There’s a fair bit of comment at the moment about the price of tickets for the upcoming World Cup in America. FIFA have embraced the full-on capitalism of the host country and went for dynamic pricing of the tickets. This means as demand increases so does the price. But prices started high. Exorbitantly high. So fans decided not to buy. Then prices started to fall. It’s a bit of a game between fans and FIFA.

The World Cup is the showpiece for world football and they’ve sold marketing and TV rights for billions of dollars but the whole spectacle will be a lot worse if the stadiums are too empty. The games need fans.

What the games might have though, is not fans, but spectators. Because there are wealthy people who are not unduly troubled by dynamic pricing. They can book their boxes, pay for their travel and hotels, fill out the hospitality areas and not be overly concerned by rising airfares and blowing a decade’s worth of savings for the chance of seeing their team at the World Cup.

But there’s a catch:

Studies have shown that wealthier fans are quieter and less overtly passionate about their teams. Indeed, Joe Burrow, a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, described the atmosphere at the Super Bowl in 2022 as akin to a corporate dinner party.

The wealthy then have come to enjoy the atmosphere and the spectacle that is created by other people. They themselves are not contributing much to the atmosphere that they have paid to experience. They haven’t just come to watch a football match; they have come to experience the world’s most passionate fans watching one.

The rich increasingly prefer to spend their money on once-in-a-lifetime experiences rather than fancy goods. That ought to be good news for FIFA’s beancounters. And it is. Until, that is, the very experience that these punters crave is diminished by their own presence.

Without the truly passionate fans, the ones who bang the drums for 90 minutes, who paint their bodies in national colours, who cry and scream and sing their hearts out, what’s left would be, underwhelming.

It made me think, naturally, of the gathered church. There are often a whole bunch of people who want to come and enjoy the presence of the Spirit, hear the prayers of the people, be lifted by the worship of the saints but they themselves are not adding much, if anything, to what’s going on.

A church needs its people to sing as if their lungs will burst. People who will pray because what else could they do? People who will let themselves be stirred by the Spirit to speak up and speak out, to exhort, edify and encourage. When a room fills with people for whom these things truly matter, who urge one another on and gladly give themselves to worship, there’s nothing quite like it.

On the other hand, a room full of people spectating on other people, taking but not giving, consuming but not contributing ends up flat and underwhelming.

Of course, the church is not a football crowd and worship is not atmosphere-management. But Christians are not meant to be passive spectators. We are called to love, sing, pray, encourage and participate with all our hearts.

The key difference is that Jesus is never disappointing and victory is assured.