A US church’s annual Super Bowl-themed service has racked up more than 850,000 views on TikTok after footage of the event went viral.
Crossroads Church, with several locations in Greater Cincinnati, hosted its 24th annual Super Bowl of Preaching on Sunday at its Oakley site.
Christian influencer Micah Waldman, who said he was visiting 47 denominations in 47 weeks, posted footage of the service, which also gained 728,000 views on Instagram.
The video showed four pastors in jerseys competing in teams to deliver the best sermon on a stage designed like an American football field, complete with a referee and halftime show.
Tailgating, themed “commercials", drinks and games were also featured in the service.
Senior pastor Brian Tome said in a 2025 blog post the event would be “misunderstood”, but added that “tens of thousands of people will hear about a God who loves them over Super Bowl of Preaching weekend.”
Erin Caproni, a representative for Crossroads, told the Cincinnati Enquirer the event began in 2002 to address historically low Super Bowl Sunday attendance in the US.
She said the weekend had since become one of the church’s most attended, alongside Christmas and Easter, with more than 30,000 people attending in person this year.
The service has faced some online criticism, with some commenters calling it a “performance”.
In 2015, Crossroads published a blog where Rachel Reider, editor for the megachurch, wrote: “Maybe we could talk about normal stuff in a normal way […] Maybe we could be less afraid of sin and more aggressive about helping new people meet Jesus.”
Tome said complaints rarely came from attendees and defended the church’s mission to share the Bible in a non-traditional way.