solo journey and they are looking for teammates who will help them be successful in their spiritual story. Some spiritual helpers will be life-long friends who understand most all aspects of the journey. Others will be point-in-time specialists who give support at just the right moment. And others may be enemies whose influence God chooses to highjack in order to give a burst of momentum to a stale spirituality.

Whatever the case, postmodern people welcome help because they know they cannot make it alone.

Church leaders will be wise to help develop opportunities and experiences that surround people with support, encouragement, and coaching for the next step. The standard of success will be based on "Are you in a community?" versus "Are you doing x, y, and z so that you will grow closer to God?" While personal disciplines are important, they grow meaningless apart from a team of spiritual supporters.

Compared to modern peoples' faith, the postmodern's spiritual journey may move at a different speed, seem like it's going in circles, get noisy, and appear dangerous. As today's spiritual people make their way toward God, the church must decide whether to be fuel or speed bumps. We can slow down spiritual progress by forcing people to play by old rules and requiring they do the whole faith thing in ways that are recognizable.

Or, we can take time to learn the unique ways that postmodern people are experiencing Jesus and allow him to transform their lives.

Chad Hall is pastor of Connection Church in Hickory, North Carolina.

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October 17, 2005